SHSUGD Student Work Included In National Student Show

The work of SHSU Graphic Design students Bailey Karisch and Josh Ortiz was included in the 2016 National Student Show and Conference. Hosted by the Dallas Society of Visual Communications, this year’s show received over 1400 entries from students all over the U.S. and included work from the University of Kansas, Old Dominion, Oklahoma State University, Montana State University, as well as work from 16 other schools.

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Bailey’s digital annual report for the ASPCA was one of only three reports accepted into the show.

Q: What was your reaction when you found out your work had been accepted into the show?
I was absolutely ecstatic when first receiving the email. I know there is a lot of amazing talent in the student show and I was so proud that I was going to get a chance to be a part of that experience.

Q: Why did you choose the ASPCA for your annual report?
When we first got assigned the project a couple of different companies came to mind, but I was always finding myself drawn back to the ASPCA. There is just so much that goes into the story behind their organization and I really wanted people to view that story from a different perspective. There are many hardships the organization faces daily, but at the end of the day there is nothing more than love and happiness growing from them and that was what I wanted to show overall.

Q: What was the most challenging part of your assignment?
Being cliche. It is really easy to just smack a bunch of photos of happy animals into the report and call it a day. I had to figure out a way to go completely around that idea and expand into something different and new. That was why I chose to use the color scheme that I did and also why I chose to use illustration instead of photographs. It was also a challenge tying the illustration into the information in a way that wasn’t overwhelming or silly and instead fun and playful, but still serious.

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The periodic table of elements inspired Josh’s “Elementary” guidebook. This typographic manual utilized familiar textbook visual language in it’s presentation of typographic rules, terms, and examples.

Q: Why do you think your work stood out to the jurors?
Honestly I have always felt that the most successful pieces in general are those that merge two different fields together. With mine in particular it was science and typography. I felt that because it was something that isn’t usually done right, it stood out.

Q: What was the most challenging part of your assignment?
One of the most challenging parts of the book making process was the “bad” examples. It’s very easy to use typography badly, but to make it a good example of bad typography is completely​ another level.

Josh and Bailey will present their work April 18–21 as part of the 2016 SHSU Graphic Design Senior Exhibition.