Kevin McCloskey, professor at KUCD, is one of a dozen contributors to Ivan Brunetti’s new book, Comics Easy as ABC. Other contributors include Neil Gaiman, Lemony Snicket, and Kutztown U grad Renée French. The book is meant to teach children to create their own comics.
The Honors Program at Kutztown University is dedicated to providing high-achieving students with opportunities to engage in scholarship, leadership, and service. We are so proud of our 4 KUCD seniors, who are graduating with honors. #kucd2019 Congratulations!
Theresa Quedenfeld completed her Honors Capstone Project on the topic of the Kutztown Arts Academy, a week-long immersion to explore art, music, film and design geared towards high school students. Her project consisted of creating a logo, website, and style guide. Theresa was able to present her project to design professionals at the AIGA Central Portfolio Review this past April.
Ben Ginder completed her Honors Capstone by creating kinetic type graphics of the lyrics to “Unlike Anything” to fit perfectly with the song, and then performed it in the little theater in Schaeffer. He played some other original songs that day, and played “Unlike Anything” twice. The event was well attended.
Melanie completed her Honors Capstone by creating a seventy-six page brand guide explaining the multi-logo identity system that she created for Longwood Gardens. In the brand guide, she describes each logo and how it should be used, color palettes, photo treatments, patterns and much more! She presented her designs at the AIGA Central PA Portfolio Review.
Colton Rogers completed his Honors Capstone Project by researching the art of making a graphic novel, and producing an eighty-page example from the planning stage to execution. His year-long effort was illustrated digitally, before being printed professionally and sold on digital ebook services. Colton was able to showcase his work at the 2019 MOCCA fest illustration festival in New York City this past March.
In total our team of 18 alumni designers provided over $8000 of in-kind design work to our non-profit partners in 8 hours! The work is incredibly important to the organizations, without this help, these projects might never be realized or see the light of day.
And deeper into that, is the impact the work and the volunteered time has on the people these organizations serve.
All of that in a span of 8 hours!
Some might think design is simply about making beautiful things, and sometimes it is! But I like to think that we help make life more enjoyable. It is easy to get sucked into the desire to win awards, work on cool projects for superstar clients, get published, and climb the ladder. But on this day, design did make a difference. A day when generosity of time and talent will directly impact others and will help make their lives better.
Participating Alum:
Crystal Folkes, 2016
Alli Landino, 2018
Brooke Snyder, 2017
Alyssa Kays, 2013
Pat Coyle, 2017
Alicia Wrye, 2017
Mary Kate Henry, 2016
Nicholas Stover, 2015
Rachel Zuppo, 2017
DJ Rossino, 2017
Elaine Knox, 2017
Becki Murray, 2018
Kaylyn Gustafson, 2018
Chelsea Gassert, 2015
Yuwen Sun, 2018
Jen Zweiger, 2014
Maria Johnson, 2016
Deanna Black, 2017
Why did you decide to go back to grad school for your MFA?
I wanted to explore different methods of storytelling, different processes of story creation, and a different perspectives on subjects and topics relevant to design and its expressions that over 20 years of working in the agency world doesn’t necessarily afford. The thought of having the freedom to research new things and explore and experiment without the fear of failure was also refreshing. This exploration and experimentation will in turn set me up for my ultimate goal – teaching at the university level.
Tell us about your KUCD MFA journey thus far.
My journey to date has me looking inward – trying to find things in me to add to my work; whether it be things about myself or unexplored interests leading to different ways of telling stories which I’m curious or passionate about.
What has been your favorite project to date.
It really changes daily. There are different parts of each exploratory that I enjoy, even some of the ideas that never came to fruition (I keep a running list of all of the ideas that didn’t quite make it to the proposal stage of any project). At this point, my favorite was a project where I took a traditional form folk art and reimagined the stories that the work could tell through the artwork. I used Pysanky (Ukrainian Easter Eggs) as a means to explore a little more about my heritage, modifying and inventing new symbols traditionally used on the eggs to highlight specific happenings, people and history of a country.
Each semester we meet for Journey week, the in-person first week of the semester before going online. Please describe Journey Week for someone interested in the KUCD MFA.
Imagine the most intense, soul-searching, eye-opening, mind-blowing-yet-sleep-deprived experience imaginable, where the only thing more powerful than the feeling of paralysis by uncertainty is the pull of curiosity. That’s pretty much Journey Week. And after the first one, it will be hard to wait for the next.
Fun fact about Bill
I’m about half way through my “see every continent” list.
I hear you have exciting news to share!
Yes! I had my project titled Roger accepted for presentation at the University College and Designers Association’s (UCDA) annual Design Educator’s Summit at East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee. The project was founded in the course Contemporary Topics and delved into the experiences, and neglect, of older users of tech. Here’s a small excerpt from the presentation: “Have we alienated, and are we continuing to alienate, older generations when it comes to the design of technology and interfaces? As designers and educators, we are responsible for bringing beneficial technology to the masses. We must ensure that the products we build are useful to everyone, including an aging population with an ever-broadening range of abilities, interests, and expectations; a fact that is sometimes forgotten by designers, including younger designers, tasked with creating for an older generation with an understanding of technology and skillset that differs vastly from their own.”
Thanks Bill!
Context is a new annual event for graphic design students to compete against their peers on a level playing field. The format of the competition is inspired by the former Real Show, the decades-old student competition of The Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington (DC), which dissolved in 2013. Context features four real world design projects, previously completed by real clients of Pittsburgh design agencies.
Of those 130 submissions, our judges accepted 41 pieces into the show (12 gold, 10 silver and 19 design excellence awards.)
Of those 41 pieces, Kutztown took home 3 awards! Below are the names of the students who’s work have been accepted into the show:
Julia Coville
Madison Eckert
Thomas Messina
15200 Kutztown Rd.
