resumes – Brittany Spencer // Papermaking & Graphic Design

Self-Branding Studio // Spring 2016

November 14, 2016November 17, 2016brittanyspencerLeave a comment

I had the privilege to teach Self-Branding Studio again for Spring 2016. It was formerly called Advanced Computer Studio and was blogged about under this name in the past. However, I think Self-Branding Studio is more telling of what the class is about. These students are non-graphic design majors that want to focus on professional practice, and determine a “brand” for themselves to create personal designs for a logo, business card, resumé, and portfolio website. It is a helpful way to prepare upperclassmen for graduation.

This was by far the most diverse group of students I’ve ever taught in one class. They were all strong entrepreneur types! We had 9 students representing painting/computer science, landscape architecture, concept art, painting, photography, digital art, and business majors with a minor in art. Their career goals were even more diverse! More on that to come….

GUEST ARTISTS & BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS

Due to the number of differing majors and goals, there was not enough time to interview each guest as a class as done in semesters past. So this semester I assigned for the students to interview their chosen artist or business professional outside of the classroom in-person, by phone, and/or by email to get the answers they personally were curious about. They turned in their email conversation proof of determining an appointment time or plan to visit, their list of questions, and final notes from their time together. Then we took time to discuss as a class the high points of what they learned in their conversations.

FINAL STUDENT BRANDING DESIGNS

Students completed a personal assessment of writing exercises to determine how to brand themselves, and in turn designed their own logo, business card, resumé, and portfolio website. I am featuring the strongest work below.

* I have permission from my students to promote their work on my website.

Candace Moreau // Painting & Computer Science // http://candacemoreaux.com
Candace is a multi-talented girl with many interests. She’s working on her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science with minors in Art, Piano, and French. She envisions herself to be a website coder by day, and freelance artist by night. For this class, she wanted to focus on her painting business. The watercolor turned out beautifully for her logo. To add a fun spin to her last name, she decided to add an X to turn Moreau into Moreaux.

DaVartay Miller // Landscape Architecture // http://glamourresidential.wixsite.com/homes
DaVartay is a big-hearted guy with a dream to flip houses and use them to build a positive community for families who are going through hard times. His Glamour Residential homes would provide quality, safe, cheaper housing to get them through their temporary tough season. The goal would be to provide other services to the families to help them rise above their situation and be able to comfortably move out and move on to even better things.

HuShawn Rambo // Concept Art // http://www.doperambo.com/
“Rambo” is a colorful guy that wants to pursue a career in Concept Art. To illustrate his many abilities, he developed the acronym DOPE to stand for Designing Objects and People for Entertainment.

Justin Gandy // Landscape Architecture
Justin wants to pursue a fashion design career, particularly in the contemporary urban clothing genre with his line Omni. He wants to offer quality goods at quality prices.

Ki’erre Dawkins // Painting & Digital Art // http://kd2767.wixsite.com/kierredawkinsart
Ki’erre is a skilled guy in painting and digital art. He wants to run his own artist studio one day!

Becca Chastain // Business major with minor in Art
Becca and her sister have the ambition of opening their own bakery together called Wells Bakery– a family name that is no stranger to being used for other family businesses. Becca is an experienced baker and has many creative ideas to set their bakery apart from potential competition with what they can offer. She envisions a family-friendly bakery by day, dessert and alcohol bar by night.

Sydney Van Leigh // Photography // http://sydneyarmer1.wixsite.com/mysite
Sydney is a gifted photographer that explores fashion, gender and style– particularly focusing on androgyny. She decided to go by her beautiful first name and two middle names to build her brand

Taylor McGhee // Fine Art // http://naughtpandachan.wixsite.com/naughtpandachan
Taylor is pursuing her dream of being a video game YouTuber under the name Naught Panda Chan, as well as an artist. She’s hoping to spread laughter and happiness to those who watch her videos.

Terrence Ewings // Digital Art
Terrence has a particular interest in producing digital art, and wants to run his own graphic studio one day.

I wish all of these students the absolute best of luck in all their endeavors!

* Special thanks to Professor Suzanne Powney for stepping in to teach this class at the start of the semester while I was on medical leave!

Self-Branding Studio // Fall 2015

September 16, 2016brittanyspencer3 Comments

I had the privilege to teach Self-Branding Studio again in Fall 2015 and Spring 2016. It’s formerly called Advanced Computer Studio and was blogged about under this name in the past. However, I think Self-Branding Studio is more telling of what the class is about. These students are non-graphic design majors that want to focus on professional practice, and determine a “brand” for themselves to create personal designs for a logo, business card, resumé, and portfolio website. It is a helpful way to prepare upperclassmen for graduation. I taught 5 students during the Fall 2015 term for this class.

GUEST ARTISTS

We interviewed guest artists as a class who were chosen by the students. We communicated in person, by email, Skype, or conference call. This provides a great opportunity to learn tips from professionals to better prepare the students for a career in the arts.

First guest was MSU photography class of 2012 alum Blake McCollum. Blake gave advice for how to run a successful photography business in a small town, and how to network locally. At 26 years old, he is an encouragement to students that want to pursue a freelancing career directly after graduation.

Blake McCollum photography

Blake McCollum visits MSU students

Second guest was Vermont sculptor Chris Miller. Chris specializes in figurative and representational art carved from granite, wood, and marble. He tends to work at a large scale and had many interesting stories about his clients and projects. We Skyped and learned from his stories of trial, error, and success after many years working in the art business. We appreciated his transparency and honesty.

Chris Miller stone sculpture

Chris Miller Skype session

Third guest was British illustrator Yvonne Gilbert. Now living in Canada, Yvonne has experience illustrating children’s books, stamps, posters, and record sleeves with the most intricate colored pencil work. Upon research about her and her art, we felt pretty starstruck as we spoke to her by conference call. Celebrities own her original artwork as part of their private collections. She even has her own Wikipedia page! We loved her sweet humor and stories about how art shifted in relation to events throughout history, and played a part in her own style and business. She also described how she has made her living off her art without the help of a computer; everything she produces is hand drawn from start to finish. Like Chris, she shared the hardships and victories of a lifetime in art, and is proud to say she is an artist.

Yvonne Gilbert colored pencil illustation

Fourth guest was concept artist Jin Yung Kim. Jin makes art for video games, films, and animations in San Diego, CA. Most notably, Jin has done work for PlayStation! We emailed Jin our questions and received a thorough response about a career in conceptual art.

Jin Yung Kim concept art

Lastly, we emailed questions to California painter Michael Page. Michael’s work offers the viewer an optic alternative to the visual reality of life, as we know it. His imagery is rendered in a rich color palette of swirling and flowing shapes and line that create dynamic movement. He provided good advice for networking, and balancing family life with a home studio.

Michael Page painting

FINAL STUDENT BRANDING DESIGNS

Students completed a personal assessment of writing exercises to determine how to brand themselves, and in turn designed their own logo, business card, resumé, and portfolio website.

* I have permission from my students to promote their work on my website.

Chelsey Johnson // Concept Art // http://chelseyjohnson.virb.com/

Haleigh Parker // Photography // http://www.haleighparkerphotography.com/

McKinnon Herring // Painting // http://mckinnonherring.weebly.com/

Megan Smith // Illustration // http://mes4209.wixsite.com/megansmith

Ronnie Thomas // Sculpture & Ceramics // http://rtworkshop.wixsite.com/ronniethomas

All of these students are now seniors or graduated! I wish them the absolute best of luck in all their endeavors!

Advanced Computer Studio // Student Presentations

May 6, 2015May 6, 2015brittanyspencerLeave a comment

Last week our class held a public slideshow presentation highlighting the work that was done this semester in Giles Auditorium at Mississippi State University. To start things off, I spoke about the professional guests who visited us in-person and online. Then each student proceeded to the lectern to speak about their career goals and present the promotional designs they completed.

Here is a list of their portfolio websites you can visit: