Do you have an iPhone? According to Mr. Jay Bopp, chairman of BJU’s Division of art, every image your index finger zooms in on and slides across the screen was built by graphic designers.
You may not know the process behind those iPhone graphics, but you rely on them every day. The senior graphic design show is an opportunity for you to get a behind-the-scenes look at the graphics of iPhones and other electronics, magazines, websites and package designs that you interact with daily.
The show is open to the Greenville community and will take place in the Sargent Art Building March 24 through April 7.
The 10 participating graphic design students will feature individual and group projects centered on a broad theme: Variance. This theme represents the wide range of applications within the graphic design field and the wide range of design strengths within the graphic design senior class.
Senior Emma Klak explained their theme choice with an example, saying she never knows how to answer the question, “What are you going to do with your major?”
“It’s a hard question to answer because there’s so many possibilities!” Klak said.
Because of the variety in the major, Bopp said he gives his students a lot of freedom in creating their “portfolio on display,” as he calls it. “It’s an opportunity for them to flex their muscles design-wise and try some different things they haven’t done before,” Bopp said.
Two of these possibilities are fantasy illustrations and comic pages — senior Kristina McGuire’s niche. She says she enjoys the freedom and creativity of bringing her own stories to life. “I love making these illustrations and comic pages because I enjoy coming up with stories to communicate in visual form, and I love having the freedom to come up with whatever fantasy race or monster I want to draw.”
The creation process is straightforward for McGuire. Whenever she starts a new illustration or comic, she first makes sure she has the scenario laid out in her head. She asks herself, “What were the characters doing just before this drawing took place? What will they be doing afterwards?” And then she transfers the images from her head to paper.
Another possibility is designing a brand for a business — Klak’s niche. For a class project she created a fake store called ‘Fromagerie,’ French for ‘Cheese Shop,’ an allergen-free cheese shop. Klak designed everything for the Fromagerie brand: logo, signage for the store, business cards, a promotional item and packaging.
Klak’s work on this project won her the silver ADDY award in package design from the Greenville chapter of the American Advertising Federation. The packaging was an intricate wooden box designed to hold a wheel of cheese. She even traced and burned the logo onto the top of the box by hand. “It took a ton of time,” she said, “and there were a lot of times I wanted to give up and make something less complicated. But in the end I really loved the result!”
In addition to individual projects, the students are also collaborating on the overall design of the exhibition hall. Bopp said designing an exhibition hall is a unique opportunity to learn a skill that isn’t included in any of the graphic design classes.
McGuire said she has enjoyed working on this walk-through display because it’s provided some unique opportunities – like making a geometric installation. “It’s been a lot of fun working on this part of the show because I don’t normally get to work on such a large-scale, three-dimensional project,” McGuire said.
From individual projects to group projects to display designs, the amount of work that goes into an art show is staggering — as is the amount of work that goes into a history essay, a biology lab, a nursing final or a business project. But Bopp said the unique thing about art students is that you can actually come and see their work.
“It’s a unique opportunity,” Bopp said. “People should come just so they can get a glimpse into what some of their college counterparts are doing in a major like this.”
