by design

December 19, 2022 by Dannell MacIlwraith

The Flow of Inspiration | From Music to Collage

Early in November, Art & Design students collaborated with Music students.

Music students performed. Art students created. During the collaborative event hosted by Jenni Brandon, music students connected with art students from the College of Visual and Performing Arts. During 5-minute interviews, students asked each other a series of questions to find out if there are collaborative matches for future projects. KUCD Professor Summer Doll-Myers gave a talk about collage-making and techniques to get inspired. The event finished with a performance & creation collaboration. Music written by Jenni Brandon was performed by Aileen Razey and KU music students, while KUCD students created artwork. Some chose to create intuitively along with the music pieces, creating several smaller collages in spurts. Some used the time to create one larger collage while being inspired by the music as a whole.

Later in November, a concert took place in the Georgian Room of Old Main where artwork by Kristen Egan, Summer Doll-Myers, and KUCD students was displayed. The music was by Jenni Brandon and Kornel Thomas, performed by Aileen Razey and Janet Axelrod.

Thank you to all staff and collaborators who made these events a great success!This music & art collaboration led to new perspectives, new friendships, and some wonderful artwork. Check out some of the collages that were created below.

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October 31, 2022 by Dannell MacIlwraith

IlluXcon Field Trip with Prof Gurney!

Every year in October the IlluXcon (aka IX Art Show) show at Goggleworks in Reading attracts 90 of the most prestigious Fantasy Illustrators in the country to display their work and converse with anyone interested in their process. Art buyers travel from across the country to purchase art directly from the creators.

On October 21^st Professor John Gurney drove a van full of students to spend an afternoon viewing the work and chatting with the artists. They had an up-close look at art created in a variety of traditional media, including oil paintings, watercolor, colored pencil, scratchboard, and resin sculpture. They even attended a scratchboard workshop lead by Ruth Sanderson, renown illustrator and award winning scratchboard artist. Perfect timing, as the Intro to Illustration students just began their scratchboard unit!

Many of the artists and illustrators at IlluXcon have been creating illustrations for science fiction and fantasy books for decades, as well as roll playing games and collectables. They are adapting to the times and learning to be entrepreneurial, cultivating the growing circuit of “cons” (conventions) to sell their original work, posters, prints, books and obtain commissions. Everyone has heard of Comic-con, but there is also Horror-con, Fantasy-con, Gencon, etc. IlluXcon is the only major show in the country that focuses exclusively on “Imaginative Realism”, which is the general term used today to describe fantasy art. These venues allow the creators to interact directly with each other, and with their fans in an informal setting. It was a great opportunity for Kutztown Students to chat with the creators, to view amazing work up close, and experience this important component of today’s art market.

https://imaginativerealism.com/in-pennsylvania-art-stirring-imaginations/

April 22, 2022 by Dannell MacIlwraith

Designathon 2022

The 15th Annual KUCD Designathon was a great success! Thank you to faculty, students, and clients for making it happen. Special shout-outs to Professor Doll-Myers and Professor Meloney for spearheading the event and leading us to the finish line.

After a hiatus from the event for a few years, it was refreshing for many to experience the team spirit of KUCD . Although this year has been the shortest sprint yet with only 12 hours to complete it all, it was a marathon that everyone enjoyed. Kickoff began at 9am on April 1 and wrapped up at 9pm. We provided work for a total of 20 non-profit clients. Throughout the day, students hunted for Easter eggs, won raffle prizes, and of course, fueled up with lots of delicious food.

The field day branding for this year was designed by KUCD junior Anam Khan.

Scroll through to see some of the great work from this year!

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April 8, 2022 by Dannell MacIlwraith

Faculty Feature and Farewell: Ann Lemon

After a decade at Kutztown University, Professor Ann Lemon has retired and is moving on to new exciting life adventures. Congratulations Professor Lemon! 🍋

Ann is continuing her work with The Amos Lemon Burkhart Foundation as executive director. “The mission of the Amos Lemon Burkhart Foundation is to sustain and promote the legacy of the artist Amos Lemon Burkhart and create a new conversation about creativity, mental illness, and addiction in order to help young artists stay alive and make art.” The foundation provides scholarships, support, treatment, and programs to art students who have struggled to overcome problems. A recent show just closed at the Richmond Art Museum in Richmond, Indiana titled, “You Miss 90% of the Shots You Don’t Take / Against the Wind.” You can keep up with the foundation’s happenings at the link above and keep up with the Amos Lemon Instagram @amoslemon_art.

Here at KU, she leaves behind the tradition of the Creative Royale, which began in 2020. It is an annual art-making extravaganza open to all students to spread the message, “stay alive and make art.” She also was involved with the KU Landis Letterpress in SH103, the 2D IDEA Lab. Students and staff have been inspired by Professor Lemon to fall in love with letterpress and 2D Image-Making. She visited campus recently on March 25, 2022, to host a mono-print workshop with students and staff. The photos below are from this workshop!

We will miss you Professor Lemon!

March 25, 2022 by Dannell MacIlwraith

AIGA Guest Speaker Jessica Hische

Illustrator, author, and letterer extraordinaire Jessica Hische hung out with students, and staff for a virtual event hosted by AIGA on Monday, March 7 2022. She took us through her career journey that began right here in PA and has led her to owning her own business based in California. We even got to have story time with her NYT Best-Selling book, Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave.

Watch the webinar recording here.

You can keep up with Jessica on Instagram @jessicahische or visit her website.

Thank you Jess for joining AIGA and making this event happen!

March 8, 2022 by Dannell MacIlwraith

Faculty Feature: Josh Miller

Josh Miller has been a professor at KU for 10 years teaching web, graphic, and interactive design. In 2021, he had an interactive installation at Dlectricity in Detroit called Sound the Deep Waters.

“A collaboration between Angela Fraleigh and myself, Sound the Deep Waters is an Interactive Victorian Flower Language dictionary that invites visitors to submit secret messages via onsite tablet— love letters, prose, slogans, inside jokes, etc. will manifest as bold, brilliant, larger than life flowers, associated with their meaning.

Floriography, or the language of flowers, is the use of a flower as a means of expression. Thought to have originated between Turkish women, under the watchful eye of harem guards during the 18th c. the usage of floriagraphy as a coded language spread like wildfire during an emotionally repressed Victorian age. A specific type of flower may reference an individual’s trait, intention, sentiment, social concern, or condition. Purple lilac indicates the first hints of love while clover is associated with happiness. To the experienced, such intentions are known; to others the implications remain hidden in plain sight.

In Sound the Deep Waters, the Interactive Victorian flower language dictionary plays with this notion of subversive decor and helps shed light on language as a perceptual domain exploring how images and ideas intersect and experiments with how meaning is made and beliefs are constructed.”

Photos from the DLECTRICITY 2021, projected on the Detroit Institute of Arts. Photos by Josh Miller, drone photo by Nadir Ali.

Fun fact about Professor Miller: he does not approve of fun.

You can check out his work at josh-miller.com.

February 25, 2022 by Dannell MacIlwraith

AIGA Guest Speaker Sara Wachter-Boettcher

Finding Your Path as a Designer in Tech

AIGA was happy to host a virtual event on Thursday, February 24, 2022 with Sara Wachter-Boettcher. She spoke with students and staff about roles in the tech industry like UX, product design, content design, and user research. She also led discussions about the ethical considerations of working in tech—how you can spot problematic companies, avoid toxic workplaces, and confidently raise issues like bias and exclusion in the design process. You can watch the recording from the event or view the slides from her presentation.

Sara Wachter-Boettcher is an author, speaker, coach, and strategist dedicated to changing design and tech for good. She’s the founder of Active Voice, a coaching and training company helping organizations build radical, courageous leadership practices.

Her most recent book, Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech, was named one of the best tech books of the year by Wired. She also wrote Design for Real Life (with Eric Meyer) and Content Everywhere, and has been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian, and McSweeney’s. Find her at home in Philly, on Twitter @sara_ann_marie, or at sarawb.com.

Thank you to Sara for joining AIGA to make this event happen!

May 28, 2021 by Dannell MacIlwraith

2021 MFA Projects

We are transitioning back to “normal” at KUCD! The MFA Show was held in the Atrium of Sharadin. If you missed it… check out our two newest MFA grads: Valerie Nyby and Amy Bolger-Santucci.

View Amy Bolger-Santucci’s Project

View Valerie Nyby’s Project

April 30, 2021 by Dannell MacIlwraith

AGENCY CRAWL!

This is the last big AIGA event of the year, and your exclusive chance to participate in our first KUCD AIGA “Agency Crawl!” KUCD alumni will be taking you on a “tour” of their agencies via zoom.

Fishawack Health:

Fishawack Health is the leading global commercialization partner for the modern life sciences era. Powered by a globe-spanning pack of strategic, creative, and scientific experts, we are driven to connect patients and healthcare professionals with the knowledge they need to live better lives. Our internationally recognized, award-winning teams collaborate across operations in the UK (Brighton, London, Manchester, Knutsford, and Oxford) and USA (Evansville, New York, Philadelphia, Scottsdale, St. Louis, and San Diego). We are Fishawack Health. Bolder. More agile. More connected. Together with our client partners, we can shape the future and improve lives.

You’ll be hosted by Lacey Christman, Head of Creative

https://fishawack.com/

Watch the recording:
https://kutztown.zoom.us/rec/play/I_yYIwazgLZjCxf65JTCGWEkVURZfiMW5JvZvCsKp1MjTJbq-aBBZ8SLsore3bVR4moFkHwfyx6ICv8M.QVUVYUCl4DmdhGNc?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=7lkATwTATBWPcUumGzma_A.1619795381553.39efaf1fa3e137bcc783374dfef0037c&_x_zm_rhtaid=989

Pentagram:

Our work encompasses graphics and identity, architecture and interiors, products and packaging, exhibitions and installations, websites and digital experiences, advertising and communications. Our 24 partners are all practicing designers, and whether they are working collaboratively or independently, they always do so in friendship. Our structure is unique. We are the only major design studio where the owners of the business are the creators of the work and serve as the primary contact for every client. This reflects our conviction that great design cannot happen without passion, intelligence and — above all — personal commitment, and is demonstrated by a portfolio that spans five decades and all industries.

You’ll be hosted by Mary Kate Henry, designer extraordinaire

https://www.pentagram.com/

Watch the recording:
https://kutztown.zoom.us/rec/play/1sbwmmCWGq_rnpUvFaS3SiErwTXQIirJY_MUPS8zc-BVRyARz-bLWMz3D_4xN4xIQURETNSBPP7wA3ld.Mycu_gFHWKABawNA?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=rYiC9ryySz-3rt-VcsW_ow.1619702645936.80f3a000bb2d7df680ac8e79d11c46ab&_x_zm_rhtaid=442

April 26, 2021 by Dannell MacIlwraith

Layouts for Layups! Stef Fontela

Join Kutztown AIGA as we welcome Stef Fontela! Stef is the former Creative Director of the Golden State Warriors. She is going to take us through the recent re-branding she did for them. (For the non-sports fans, the Warriors are an NBA team…this is an amazing opportunity for ALL to hear a renowned guest speaker and learn about branding! No knowledge of sports required.)

Watch the recording:
https://youtu.be/9YAA0kpvnlk