Phillip Ro’lon Miller, senior graphic design major, puts the finishing touches on his work for the Graphic Design Senior Show Wednesday in King Hall. Miller is one of six seniors who will exhibit their work May 8-12 in the Eppink and Gilson Galleries in King Hall.

The Graphic Design Senior Show, on display from 5-7 p.m. May 8-12 in King Hall, will display a combination of textual, packaging and other types of design art from ESU.

The show, which is free to the public, is meant to be a chance for senior graphic design majors to showcase the fruits of their ESU education and to provide the rest of the campus with a taste of modern graphic design.

Senior graphic design majors Corey Adkins, Eric Sonnakolb, Krista Schraer, Landon Merrill, Phillip Miller and Zach Janice are the featured artists of the show and will display art ranging from border and poster designs to text manipulation, 3-D design and Photoshop-inspired themes.

“This will not be your typical art show by any means,” Janice said. “Pretty much all of it will be digital artwork and that will range from computer design tools like Photoshop and such to displays of borders, posters, even business card designs.”

The seniors began work on the show at the beginning of the semester, but really began to concentrate on piece arrangements and display setup during the last two semesters, Janice said.

Each artist will have several displays or individual art pieces up for display, Janice said and while some of the displays will be themed, many will be abstract.

“We’ll have some displays that have digital themes, or a virtual motif, but a lot of what we’re doing can’t really be defined by a set art theme,” Janice said. “In a way that’s the point, we’re trying to break free of your standard themes with the variety in our pieces.”

In addition to creating pieces solely to be displayed in the show, Janice has also worked on a magazine promoting the arts and music in Emporia, as well as what he termed a “branding project.”

“For a branding project, we’ll go in and take over a business graphically,” Janice said. “And we’ll redesign everything from the ground up: displays, advertisements and business cards, you name it.”

A graphic design show does not imply that the art exhibits will be completely devoid of more traditional art styles, Schraer said, but rather that the styles will be incorporated into each design artist’s own vision and thematic interpretation.

“Someone coming to this show can expect to see both fine arts and graphic design styles blended together,” Schraer said. “The entire presentation will be set up like a fine art gallery, with each of our pieces arranged with each other, so no one artist has their own little section.”

Schraer, whose graphic design interests lean toward typography (graphic manipulation of text) and packaging designs, also said that this final exhibition at ESU is not without a bittersweet feeling.

“It’s sad that this is the last show we’re doing as ESU graphic design majors,” Schraer said, “but there’s also that great feeling of knowing you’re done.”

While most of the graduating seniors will go on to work or graduate school, Miller said his love for design and art will keep him at ESU for a little longer.

“My area of interest in graphic design is more toward Photoshop and posterized designs,” Miller said. “So I decided to continue at ESU with the photography program and earn a major in that as well.”

This year’s Senior Show format has been set up in a different style from years past, a decision made by the current graphic design seniors, Miller said.

“This year we’re doing something unique that we haven’t done before to my knowledge,” Miller said. “Usually it’s set up more like a traditional art gallery, with each artist having their own section, but this year we had a hand in actually setting up the displays for our displays, and we put our touch into that.”

Zachary Hughes/The Bulletin

Send article as PDF to