Senior graphic design major Alyson Baggett gathered with fellow students to prepare and present artwork to gather feedback Tuesday afternoon. The show has been set to open May 3rd from 6 to 8 pm in Gilson. Jenny Pendarvis/The Bulletin
This is the first year for design professor Emily Rice to teach at Emporia State, and the senior showcase is her final class project. It will feature senior graphic design students Strap Nkoba, Yeji Hong, Amanda Collins, Matt Hoelscher, Kimber Mitchell, Brock Thornburgh and Alyson Baggett.
“These displays really push the students to do large branding work, which is the combination of everything they’ve done in graphic design.” Rice said. “It applies things they’ve learned from logos to icons to advertisement, just creating the full identity for their companies.”
The show is on display April 30-May 4 in the Norman R. Eppink Gallery in King Hall. A reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on May 3 in the lobby of King Hall.
“This is really good for any job they are looking for,” Rice said. “So they are able to handle tight deadlines, a lot of work and lack of sleep.”
Students have been working on the project for seven weeks. Nkoba spent nearly $100 on his project. He said cutting foam core was difficult for him, but Collins thought printing was the biggest challenge for her.
The students came up with a full package from the names, logos, posters, T-shirts, books and even coffee cups for companies like bakeries, coffee shops, beer brands, sports arenas and multimedia platforms.
Rice said she placed more emphasis on conceptual thinking and problem solving than how aesthetically pleasing the project is.
“When you have a project like this, it shows a concept and idea that most companies look for over just how good it looks, or the style of something,” Rice said. “So just the content and ideas behind it are almost as important as how well they did make it.”
Baggett did her project for a coffee company called The Press Café & Gallery. Its mark was coffee stains looking like the globe, and she applied the mark to the concept, “Leave your mark on the world.”
Baggett said she had slept only four hours for two days in preparation for the mini preview.
“It helps push us to try to be creative, and gives us really good work to show possible employers,” she said. “Also, it helps us work with deadlines, size perimeters and having to deal with printing things. So it’s basically just a lot of stuff we would deal with when we’re working. Since we are seniors, it’s good to get this experience.”
Tianhai Jiang