UNI Graphic Design Portfolio Night 2015

Portfolio Night Poster © Aaron Van Fossen (2015)

Above Poster by Aaron Van Fossen, graphic design student, Department of Art, University of Northern Iowa (2015), announcing the program's annual Graphic Design Portfolio Night. To be held on the first floor of the Kamerick Art Building South (adjacent to the Gallery of Art) from 5:30-7:00 pm on Friday, April 17, 2015. Open to the public. Drop by any time, for as long as you'd like, to see the senior portfolios of (and to talk with) some of our graduating graphic design majors.

Among those exhibiting are Zach Bird, Kramer Dixon, Chase Murphy, Jeffery Fenton, Claire Jacobmeyer, Stephanie Mathena, Chelsea McNamee, Daniel O'Shea, Hannah Orlandini, Ali Schultz, Joel Steger, Danielle Shearer, Aaron Van Fossen and Maureen Villavicencio. Thanks to all the students, and to the event's tireless organizer, UNI Professor Phil Fass.

Frank Lloyd Wright Poster | Aaron Van Fossen

Wright Poster © Aaron Van Fossen (2014)

Cedar Rock, originally known as the Lowell Walter Residence, was designed in 1950 by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. An exemplar of his Usonian style, it is located near Quasqueton IA, and has been designated as Cedar Rock State Park. For the past ten years, the Friends of Cedar Rock organization has held an annual seminar—called An Afternoon with Frank Lloyd Wright—in which speakers talk about Wright's life, beliefs and achievements.

To celebrate the tradition of that seminar, graphic design students in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, were asked to design a series of posters that focus on Wright and his accomplishments, not limited to Cedar Rock. The poster above was designed by Aaron Van Fossen in a course in Digital Image Design (2014).

This year's gathering for An Afternoon with Frank Lloyd Wright will be held at 1:00 to 4:00 pm on Saturday, October 18, 2014. It will take place in the American Legion Hall on Water Street (Highway W-35) in the town of Quasqueton. Admission is $10. more>>>

See also: Roy R. Behrens, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT and Mason City: Architectural Heart of the Prairie (2016).   

The Grand Piano | Aaron Van Fossen

Grand Piano Timeline © Aaron Van Fossen (2014)

Above Proposal for an infographic timeline about the development of the grand piano, designed by Aaron Van Fossen, undergraduate graphic design student at the University of Northern Iowa, in a course called Graphic Design 2, as taught by Roy R. Behrens.

•••

Louis Agassiz, in Lane Cooper, ed., Louis Agassiz as a Teacher (1917)—

In 1847 I gave an address at Newton, Massachusetts, before a Teachers' Institute conducted by Horace Mann. My subject was grasshoppers. I passed around a large jar of these insects, and made every teacher take one and hold it while I was speaking. If any one dropped the insect, I stopped till he picked it up. This was at that time a great innovation, and excited much laughter and derision. There can be no true progress in the teaching of natural science until such methods become general.

UNI Graphic Designer | Top 15 in Nation

Student Showcase, March-April 2015 issue of CA Magazine

Above Page 93 of the current issue (March-April 2015) of the California-based graphic design newsstand magazine, Communication Arts (CA) Magazine. It highlights the work of UNI graphic design student Aaron Van Fossen, who has been selected (in the words of the magazine's editors) as one of "the fifteen most promising design, photography and illustration students in visual communications programs from all across the country." Originally from Bettendorf IA, Aaron is pursuing a BA in Graphic Design in the Department of Art at the University of Northern Iowa, and will graduate in May 2015.

As shown by the examples reproduced above, some of the projects undertaken in the Department of Art's graphic design program are pro bono (free of charge), completed for the purpose of enriching the quality of community life. Among the featured works above are a poster for the UNI Department of Art's Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition; a poster promoting an annual event titled "An Afternoon with Frank Lloyd Wright" at Cedar Rock State Park, in Quasqueton IA; and a commemorative poster about Iowa-born Olympic wrestler Dan Gable, for an exhibition at the National Wrestling Museum Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum, in Waterloo IA.

More of Aaron Van Fossen's recent work is featured online here.

See also: Roy R. Behrens, FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT and Mason City: Architectural Heart of the Prairie (2016).   

Collections Poster | Aaron Van Fossen

Poster © Aaron Van Fossen, UNI student designer (2014)

John Hersey (recalling his summer as a secretarial assistant to American novelist Sinclair Lewis) in "My Summer with Sinclair Lewis" in Kai Erikson, ed., Encounters. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989, p. 51—

Lewis's life was in a mess. But I was to have a marvelous summer, oblivious of his suffering. He never took a single drink while I worked for him; I remained in total ignorance of his history [of alcoholism]. I saw a surface that was gentle, kindly, boyish, and vividly entertaining. He treated me as a young friend, insisting that I call him Red. My work was fun. Taking his rapid dictation and reading it back to type it was like doing a crossword puzzle: I caught every fourth word with a squiggle of Gregg [shorthand] and had to figure out what went between. "If you want my autograph," he would dictate in a note to a fan, "you must send me a self-addressed envelope with a postage stamp on it"—chuckling at the idea that I would have to address an envelope and put a stamp on it to send the note.

UNI Graphic Designers Win Big at AAF Awards

UNI CHAS Newsletter (March 2015)

Above Page 7 from the March 2015 issue of The Update, published by the College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences, University of Northern Iowa.

Graphic design students and faculty in the UNI Department of Art had ample reason to be pleased. In the wake of one of its students, Aaron Van Fossen, having been chosen by Communication Arts magazine (March-April issue) as one of the top 15 graphic design students in the nation, Aaron and other current students (among them Rachael Bair and Rhiannon Rasmussen) were awarded other prizes at this year's AAF judging, in both student and professional categories.

Amazing Game Parodies

Copyright © Andy Snitker

Copyright © Aaron Van Fossen

Copyright © Mackenzie Pape

Copyright © Rhiannon Rasmussen

Copyright © Rob Bauer

Copyright © Travis Tjelmeland

A few days ago, in two sections of a course called Graphic Design I, at the University of Northern Iowa, we had an initial critique of the students' solutions to a game parody problem. The problem was essentially this: Using the rules and game components of the code-breaking game called MasterMind, design a new version of the game that has some kind of narrative theme.

Shown above are a few of the finest designs, solutions that I find amazing. Remember that this is only the second problem in the course, and in some cases the students have had very limited computer experience and even less in graphic design. 

About thirty students submitted their work, and a number of others were also very strong, but needed some further adjustment. Everyone now has an additional week to make those adjustments and/or to go back to the drawing board.

Student achievements at this level make teaching well-worth all its challenging days.