February 26, 2025 by Dannell MacIlwraith

17th Annual Designathon

On Friday, February 21st, the Communication Design program (Art & Design Department) hosted its 17th annual Designathon from 8 AM to 10 PM, our largest event of the year. We had 107 students registered, ranging from freshmen eager to become part of the CD family to seniors who will act as team leaders, as well as 8 alumni to create designs for 23 local nonprofits. In addition, 8 faculty members oversaw the design teams.

The event began with breakfast and sign-in at 8 AM, followed by the client kickoff at 9 AM. Students then brainstormed, sketched, and created final designs with production ready files for the clients, culminating in a presentation for the clients at 9 PM.

This year, the design projects ranged from logos for a cat rescue organization to a social media campaign aiming to reach the Guinness World Record for the largest soda tab collection by an organization. As always, our goal is to foster a sense of creating for the greater good. It’s crucial for our designers to engage with the community, and this event offers them the invaluable opportunity to work with real clients, gaining hands-on experience that enhances their learning — all while having a bit of fun!

Designathon Team:

Professor Vicki Meloney
Professor Summer Doll-Myers
Office Manager Kathy Traylor
Senior CD student organizer Lein Nguyen

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!