Graphic Design Senior Seminar Follow-Up

Senior Seminar presentations were made into an event for high school students this year. The Exposition (The Expo, for short) was for high school students interested in graphic design to come to La Roche and have questions answered as well as see how a major in Graphic & Communication Design at La Roche prepares you for the real world.


The Senior Seminar presentations took place November 15 in Kearns Spirituality Center. Senior Seminar (or Senior Design as it's called in the books) is a semester long course with the class dividing into six groups. There are three real-world clients that come in to partner with La Roche for this class and two are from the Small Business Administration in Pittsburgh. Each client has two groups competing against each other to win the client after all the work has been done and presented at the final presentations. Family and friends of the students are invited to come to the presentations, as well as prospective students this year. Oftentimes, other professionals and recent graduates join us for this event.


This year, the clients were Positive Space, Equita, and Artemis Environmental. Positive Space is the annual art and design show at La Roche. It is a juried show, which means that La Roche brings professional designers and artists in from the community at large to judge the pieces that are submitted. Only the best pieces are displayed in the Positive Space show. From that selection, there are approximately 3 winners per category. Positive Space takes place in the spring semester, but the planning starts now. This year, to add a twist to things and to show how environmentally conscious La Roche is, Positive Space is going green. Both groups had a different idea of how to accomplish this and both did it successfully. For a look at Positive Space last year, check out its Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/positivespacelrc. The next client, Equita, is an environmentally and socially conscious shop in Lawrenceville with a high emphasis on chic design. Equita sells fair trade items from all around the world and is very fashion forward. Check out their site here to learn more about them and fair trade: http://www.shopequita.com. Artemis Environmental was the last client this year and it is a green building company. Artemis carries a wide variety of building materials for home owners as well as contractors who want to keep their homes or buildings green. To learn more about Artemis, visit their site here: http://www.artemisenvironmental.com/Home.aspx.


My group's client was Equita and we developed various solutions for them. The biggest emphasis for our client was on a website design and an event booth. The design solutions varied for each client. For example, for Positive Space, the groups designed everything from the logo to posters for the categories and proposing entertainment for the night. The Artemis groups were provided a logo that they were encouraged to "tighten up" and then use to create stationary, as well as a website and promotional items such as brochures and mailers. The requirements were relatively minimal, but many groups chose to create and provide extra materials to win the clients over as well as generate more portfolio pieces.


The professors were very proud of the presentations and the prospective students who attended said that this solidified their desire to come to La Roche for graphic design. It was a very successful presentation night and fun was had by all! The following Monday after the presentations, the clients returned to our Senior Seminar class and gave us feedback on our designs. At the conclusion of class, winners were chosen for each client. Now the winners have time to work with their clients for the rest of the semester and everyone has a bit of a chance to finally breathe. For more information about The Expo, visit its website: http://www.laroche.edu/expo/home.htm.

Interested in Graphic Design?

My last post was about a big project called Immersions, but another large Graphic Design event coming up is the Senior Seminar presentations. Senior Seminar is a class everyone at La Roche must take and each major has its own content for the class. In graphic design, the class focuses on providing quality work for clients. At the beginning of the semester, three clients come in to the college to have design work done. The whole class divides up into enough groups so that each of the three clients has two groups of designers creating competing designs for them. Near the end of the semester (in this case November 15), there is a large presentation where all of the groups present their work to the clients and other students, faculty members, and the general public.

This year, the event has a name: The Exposition. The presentations will be at 7 p.m. but there is a lineup of events for prospective La Roche students prior to the Senior Seminar presentations. For more information on this event, please visit http://www.laroche.edu/expo and please come out and see us!

Graphic Design Immersions 2010

Immersions is a graphic design event held over two days where the junior and senior graphic designers are divided up into groups and assigned to compete to come up with designs for a nonprofit organization within 48 hours. Typically, the solutions include a new logo, business card, letterhead, envelope, promotional materials (such as brochures, signs and posters), and a website. This year, the junior class at La Roche was smaller so each competing group consisted of three seniors and one junior. There are typically 6 or 7 competing groups. Surely you're asking: "How can four people do all this work in only 48 hours?!" We don't sleep. Seriously. The graphic design major here at La Roche is so intense (and because of this, so beneficial!) that we occasionally have to pull all-nighters and sometimes go on little sleep.

The client for Immersions this year was the Western Pennsylvania Small Business Network. This organization is responsible for nominating small businesses that have shown great improvement and increased success within the past year. The winners are then featured at an annual luncheon sponsored by WPSBN. The winners from western PA then go on and a select group of state and country winners go on to an event in Washington, D.C.

Our tasks for this Immersion client included:

1. New logo design

2. New business system (business card, letterhead, and envelope)

3. Brochure / invitation for the luncheon event

4. Web site for the organization and the luncheon event

5. Web banner ads (at least 4 sizes)

6. Luncheon posters

7. Awards luncheon program

8. Printed sponsorship brochure

9. Postcard reminder for luncheon event

10. E-mail reminder for luncheon event

11. 1 page leave behind of your group solutions with names and contact info

12. Possible video sample for winner using nothing but images and royalty free music

13. Additional material to promote the event

As you can tell, all of us had our work cut out for us. Not only did we have to develop all of the materials listed as 1-12, but we had to print some items (printing shops have limited hours!) and come up with a few extra things that we thought would impress the client and that no one else would think of. FInally, we had to burn CDs of all of our work and create a leave behind (put pictures of everything we created on a page along with some notes about the items) for the client and our professor.

The client came in on Wednesday, November 3 at 10 a.m. and it was at this time that we found out who the Immersions client would be and what they needed. After the client presented a background of their organization, an overview of their needs, and answered our questions, it was time for each group to get to work. My group made a quick Starbucks run because we knew we were going to need it and began brainstorming for the project. As soon as we got back, we started to work and didn't stop for more than a 3 hour nap until Friday morning at 8:30 a.m. Friday at 9 a.m. all the groups got together with the client again and presented our solutions in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. Immediately following all of the presentations, all of the groups displayed the hard copies (mounted print outs) of their work and there was a short intermission as the client went out of the room to ponder over the solutions. After the intermission, the client returned and announced that it was a tough decision, but that there were 3 top groups. After naming them (who the client would like to work with to develop final design solutions for the organization), a student choice was announced as well. That concluded the events for the day, but the client is going back to her organization and meeting with everyone there to discuss the groups she chose. Following that, an agreement will be made between the La Roche College graphic design department and the Western Pennsylvania Small Business Network to have the winning students continue to work with and develop final solutions for the client.

The dreaded skill of time management.

I'm sure you've been lectured about time management in the past and believe me, that's NOT what I'm about to do. In fact, I'm going to tell you that I'm still not great at time management and I've made it to my senior year of college. Some people spend too little time on schoolwork and too much time having fun. I'm one of those other weird people though. Schoolwork often takes me longer to do than it should and it's not because I have a problem with it or don't understand. I like to turn in the best work that I possibly can because I want to be able to use it for my portfolio so that I can get a job and don't have to do a lot of extra work later.

In college, you'll learn which classes you need to spend more time on and what classes you can spend less time on. The important thing to note is that it's not about being lazy, it's about being smart. I have one class that the teacher grades our homework in three points and each of those points count for having completed one of the three sections of each assignment. Obviously, there's not much point in writing the best essays ever for this class because they're not being seriously looked at for a grade. However, that doesn't just mean an open excuse to blow off a homework assignment. It's still important to do the assignments and to do them well. You'll learn though, that you should spend a shorter amount of time on these kinds of assignments than the ones that matter more or count as more of your grade or that you can use in the future for your portfolio.

Also right now, I am taking a class where I was assigned to write a 3 page minimum paper, double spaced. That's not a very long paper at all and it's pretty easy to get done quickly. However, the topic was of interest to me (internet marketing techniques) and I quickly got carried away as I often do. We were required to cite at least one source (book or internet) and I got carried away with my research too because I love doing it when the topic is an interesting one. I got on EBSCOhost and found about 10 different articles that were of interest and related directly to my topic. One of the best lessons I've learned from my English teachers here at La Roche is to never underestimate the power of EBSCOhost as a resource! You'll have unique sources that are more reliable than ones other people come up with. Looking through all my research and organizing my paper took a long time. Getting to three pages took maybe a half hour. I won't admit to how long it took me to be done with my paper, but some hours later I ended up with 16 pages!

Admittedly, I spent way too long on this assignment. The only thing that could justify this much time spent on a paper going above and beyond would be if I were to use it as part of a thesis for a senior seminar. However, I'm a graphic design student and we don't have to write a thesis for our senior seminar; we just have to present a design solution for a client. I am hoping to write a book about marketing yourself on the internet or something one day when I have some free time, so maybe this will come in handy then. Who knows? I did learn my lesson though and it's doubtful that I will overwork myself that much and that unnecessarily again.

It's that time of year...scheduling

Scheduling classes can sometimes be a real bear, but La Roche makes it fairly simple.

As an incoming freshman to La Roche, you simply take a placement test to determine your math and English course levels. It's fairly pressure-free because it's not for a grade or anything like in high school. The only thing is that if you do really bad on the placement tests, you're placed in the lowest level math and English courses. These classes require more class hours and they don't count as having completed a credit in those areas, so you have to take the higher freshman level classes at some point as well. Depending on your program, you could only have to take the bare minimum of core classes or the maximum amount. As a design major, I only needed college algebra and two semesters of English. By taking these placement tests, La Roche takes the stress off of you, the incoming freshman (as well as your parents), and creates a first semester schedule for you. If you know what major you want to enter as, they will schedule your necessary classes and if you are undecided, they will give you a sampling of classes to help expose you to different options.

After your first semester, you're on your own to meet with your advisor, look at your program guide (the official list of courses you need for your major) and pick the classes you need to graduate. This might sound overwhelming -and it should because you need to pick the right classes at the right times- but your advisor is always there to help and double check everything. The end result of meeting with your advisor  is that he or she clears you for registration. I registered for my final spring semester classes this past Monday and it was...full of its own challenges to say the least. My advisor trusts me a bit too much to pick out my own classes and doesn't usually care to double check my selections and didn't tell me how to prepare for graduation this time. The good thing about this is that there's always someone else in your department you can go to if you have questions and you can always ask to change advisors in the worst case scenario. Usually none of this is necessary if you just pay careful attention and keep track of all of the classes you are taking. After you meet with your advisor and he or she clears you to register, you log onto Project Ease, which is an intranet system that keeps track of your student schedule, transcript, GPA, and lets you register online. Each group, freshman through seniors, has their own specific time to register online. Mine was Monday the 25th, beginning at 8 a.m., which was also my start date to meet with my advisor. After my meeting, I got online and onto Project Ease, read through the information about registering and "signed" an electronic agreement, and then began to type in the course numbers for the classes I wanted in order to add them to my schedule. Several classes are offered at multiple times, so you get to pick the section that you want too, based on what time offering will go with your other classes. It's always good to get together with your friends and coordinate schedules before you register, though you can easily switch the classes out after you create your schedule.

I only had problems with registering for two of my classes. My specific problem was that the system said I didn't fill the prerequisites for the classes I wanted to take. Now, at the time I was a bit annoyed, because there will probably always be one issue with online registration because it is such a big and complex system. However, I realize that it is better to deny me a class that I can take than allow me to take a class that I am not prepared for (in terms of classes already taken). The fix for this problem was really, really easy. I went up to the Registrar when they opened at 9:30 and told them my problem. They were so kind and helpful! The woman who helped me looked my record up in the computer, had me fill in the course numbers of the classes I needed and get it signed by someone in my department (it didn't even have to be my advisor) and return it to her, whereupon she promptly put it into the computer for me and printed out my schedule for the spring semester. As I had figured, the problem only existed because the design department changed the course numbers on some of my classes after I had taken them for the class behind me. Thus, the computer had the new numbers in and couldn't recognize the old ones. It was such a simple and pain-free way to fix a little problem! Now I am happily registered for my last semester at La Roche. It feels weird to know I'll never be registering for more classes again.