A recent report by Parkland College illustrates the importance and impact of graphic design exhibitions and showcases the art created by talented students heading toward the job market:

(Prospectus News)  May 2^nd, 2012 – From May 7 to June 14, the Parkland Art Gallery will begin the Parkland College Graphic Design Student Juried Exhibition. During this exhibition, students will be putting their works on display for a chance to win prizes and to be noticed by businesses and other groups. The event is open to the general public.

This exhibition is very important for the students who participate. In addition to the prizes available, participants gain exposure and add to their portfolios.

According to Parkland Art Gallery Director Lisa Costello, the pieces on display at the exhibition will be quite diverse.

“People who come to see the show should expect a wide variety of design projects,” Costello said. “There are web designs, posters, assignments about typography, map design and types of advertisements like billboards, magazines and signage. Other types of things include business cards, letterhead, menus and even product labeling. Designing Books is another really interesting thing to take a look at. We even have some of the books for sale. The proceeds go to graphic design awards for next year.”

According to Parkland’s Graphic Design website, some of the categories being awarded for are the Graphic Design Best in Show, the President’s Award in Excellence, the Davis Award for Outstanding Talent, the McGown Photography Award of Excellence, the David M. and… Read more at Prospectus News.

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(PRWeb) May 3^rd, 2012 – Virginia Marti College of Art and Design (VMCAD) of Lakewood, Ohio is pleased to announce the arrival of their 25th annual Student Art Exhibition, to be held at VMCAD on Friday May 11th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

The yearly event – which gives students in Fashion Design, Fashion Merchandising, Graphic Design, Digital Media and Interior Design the opportunity to display the technical skills and creativity they have been mastering in the art and design school’s five degree programs over the course of the academic year – features an astounding amount of artwork in various mediums from clothing and jewelry to short-form videos, painting & drawing, commercial advertisements, photography, display art and short films.

Adding to the excitement of the opening night event is the prize money that will be awarded to three winners in each of 7 art categories – Fashion Design/Illustration, Merchandising/Visual Display, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Drawing/Illustration, Digital Media and Photography – judged by practicing design professionals from the Northeast Ohio community who are independent of the art entrepreneurship school.

A Best of Show prize award of $500 will also be rewarded to one esteemed student, and Pat Catan’s Craft Centers will be giving each of the 7 First Prize winners a $50 gift certificate as well.

“The art show and prize money are the college’s grateful appreciation for all the students’ hard work and inventive design solutions they’ve produced all year long,” explained Patrick Melnick, Director of Art Student… see the full press release.

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Graphic design students & others to show off work at DACC

Laguna College of Art & Design Launches Animation Exchange Program

Graphic design students at a Canadian college recently learned how much of an impact they can have on the world when they created a mural for a children’s center. Interiors, including architecture and décor, can have a huge impact on the mood. This is especially true in medical settings, where architecture, interior design, and graphic design can come together to create spaces that are architecturally pleasing and designed to promote healing among patients. The mural adds an air of fun for children in a medical setting, but also provides happy relief to weary employees working at medical facilities. A balance between productivity and wellness are integral in facility design.

Apr 26, 2012 (Northern Life) – With specific colours chosen for tranquility and energy, Cambrian College design students donated 1,000 hours of their time, not to mention their talents, to create a large mural in the pediatrics unit at Health Sciences North. The multi-panelled handmade mural was unveiled April 25.

Students in Cambrian’s draphic design and art and design fundamentals programs teamed up with the Youth Advisory Council (YAC) at Health Sciences North to create the mural, which measures 24 feet long by four feet wide, and is divided in three sections. “We are thrilled by the generosity,” Diane Belanger-Gardner, administrative director of the Family and Child Program at HSN, said. “Families, staff and patients have commented on how nice and bright the murals are and how they created a cheerful environment.”

During the unveiling ceremony, students at Cambrian College also made a $300 donation to the pediatrics unit… read more from Northern Life.

Cambrian offers a 6 semester program—allowing students to practice their craft for 3 years before entering the industry. Skills and knowledge based training focuses on the fundamental areas of Graphic Design.

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Two Eugene high schools win business partnership grants

WHS Student Designs New Logo for Westwood Day

Students interested in computer simulated and hand-crafted arts often turn to graphic design colleges to help them break into a career doing what they love. Visual communications majors (including web and graphic design) are taught how to take their natural passion for art and turn it into a lucrative career through instruction on all facets of communications. As a technical term, “visual communications” sounds, well – technical. That’s important because graphic designers must learn to be technical about their art – learning how people respond to a work of art, both emotionally and behaviorally.

The graphic design association, AIGA, does a great job of describing the role of a graphic designer:

Suppose you want to announce or sell something, amuse or persuade someone, explain a complicated system or demonstrate a process. In other words, you have a message you want to communicate. How do you “send” it? You could tell people one by one or broadcast by radio or loudspeaker. That’s verbal communication. But if you use any visual medium at all-if you make a poster; type a letter; create a business logo, a magazine ad, or an album cover; even make a computer printout-you are using a form of visual communication called graphic design. (More from AIGA.)

Well-known graphic design college at the Academy of Art describes the plethora of tasks and technical abilities found in a successful graphic designer these days. Graphic design schools typically offer the same lineup of courses, including:

Graphic Design Schools Teach People how to Shape Society’s Perceptions

Graphic designers play a huge role in society. Many successful designers are aware of the impact they have on society. Pierre Bernard of Grapus delivered a speech in the early 1990s about the implications that graphic design work has on the world at large, noting that modern graphic designers (and schools, by proxy) focus on commercial interests. He said:

 “Today, the production of visual communications consists essentially of advertising. Visual productions in advertising are hugely sophisticated and articulated in relation to gigantic mass-media networks. They transcend frontiers and cultural divides. Their basic critique has been developed by the Marxist critic John Berger in Ways of Seeing. He demonstrates that “glamour” is a modern invention in terms of images. It is the expression of the pursuit of individual happiness, considered as a universal right.” (Read Bernard’s entire lecture transcript here.)

Providence, RI (PRWEB) April 27, 2012 -  Rhode Island School of Design’s Digital + Media Department offers “Visualizing Data: Art + Code”, a new summer course devoted to the emerging art form created by the presentation of data through innovative, elegant and artful design solutions. See the course description.

“Visualizing Data: Art + Code”, taught by Kyuha “Q” Shim and offered as part of RISD’s Summer Studies Art and Design Courses, is a 3-credit course open to any interested student 18 years of age or older. The course, held on the RISD campus in Providence, RI, is a unique opportunity for artists and designers of all backgrounds and mediums to understand code and decrypt data in order to effectively convert information into distinctive visual forms of art and communication.

Without needing to know anything about code prior to taking this course, students learn such digital tools as Arduino, Processing and Pepakura, in order to create works that go beyond standard graphic representation to convey personal expressions. Students examine the work of designers and artists like Ben Fry, Jer Thorp, Catalogtree, LUST, Daniel Shiffman and Ryoji Ikeda, and complete a series of short projects culminating in a final project that… Read the entire press release on PRWeb.

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Goshen College student artwork up for judging at juried art show

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Maynard — Students in graphic design classes at Maynard High School were recently given the chance to apply their classroom skills in the business world to create promotional posters for the Maynard-based band Drastic Measures, which will be performing in the Clock Tower Cafe on Saturday April 21.

Michael Candela, who started the band, approached the Art teacher John Flynn about doing the design work.

“Kids have fresh young minds. Everything I design seems to look like something else. I was hoping the kids would think about this differently and give a fresh perspective,” Candela said.

He put the group together because he wanted to play the music he listened to growing up; dance music from the 70s and 80s. Candela said he reached out to musicians to put on one show for friends and family. But the scope of the event grew and the band decided to team up with the Maynard Business Alliance and Maynard Community Chest and the one-night dance party turned into a town-wide benefit for the Community Chest.

Candela said Alliance members will sell tickets and Community Chest members will decorate the café, serve as ushers and also sell tickets.

Party-goers will listen to music of the Bee Gees, Donna Summer and Earth, Wind and Fire, among others, as well as some rock by Joe Cocker and Tom… read more from Maynard Wicked Local.

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Graphic Design Professor Attracts Students with Passion for Design

The Art Institutes to Open New School in Greater St. Louis Area

What does it mean to be “cut out” for graphic design school? In an interview with GraphicDesignSchool.com’s Nancy Solomon, successful graphic designer Pon Angara said this about his choice to graduate as an engineer and enroll in college again as a graphic design student:

“I’ve always enjoyed creating art pieces that were visually compelling and packed with meaning. In fact, my formal training in fine arts started during my elementary years. My college degrees are in industrial engineering, industrial design and graphic design. My background in art and science became strong assets in my design work.” – Read the whole interview here.

It’s worth noting that Angara also told Solomon, “The more well-rounded your education is, the better. Design is not just about art. It’s about being able to solve a problem. In the real world, problems have multiple sides.”

Back in 2007, Kristy Pennino penned a humorous article outlining how to know that you aren’t cut out for graphic design school. In nearly all of them, she cites a general lack of interest in the core aspects of the profession. You can read them all at Five Signs You Should Not Major in Graphic Design, but as a preview:

“1. You’d rather be surfing Facebook or playing online games during a lecture or presentation or you can’t stop web surfing during class breaks. Let’s face it, it’s not really the teacher’s lecture that has you so bored because you’re bored out of your mind when doing homework for graphics courses as well …” (Read more.)

So, you’ve decided that graphic design school is right for you. What can you do to make sure you get into the school of your choice?

YouTheDesigner.com does a good job outlining the prep-work with 7 Tips for Getting Into Graphic Design School, starting with:

“1. Have a Versatile, but Focused Portfolio

As a graphic designer it is important to have a versatile Graphic Design portfolio, at least early one. The point of design school is to figure out what area of design you like best, such as web design, magazine design, print design and so on, but when applying it can be better to show a general portfolio. You should always show what you do best, just don’t have all website designs or all magazine spreads. Mix it up and show you are multi-talented and not a one trick design pony!

2. Show Basic Art Skills

When applying to art school its important to have some fine art in your portfolio, even if you are a designer, because it shows you have a solid foundation in art. Drawings are the most common item featured in graphic design portfolios, followed by paintings. Just make sure they are actually good drawings and paintings and don’t add too many. Remember design is what you are there for, but its good to show you have solid basic art skills….” Read all 7 Tips here.

The school’s student paper published an article that quoted on teacher saying, “We were going to have a fairly soft roll-out and it just took off really fast.” As The Rotunda reported, the graphic design class idea turned into something much, much more:

Longwood University’s Design Lab is a mixture of a course and an on-campus club/organization. The stu­dents in this class work with real clients, present real sketches and produce real products.

These students are responsible for many of the posters you see on campus as well as logos you see for local businesses. It all started with Professor of Art. Chris Register and Assistant Professor of Art Wade Lough.

The two men went to the Dean of the Cook-Cole College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Charles Ross with their idea, which, according to Register, they thought would fall into place with the dean’s under­graduate research.

Upon their idea’s arrival, Register and Lough put together a “special topics class” and got to handpick the first students. They thought this class would be limited solely to the art department, but this was not the case. Register said, “We were going to have a fairly soft roll-out and it just took off really fast.”

Design Lab first started in spring 2010 with a small group of graphic design students. Junior Kathryn Grayson said the class has expanded significantly since its start. The class (although its students treat it more like a true design organization and… read the whole story on this graphic design program at The Rotunda.

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Yale Daily News – School of Public Health and School of Art students opened an exhibit this week of posters promoting health issues.

“The Art of Public Health” show — which opened in a School of Art gallery on April 13 and closes April 24 — features themes ranging from vaccines, to nutrition and global health. According to organizers, the posters aim to condense “complex” public health information into visually striking posters, while targeting parents, teenagers and Spanish speakers. After the success of this year’s pilot project, the group expects to produce a similar gallery next year, said Vanessa Lamers SPH ’13 FES ’13, one of the gallery organizers. This project marks the first time students from both schools have collaborated on interdiscplinary work, she added.

“We wanted to focus on bringing the ideas we were learning in the classroom to the public,” Lamers said. “So we chose an interdisciplinary project that condensed all that information into powerful visuals.”

The idea for the project, said School of Public Health professor Catherine Yeckel, originated as an outside activity in her “Physiology for Public Health” class. She said the more students learned about the scientific concepts behind public health, the more they realized that they were losing focus on the “public” part of it, to which Yeckel responded by challenging the students to create a public project.

“It’s easy for students to learn lots of things, but they are not often implemented in the community,” Yeckel said. “Students became so creative that they decided to bring the project outside the classroom and came up with this brilliant idea.”

Read more on this graphic design school project from The Yale Daily News.

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FLORIDA — April 18^th, 2012 — As a leader in information resources, Graphic-Design-Schools.net advises graphic design students that flexibility and the ability to offer a broader range of design services is essential to their future success. Thriving in other areas of design often requires professionals to be great in a niche part of their overall market, but Graphic-Design-Schools says that graphic designers need to remain very flexible – especially those who intend to own a business or work as an independent freelance graphic designer.

Beverly Lansing of Graphic-Design-Schools.net says that graduate students need to be focused on learning all they can learn about their favorite part of the market but warns that there are repercussions for sticking to a specific aspect of the industry. “In graphic design schools, students learn to love what they do and are encouraged to choose the area that best suits them. The truth is, most graphic designers have the skills necessary to work in their preferred area of graphic design or to do work for a specific agency. The problem comes when limiting yourself to a niche also limits income potential,” she said.

There is on other catch according to Lansing: A well-paid graphic designer is first a great artist, but he is also an astute entrepreneur. “Professionals who are earning the most as independent graphic designers are those that cans step outside of their comfort zone and win the jobs that pay well. They are businessmen and women who market themselves as much as they market their clients.”

The labor department says that graphic designers earn a median annual salary of $40,000, but Lansing says that number isn’t representative of graduates who are starting a new business. It takes time to build a thriving business, but it may be well worth it in the end. Lansing also points to industry statistics that claim that graduates of graphic design schools have a tough time finding those jobs. “Not all graphic designers are constantly searching for work; flexible designers are great at all areas of design. Their clients know it, and they tell their friends about it. Given enough time, a good graphic designer can easily earn $70,000 a year by starting his or her own firm,” she said.

Graphic-Design-Schools.net

Graphic-Design-Schools.net brings together the best info on graphic design colleges, student life, and professionals in the graphic industry to help you make an informed decision about your career and education goals. All resources, including the graphic design school directory and helpful graphic design articles are presented as a free service to users. Graphic-Design-Schools.net helps individuals considering graphic design careers find powerful information for success in college and beyond.

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