InState Magazine

When you think of college life what comes to mind immediately are daunting lecture halls, endless rifling through textbooks and highlighters. So many highlighters. 

 

The graphic design majors view school work differently. Rather than exams and studying, they use their own hand-made art, photography and computer design programs to pass their classes. Incoming freshman have to submit a portfolio for entrance into the pre-design program. Towards the end of sophomore year pre-design students have their portfolios reviewed by their instructors and only half are even admitted into the graphic design major. 

 

I caught up with a few of the juniors in the program. Travis Whitmer, Vice President of the Design Association at Penn State, said, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life but I’ve always been inspired by shoes and I’m a creative person so I wanted to be able to design them.” 

 

Currently, the juniors are working on an editorial fashion spread in which they had to develop a concept, find a model, conduct a photo shoot and use Photoshop to bring the spread to life. 

 

“My concept is ‘geometric prism fashion,’” said Whitmer. “We started out by creating a mood board. I love geometric things and contrast so that’s how I decided on my theme.” 

 

Whitmer styled his model in black leather with laser cutouts and an oversized bulky necklace.

 

“Over-exaggeration is what I was going for,” he said. “I love fashion now because of this project. I think I want to do fashion photography when I graduate.”

 

Kailyn Moore took a different approach to her fashion spread project. Rather than sharp lines and contrasting shapes she used a more ethereal aesthetic.

 

“I used a gymnast as my model,” she said. “I took her to someone’s backyard and had her jump on a trampoline and strike poses in the air. I’m really into color so I used smoke bombs in the background to paint the clouds.”

 

Moore didn’t always know that graphic design was the path for her either. 

 

“I applied to major in Fine Art. That’s always been my forte. I realized during my FTCAP meeting that I wanted to do Graphic Design instead and I had to storm my advisor’s door down,” she laughed. 

 

Many students in the program graduate and go on to work for design or advertising agencies. Moore hope is to design for just one brand and stick with it.

 

“Working for Kate Spade is my dream,” she said. 

 

The juniors and seniors, all members of the Design Association, are given exclusive access to the design studio in Borland Building – or “Borlandia,” as they like to call it. The studio is a design student’s dream workspace. They each have their own desk equipped with Mac desktop computers and are able to decorate as they please. Their professors also have offices in the studio so the students can seek guidance or a second opinion whenever they need. 

 

“We’ve all gotten really close,” said Whitmer of the graphic design majors and professors. “We all help each other out and look to each other for inspiration.”