Name: Connor Bacon

Graduation Year: 2017

Job Title:Digital Media Manager

Organization: Vanderbilt University

Describe your design journey: I graduated with a degree in design, but took a hard pivot towards the world of photography and videography. Mainly focused around these disciplines, I learned some front end web design and webflow development that I carry with me into freelance gigs in the present day.

After about 5 years of freelance and working alongside a local advertising agency, I decided to branch out into the world of higher education here in Nashville, TN, heading up their video production for the Office of Digital Education.

What are some of the responsibilities of your current position? I am responsible for managing a production team centered around creating digital content for Vanderbilt’s online education directive. My responsibilities span from pre-production to production to post production and everything in between.

What is your favorite part about your position? My favorite part about my current position is the flexibility it allows for and the leadership doors that have opened for me. I am able to work closely with my team to produce high quality video productions and marketing materials.

How did the Design Program prepare you for your current position? The Design Program prepared me for this role by instilling design thinking into how I interact with the world. I am able to break processes down and design them to better suit the needs of my team and our clients. I still handle some graphic design on my day to day, and freelance on the side, however the thinking is what really has shaped the way I approach my work.

What was most memorable to you about your experiences in the design program? Most memorable were the people I was able to learn and grow alongside, as well as the faculty that helped shape the program and interactions within it. Being at Eastern allowed me to explore creativity and my capabilities with support and encouragement from my peers.

What advice would you give to someone who is considering pursuing a design degree? My advice for someone who is considering pursuing a design degree is to do it. The value that it brings to your worldview is extremely useful in negotiating the professional world, as well as many other aspects of life after school. Don’t worry so much about the tools, as they change and shift over time. Leverage design principles to shape the way you see the world.

Name: Tony Kuchar

Graduation Year: 2014

Job Title: Merchandise Designer

Organization: Fangamer.com

Describe your design journey: Started by designing merch for my silly little bands in high school. Now I design聽merch for silly little video games

What are some of the responsibilities of your current position? Overseeing the entire merch production process of my projects: concept, sketch, final design, approvals, speccing for production, reviewing production samples, adjusting specs and resampling, final production, marketing, launching, and every so often even shipping!

Communication: with fellow designers and artists, with licensors, with game developers, with prepress departments, with merch producers, with manufacturers, etc.

What is your favorite part about your position? The creative freedom I’m allotted. Generally speaking, if I have an idea for a piece of merch, and I can determine there is a decent demand for it among聽fans, I’m given the reins and means to make it happen. This allows me to always be trying new mediums, new styles, new types of design, and the ability to collaborate with a variety of other designers and artists.

How did the Design Program prepare you for your current position? Not that fun of an answer but… Deadlines. School provides a great opportunity to practice being creative within a set timeframe. Another helpful aspect of school was having to work within specific guidelines and boundaries. Every project or job is restricted in some way, either conceptually or physically; school offers a taste of what’s to come in a professional setting. Lastly, school is great at exposing you to critique and constructive criticism. In the workforce, your designs will be evaluated and approved by parties that are outside of your influence. Being able to parse feedback and adjust your approach is a vital skill. Additionally, participating in group critiques also helps you learn how to communicate why you do or don’t like something, why it works or doesn’t work, and most importantly, how to provide helpful and practical suggestions for how to refine or better focus a design.

What was most memorable to you about your experiences in the design program? The community! School allows you to immerse yourself in design and for me, the best part of that was being surrounded by other people that were just as interested in design as me. Outside of the professional realm, where else are you really going to find a group of people that are down to have an hour long discussion about fonts?

What advice would you give to someone who is considering pursuing a design degree? Make sure it’s really something you want to do. Like any career, but especially in design, to be successful you need to be passionate about the work. If you aren’t interested in thinking about design like, I guess all the time really, then it might not be for you. I can’t turn my designer brain off. I’m in the grocery store thinking “Dang, that’s a sick font on that ramen cup. What is that? I have to find that font when I get home.. Design will just become part of your day to day life: make sure that’s something you want.

What are some advantages to coming to a regional university like 51福利社?聽 Watch and find out!

Take a moment to about her experience as a biology major at 51福利社.

Rachael is an undergraduate student with the Biology Department. She also spent time at Spokane Falls Community College where she focused on economics, with an emphasis on environmental policy. Her interests and research focus is on ecology and how invasive species and anthropogenic climate change will affect different ecosystems. She wants her education in economics to follow her into her biological studies so that economic factors can help to persuade policy. She is a McNair Scholar as well as a research assistant in Dr. Rebecca Brown’s lab that is focused on restoring a section of the Palouse Prairie. She hopes to obtain a Ph.D. and mentor students as a professor. For her 2020 51福利社 McNair Summer Research Internship, Rachael continued her work under the mentorship of Dr. Brown, Professor of Biology at 51福利社.