Making the transition from a full-time student to a member of the working world can be challenging, but Suffolk University’s Graphic Design department helped make that change smoother by encouraging seniors to create a final project that will stand out in their portfolios.
The “Beyond the Bleed” exhibit on the sixth floor of the Sawyer building is a collection of student work done by graduating seniors in the Graphic Design department. A reception for “Beyond the Bleed” was held on Friday night in the art gallery, letting families and other members of the Suffolk community admire the wide array of art.
This year, for their senior capstone projects, students were encouraged to design a campaign for either a client of their choice or a project they were interested in exploring after graduation. The main gallery room houses the capstones, which explore a variety of topics, from fictional brands of hard cider to a website about how to properly care for plants. Some of the projects were about existing companies and others were designs for fictional businesses.
The rest of the gallery includes work completed in different courses, such as branding and identity design taught by professor Peter Bianco and publication design taught by professor Laura Golly.
“Graphic design today has to be more multidisciplinary, so it’s not just about designing an ad or a brochure. It is about dealing with branding, which is creating a whole system that enforces a customer experience,” Laura Golly, the program director for the Graphic Design department, said in an interview with The Suffolk Journal.
In each project, students had the freedom to tackle a subject they found intriguing and add their individual flare to it. But before diving into the design process, they had to conduct research about their topic and present their ideas to faculty members for approval. Some students spent over a month piecing the assignment together.
“I think that it’s going to help them out a lot from the standpoint of having something in their portfolio that feels real and developed, and they can also speak about it from the ground up. They can talk about how they really tackled every little nuisance of the project,” Keith Kitz, a graphic design professor, said in an interview with The Journal.
Michelle Krasuski’s design for her fictional brand of hard cider
Since the graphic designers were not limited by specific regulations or prompts, they were able to let their creativity flourish and take their projects in all different directions.
“We’re encouraging each one of them to develop their own individual voice,” said Golly. “So the fact that we don’t want cookie cutter designers that are just using clip art and looking like it’s template machine made, each student is encouraged to pursue their own interests as well as their own style.”
For example, senior graphic design major Cameron Lamoureux has an interest in craft beer and noticed that the neighborhood of Allston-Brighton does not have any breweries or taprooms. In his capstone, he created a hypothetical brewery named “District 14 Brewing Co.” He began by making the logo, and later designed growlers, flight boards, T-shirts and the interior of the brewery, creating a spread of merchandise for the hypothetical establishment.
Working with a similar theme, senior graphic design major Michelle Krasuski designed a fictional hard cider company called “Scorpion Cider,” inspired by her astrology sign, Scorpio. Her designs were printed on aluminum cans, pint glasses and posters, and she also added a personal touch by scattering miniature plastic scorpions around the display of glassware.
“I feel like we have like specific projects that we do in the major and this was like one of the first projects ever where I got to like choose my own project and choose what I wanted to do, so I wanted to do something that related to me,” said Krasuski.
In years past, student projects looked similar to one another because they came out of the same classes. This year, the department strived to highlight what makes each student unique and their distinct approaches to design.
“This really helps them to position their portfolios [around] the standpoint of what we’ve always believed in but now are really practicing in this idea of having an individual voice as a designer,” said Kitz.
Kitz explained that from the time these students entered their first graphic design class to now, as they wrap up their last days at Suffolk, they have transformed into a dynamic group of designers. He also noted that watching that process has been a rewarding experience.
The “Beyond the Bleed” exhibit will be on display on the sixth floor of the Sawyer building until April 23.
