Saturday’s Portfolio Reviews

The UMD AIGA student chapter planned and orchestrated Saturday's Portfolio Review event; 20 design creatives donated part of their Saturday to review the work of more than 35 design students. This year marked the first time the event was held in conjunction with Design Week, but given the event’s beneficial results, it promises not to be the last.











Kim Rhee and Deanna Romero are all smiles once the event gets underway and (almost) everything goes according to plan.



Design alum Nancy Clarvit gets to take a peek at student work and offer her feedback, too.



The University of Maryland Department of Art Design program is grateful for the generosity of the following reviewers: Neal Ashby, Mira Azarm, Sucha Becky, Faz Besharatian, Wendy Bogart, Jake Cheney, Tim Cripps, Nancy Flores, John Foster, Ashley Gilmore, Julie Glickson Bethke, EJ Hall, Lisa Hill, Harry Jones, Anne Kerns, Mihae Kim, Sung Hee Kim, Jack Lanza, Robert McVearry, and Renee Pitts.

After three hours of reviews, participants and reviewers alike were ready to relax and enjoy follow-up design conversation and works, the latter courtesy of Luba Lukova.















Congrats to the UMD AIGA officers for such a successful event. From left are Talia Hillman, Kim Rhee, Carey Ward, Grace Toulotte, and Joanna Shieh. Not pictured: Deanna Romero.

Friday Workshop with Luba Lukova

On Friday our keynote challenged students to concept, create and complete a poster for an anti-fur campaign poster for the Fur Free Alliance's annual competition. With only 5 short hours in which to finish the assignment, students had to work quickly.









After some time sketching and concepting, it was time for a working lunch critique. Luba Lukova reviewed each students' ideas and helped them focus on the strongest concept.









At the end the workshop the final designs were reviewed and Ms. Lukova chose three winners:



Erin Rolston, third from left, won the gold trophy and Rachel Pafe, left, and Jessica Murray, second from left, each won a silver. Not only do these students get bragging rights for their designs, they will also receive personalized trophy labels courtesy of Luba Lukova. Below is Rachel Pafe’s winning design.



Jessica Murphy’s winning design, below:



Erin Rolston's winning design, below:



Although some students were not able to stay for the entirety of the workshop due to conflicting work and class schedules, many were able to get a great start on a promising portfolio piece and potential Anti-Fur Poster Campaign winner, thanks in great part to Luba Lukova’s art direction and feedback.

Thursday's Keynote with Luba Lukova

The last time our keynote was in DC—aside from installation preparations for the week’s exhibit—was for President Obama's Inauguration ceremonies. Her iconic Health Coverage poster was included in a prestigious Inauguration exhibit, entitled Manifest Hope: DC; it celebrated the role art played in President Obama’s election. This is but one small example of the stature and impact Luba Lukova's work has had on her audiences.



Images of Lukova’s sketches reveal her creative process for finding visual solutions for projects such as her The Taming of the Shrew poster.



After hearing Luba Lukova's first-hand stories of her work, presentation attendees were able to gain a first-person view of her posters, which were on display in the Herman Maril Gallery.



Luba Lukova and Nancy Clarvit at the exhibit reception, below.

Thursday's Lunchtime Presentation

Ken Tanabe kicked off his presentation Thursday by inspiring students with his story of Loving Day, a now-global celebration of interracial couples that began as his MFA thesis project during his studies at Parsons the New School for Design.



Loving Day celebrations mark the anniversary of the Loving Decision on or around June 12th; the project fights racial prejudice through education and builds multicultural communities. Loving Day has become the largest multiracial celebration throughout the United States.



Ken also presented some of the motion and time-based work he did for Imaginary Forces and Freestyle Collective and the motion work of his students.

Wednesday's Events

With portfolio reviews pending Saturday, Jonathan Bruns and Wendy Bogart, two members of the UMD Department of Art Design Advisory Committee, reviewed the dos and don'ts of best practices for job interviews with students and prepared handouts on good interview questions for which students should anticipate and prepare for prior to an interview.

Later, Casey Hafner shared New Leaf Paper's vision for sustainable paper.



Since 1998, New Leaf Paper 
customers have saved more than 4,480,000 fully grown trees, 390,000,000 pounds of green house gases, and 1,337,000,000 gallons of water —and counting!

Tuesday’s Events

For the first time since graduation, Mike Yuen returned to the University of Maryland campus. According to him, the lay of the land has changed since he was here last, but the opportunities that arise from this campus have not. When Yuen was a student here, he was passionate about designing for theater productions, and today he is doing just that in New York City. Yuen described to students how he was able to follow his passion and turn it into a successful career.




Mike Yuen brought bags full of copies of his work so that students could interact with the various books, posters, brochures and other design objects.



After his presentation, Mike gave one-on-one feedback to students regarding their portfolio work. Below Jessy Weiss and Charlie Pinnix receive comments from Mike.

Monday's Events

On Monday Andrea Marks lead a workshop on writing for designers and then screened her documentary Freedom on the Fence.



During the writing workshop, Andrea Marks led students through exercises designed to connect verbal connotations to brainstorming for visual projects. She also emphasized the importance of using verbal metaphors, narratives and similes, analogies and other devices to create strong, captivating visuals.



The second edition of Andrea Mark's book Writing for Visual Thinkers is due out later this spring.



Freedom on the Fence has been screened at venues across the United States and in Canada, England, France, and Mexico. The documentary was also included in the Polish Posters on exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2009.



Andrea Marks continues to secure other venues for screening this educational and inspiring film.