Teaching in images
Student projects and classroom practice, guided by Ervin Adojaan at Tallinn Secondary School No. 53.
Branding & visual identity
I have moved from teaching individual software functions towards the whole design process. A brand project gives students a reason to research, sketch, compare alternatives, make prototypes and explain their visual decisions.
Goth Wear — Sofia Gribova & Anastasia-Mia Gavriljuk, Grade 12a
Designing for Tallinn Children’s Hospital
I coordinated the collaboration with Tallinn Children’s Hospital, bringing students into contact with medical specialists and a real communication brief. My role included organising meetings, guiding design development and supporting students through client feedback.
Room planning in voxel graphics
I use the same room-modelling theme at different levels of complexity. A 40 × 40 × 40 voxel grid directs attention to essential forms; a 256 × 256 × 256 grid allows finer detail. The shared goal remains understanding three-dimensional space.
From pupil to teaching partner
I mentored Laura Gubarev, our school’s graduate and a TalTech engineering student, during her teaching placement from 20 April to 25 May 2026. We connected her AutoCAD expertise with upper-secondary learning.
Laura Gubarev / Teaching placement, 20 April–25 May 2026
Different routes to the same goal
I support learners with special educational needs (HEV in Estonian) by adapting tools, task complexity and guidance. In Grade 7, students designed a miniature fingerboard skatepark in Tinkercad and produced it with 3D printing. Voxel modelling and Roblox Studio offer further routes to an achievable result.
Historical artefacts, rebuilt in 3D
Museum visits and reference photography give digital modelling a cultural purpose. I connect history, close observation and construction, helping students see how separate pieces of knowledge can contribute to one meaningful task.
Medals, orders & digital reconstruction
When students could choose any historical object, some selected forms too complex for their skills or the available time. I refined the criteria and reviewed proposals with learners before modelling began.
Chemistry in augmented reality — Portugal
In the Erasmus+ project at Forave in Portugal, practical work on water quality provided the scientific context. I introduced ways of presenting the experience through 3D modelling and augmented reality, connecting our digital expertise with our partners’ chemistry teaching.
Molecular structures, made visible
I work with colleagues to connect their subject content with visual and digital methods. Molecular modelling gives chemistry a spatial form while students practise construction, materials, light and presentation.
Technical entomology & bionics
Technical entomology brings media, drawing and biology into one project. I help colleagues connect insect morphology with precise vector representation and the development of biomimetic concepts.
Physics in reverse
In integrated media and physics lessons, I work with colleagues to turn a scientific premise into a visual problem. Students imagine a world without gravity, then use photography and composition to make their interpretation convincing.
Graduation invitations: objects & experiences
I connect digital learning with real situations in school life. A graduation invitation offers a purpose for vector graphics, fabrication or augmented reality, while giving students room to make decisions about message and medium.
3D valentines: form carries a message
In the 3D keepsake task, empathy is the starting point: who is the gift for, and what should it communicate? I give feedback on proportion, form and meaning alongside printability and intended use.
Book covers through macro photography
I plan integrated learning around a clear purpose. Book-cover design connects literary interpretation with macro photography and visual storytelling, giving technical work a meaningful subject and an audience.
Chess, from sketch to printed set
I structure practical work in stages: understanding the task, exploring alternatives, sketching, making a digital model, prototyping and presenting. A chess set connects individual forms with the problem of designing a coherent family of objects.
3D-printed school slippers
I connect digital technologies with practical everyday use and build on students’ interests. Product-making offers a reason to discuss function, materials and manufacturing alongside the visual qualities of a design.
Project author: Denis Shchurikov, Grade 7B
Baking moulds: testing a digital design
The baking-mould project follows the complete path from a digital contour to a tested physical tool. I use the finished cutter with learners to examine how shape and detail transfer into dough.
A computer game, made together
In collaborative projects, I create opportunities for learners to contribute through their strengths. In Wolf Catch Eggs, programming and student-created graphics come together, giving different skills a place within a shared interactive result.
Development: Marek Müürsepp · Graphics: Grade 10 students · Screensaver: Polina Svintsova & Anna Katlerova
A new shape for a tabletop tree
I use familiar objects as starting points for purposeful design tasks. Reinterpreting a tabletop tree connects cultural reference, form development and digital fabrication in a manageable project.
A workshop beyond the timetable
Since 2022, I have led a free computer graphics club where students can explore their interests beyond the timetable. It combines individual projects with a community in which learners share methods and experience.
German pronoun dice
I connect 3D design with the development of teaching materials. Alongside German pronoun dice, my portfolio documents supporting a colleague to adapt a student research idea into printed resources for an Estonian-language lesson.
From scanning to a physical model
Introducing 3D scanning and printing means working with unfamiliar tools and occasional technical difficulties. I approach this uncertainty openly and include troubleshooting in the learning process.
A classroom open to the world
I welcome visiting educators, pupils and alumni into the classroom. My commission responses document encounters with Marko Mihkelson, Italian school groups, Belgian school directors and school owners from Nairobi, sharing student work and demonstrating digital approaches to learning.
Sneaker design: an idea in motion
Inspired by shoe designer Tinker Hatfield, students develop their own sneaker collections in Photoshop. I connect masks, brushes, textures and lighting with a personal design idea. From 2025, AI-generated settings also help students explore how a product can be presented.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
Learning to think in vectors
I teach Illustrator through visual problems rather than isolated commands. Students explore light with gradient meshes, build forms from polygons, work with perspective, blend shapes and trace images. Posters, patterns and printed T-shirts connect these skills with a purpose and an audience.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
Then and Now: portraits across time
Inspired by Dutch photo artist Ard Gelinck, Grade 10 students combine childhood photographs with recent portraits. The Photoshop project connects personal storytelling with careful work on scale, light, edges and composition.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
T-shirt design: from vector to fabric
For the final Grade 11 Illustrator project, students take a vector design onto a T-shirt. They prepare artwork for a cutting plotter and transfer it onto fabric with an iron, connecting digital precision with practical making.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
Our school, reimagined
Students reimagine their school through digital collage and AI-generated elements. I connect Photoshop, Camera Raw and purposeful prompting with composition and editing, helping learners express a personal view of a familiar place.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
A portrait, redrawn in vectors
Grade 11 students transform portraits into vector images with Illustrator’s Image Trace, then edit and refine the results. I connect the conversion process with choices about colour, shape and detail, helping learners develop an image with its own character.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
A prototype meets its players
Grade 6B student Alisa Kozubnja tests her designed and 3D-printed tic-tac-toe game with other pupils. The project makes the testing stage of design thinking visible: a prototype has to work in someone’s hands, beyond its appearance on screen.
Alisa Kozubnja / Grade 6B · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
A place for every brush
Sofia Katlerova, Grade 6B, designs and 3D-prints a brush and pencil organiser. Grade 5C student Kareem Khadzhir develops another school-supplies organiser. These projects connect digital modelling with everyday needs, giving shape, scale and arrangement a concrete purpose.
Sofia Katlerova / Grade 6B · Kareem Khadzhir / Grade 5C · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
School subjects become characters
Grade 11B student Polina Svintsova creates a Chibi character series representing school subjects. Hand-drawn sketchbook ideas are redrawn in Krita and prepared as stickers for the cutting plotter, connecting a personal illustration style with a physical result.
Polina Svintsova / Grade 11B · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
Small worlds, imagined through a lens
Inspired by Tatsuya Tanaka, Grade 10 students imagine a miniature world. Everyday objects become settings as photography and Photoshop combine scale, viewpoint and light into a visual story.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
A poster with something to say
After watching Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art, Grade 10 students create artivism works for International Children’s Day. Photography, montage and design help them express opinions about school and their rights, connecting visual choices with a message and an audience.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
Animals, built from light and polygons
In integrated Art and Biology lessons, Grade 11 students illustrate animals with Low Poly graphics. With biology teacher Inga Kuljanova, I connect observation with geometric simplification, light and colour.
Grade 11 students / Art: Ervin Adojaan · Biology: Inga Kuljanova
A pattern finds its package
Grade 11 students learn Illustrator’s pattern-making tools and develop repeating designs for gift packaging. Photoshop and Adobe Dimension help them present the artwork on three-dimensional objects, connecting a flat pattern with material, colour and the appearance of a product.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
A pumpkin, from screen to print
Students create pumpkins and ghosts in Illustrator, Blender and Tinkercad, then prepare them for 3D printing. A seasonal design task connects modelling with a tangible object, while software problems and printing difficulties become part of the shared learning process.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
From CAD to the classroom
Sofia Katlerova, Grade 7A, develops a functional school-supplies tray. The project connects CAD design with prototyping, material testing and refinement, introducing the product-development process before upper secondary school through an object with a familiar everyday purpose.
Sofia Katlerova / Grade 7A · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
Summer memories in vectors
Grade 11 students turn their summer photographs into Illustrator images and write memories in Estonian. With Svetlana Fedjakova and Evelina Bogdanova, I connect personal experience, visual interpretation and written storytelling.
Grade 11 / Media: Ervin Adojaan · Estonian: Svetlana Fedjakova & Evelina Bogdanova
Two images, one new meaning
Grades 8A and 9D explore double exposure by combining two or more images into a single composition. Photoshop and Camera Raw help learners connect portraits with other scenes, using layering to suggest new meanings and associations.
Student work / Tallinn Secondary School No. 53 · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
A design-school future, made tangible
I take students to Aalto University with particular attention to its School of Arts, Design and Architecture. Workshops, student exhibitions and the Design Factory connect the digital skills developed at school with possible futures in design education.
When Aalto comes to our school
I initiated and organised a school visit by Aalto University representatives on 11 September 2026, inviting students from neighbouring schools too. The meeting introduced study programmes, admissions, campus life and the opportunity to ask questions directly.
Visit organised on 11 September 2026
Inside the Estonian Academy of Arts
I organise visits to EKA so students can explore study programmes, admissions and the everyday setting of art and design education. A workshop tour led by Katrin-Maria Terras brought materials, processes and possible study pathways into direct view.
Research takes shape at EKA
Liona-Magdalena Gerzanitš and Jelizaveta Belova, Grade 11B, investigate wax casting in jewellery and stained-glass techniques in EKA’s workshops. With support from Katrin-Maria Terras and Eve Koha, this partnership connects school research with specialist tools, materials and practical enquiry.
Liona-Magdalena Gerzanitš & Jelizaveta Belova / Grade 11B · Workshop support: Katrin-Maria Terras & Eve Koha · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
Design Night, beyond the classroom
I connect annual Disainiöö visits with classroom learning. For a Grade 10 visit, art teacher Anastassia Kovõtska and I jointly planned an assignment: students analysed a design object’s user, message, audience and visual solution, then justified their observations.
A familiar duck, made her own
Grade 9B student Yaroslava Pidbuzhska reimagines the familiar yellow duck as her own original design. Working with Illustrator, Tinkercad and Cura, she takes the idea through digital preparation and 3D printing, turning a recognisable toy into a personal object.
Yaroslava Pidbuzhska / Grade 9B · Teacher: Ervin Adojaan
