Friends of Graphic Design at PSU

Inspiriation Friday: Emma Kelly

I am GEEKING OUT on Emma Kelly's illustrations. It's not just how she draws things (expertly) but what kinds of things she draws that gets me. I have this same Polaroid camera! It's like she's taking pictures of amazing things but with her pencil.

 

Good for Grasshopper: An AMAZING resource for students.

Get ready for your new favorite resource, design students.

Good for Grasshopper is an undiscovered gem that you'll spend hours browsing.

We've been communicating over email with students at the University of Texas at Arlington, the OVC (Organization of Visual Communicators.) They have a rad blog and active group, and they just installed a show too!

Paul Windle is the OVC's VP. He let me know about this awesome resource, Good for Grasshopper, a content-rich site with interviews, portfolio questions, Q&A's and more. Good for Grasshopper was started by Frances Yllana, an adjunct professor taking a break from teaching at UTA. She writes in her "About" section, "What I don’t want to take a break from is being a resource/mentor for students."

And thank goodness for that.

Browse the site. Read a Q&A with Little Friends of Printmaking in the Ask a Printmaker section. Read the article about writing copy for posters and other endeavors. Get some help making your resume top-notch.

AND. Most importantly, SUBMIT YOUR WORK to be highlighted on the site! Good for Grasshopper wants to share the terrific work of students. Paul Windle, our aforementioned friend, has work in the Student Submissions part of the site. Give his work some company. Good for Grasshopper is also asking for article ideas and even guest authors, so it might be a place for you to give your writing skills a flex. More details here.

Let's support this great site so it can continue to offer us useful, pertinent content!

It's that time again... LOGO CONTEST, GO!

The Friends of Graphic Design is a dynamic group of students interested in learning together, collaborating and improving our skills.

We have plenty of identity: we're young, we're fresh, we're smart, creative, curious, adventurous, bold, funny, good looking... the list goes on.

We know this. We have an identity.

But we need a visual identity.

FoGD officially announces: LOGO-A-GO-GO. No, just kidding. It's not called that. But it IS a LOGO DESIGN CONTEST!

• Design us a new logo.
• Send it to friendsofgraphicdesign@gmail.com by midnight on December 1.
• We'll upload them all to our flickr account.
• You'll favorite the one you think is the strongest.
• The one with the most favorites wins. Simple!
• AND THE DESIGNER GETS A FABULOUS PRIZE!!! AND ETERNAL FAME!!!

Comment with any questions or concerns and we'll answer them!

Get making!

Concerning our funding...

It's time for Friends of Graphic Design to ask for money for the 2010/2011 school year. This Friday we will be requesting funds from the Student Fee Committee. This is your money and you should have a say in how it gets spent!

This means we need your help. How can we make Friends of Graphic Design better? What do you want to see happen next year? New workshops? Access to more supplies? Do you want to go to design conferences? Have more guest speakers? Set up a permanent light box for photographing your work? Fund a student publication? Have more shows? Set up a student store to sell your prints and zines? Initiate collaboration with other student groups? Initiate collaboration with other design students? Perhaps something along these lines...

...no pressure though.

The sky is the limit! This is your chance to help shape the direction we go next year. Let us know what you want and Friends of Graphic Design will work to make it happen!

Please email us (friendsofgraphicdesign@gmail.com ) or leave a comment by this Thursday, November 12 for consideration in the 2010/2011 budget.

Thanks!

photo: scott barry

the hall monitor: orientation day_01

//start//

Possibly some of the best advice I ever received about this program came at the beginning of my junior year. I was close to the end of my first term as an upperclassman and I was undoubtably failing. The advice came from my ART 320 instructor at the time, Precious Bugarin. Precious took me aside and told me I had a decision to make. She said I was good enough to already be working in the field and that I needed to decide if school was really for me. Precious was in no way telling me that I was this amazing genius designer, she was just asking me what I wanted my future to look like. She said that if I wanted to continue within the program and if I wanted to go to graduate school I would need to...

Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do to stop myself from failing that term. But I did take away something that has now come to be much more valuable than any passing grade. I was given advice that hit me just right and it helped put me on track. I had struggled throughout my first two years in the program and at one point considered seriously dropping out of the GD program and Portland State for good. I just couldn't figure out why I didn't have enough interest to go to class and get it together. But after I spoke with Precious things really started to click. I found that it wasn't that I didn't have interest in design or that I didn't have interest in learning/school. It was that I wasn't having the experience I thought I would attending art school or college. I found that I thrive off experience and I needed to experience what "art school" was like. I wanted to be surrounded by people who inspired me. People that would push me to be better than I currently am. I needed to feel like a designer/artist and not just someone who could design. Ultimately, I found I needed to be involved in more than showing up to class and I needed to take advantage of everything this program had to offer.

Now, the PSU graphic design program has undergone many changes since I began my journey. While there have been many faculty which have made this program a strong one in the past... there have been small steps as well as many giant leaps forward from both faculty and students which have helped grow and nurture this program tremendously over the past year and a half. For those of you just entering this program you should consider yourselves quite lucky. You have an advantage that my previous classmates and I did not. You now currently have many resources available and events to be apart of that were not around when I started. This site nor its big sister site, Command Save, ever existed. There was no blog about the happenings within the program and the design world. There wasn't an easy way to find info about the program or access to lists of web links and books recommended by people you knew you could trust. The green room didn't exist either... previous students had no where to gather, relax and interact in between/outside of classes. And there were no inspiring and informative Skype/visiting artist lectures.

OK... I'm writing this post a bit longer than usual to give you a more in depth look at my past with this program and to show you how I've been along for these dramatic and important changes. I have seen what a great program this has become and I would hate for those of you just entering it to have to wait until your Junior year to get the advice I wished I'd gotten as a Freshman. It's really how this blog series got started. So, please, I urge you all to take advantage of any and all aspects of this program. These blogs, artist lectures, competitions, student/faculty Flickr pages, etc... they all hold great value in helping you succeed within this program. This program is tough if you want to do well and only gets tougher. So, again, take advantage and get involved. I guarantee you will not only come out of the program with a design degree but an experience that will enrich your work, and most importantly your lives.

Check back for day_02 of orientation later this week!

//end//

Love What You Do! Video!

Love What You Do from Aaron Rayburn on Vimeo.

PSU student Aaron Rayburn made a video from Thursday night's events. Also, please check out the FoGD blog wrap up post about the show. REMEMBER: the show is open through the end of the month in the MK Gallery!

Show & Tell ---> Jill Bliss!

Original Drawing for the Floral Leaves Datebook, by Jill Bliss

Hey All! Please join us Tuesday (November 8th) at Noon in room 170 for an IN PERSON Show & Tell with Jill Bliss! She is going to bring her sketchbooks, finished products and the process behind them. SO COOL. Bring your lunch! Bring your questions!

 

Jill this fall working on an installation at Renegade Handmade in Chicago, IL

Check out the Q&A that Jill did with us last year when we asked her about the tools she can't live without! Also, check out her website and also read an interview with her over at My Love For You Is a Stampede of Horses (one of my favorite blogs).

On to a list of Jill's favorite tools!

LOVE WHAT YOU DO = SUCCESS

Packed with parents!

We did it!

After a sleepless week of teamwork, trips to the hardware store, broken glass and pizza, our show finally opened last night to a hungry crowd of guests.

(Don't they look like they could be siblings?)

Frank Chimero gave us a proper dose of inspiration as he lectured about the struggle to love what you do all of the time. Valuable tidbits were paired with crazy cool video slides as Frank addressed a packed house.

So many people in AB200!

Work by Kim Reede, Belin Liu, Aaron Rayburn, Krista Messer.

Then the opening!
Students + free food = I hope you got there early enough to get some snacks.

Andrew Indrisie checking out work by Rachel Yoakum. Other work by Sarah Collins, Tally Gunstone and Andy Nichols.

Enjoying the fort with my longhaired friends.

WOAH! Sarah Baugh, Nathan Garvison, Alex Boyd and perfect timing.

What now? Watch for documentation of the show to go up on the showsite, www.lovewhatyoudopsu. We hope to have images of all the work, artist bios, plus some great shots from the opening. We might even figure out a way to sell the posters we made!

So. Many. Plants.

The show is up for three more weeks, until the 27th of November. If you haven't seen it yet, drop in! The gallery will be open when the Art Building is open.

Ben Vickery reading a book by Tessa Bassore in the armchair.

Thank you to Andy Nichols for taking the bulk of these photos. You can find LOTS more on his flickr! He documents lots of the work in the show.

Share your photos from the opening in our Friends of Graphic Design flickr pool.

SIGN UP POST FOR EM-SPACE WORKSHOP NEXT FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13

Only 11 minutes late!

Sorry guys.

20 people sign up, GO!

Final schedule for Frank!

Alright everyone!

Be there or be square.

Come bearing your best work (or at least something you're proud of!), some smiles, and maybe a snack for Frank. Keep in mind he'll be here for FOUR HOURS (omg, what a warrior) and might need an apple, a funny story, a weird YouTube video, or a poop joke to keep him going. Frank was super nice to donate (read: we're not paying him any money) his time to us so let's make this experience enriching and enjoyable for him!

10am Alyx Jolivet
10:15
10:30 Nicole Lavelle
10:45 Olivia Tabert
11: Andy Nichols
11:15 Christy Lee Zilka
11:30 Nathan Verhoeven
11:45 Laura Jones

BREAK

2 Alex Boyd
2:15
2:30 Nathan Garvison
2:45
3 Sarah Baugh
3:15 Jasmine Silver
3:30
3:45