Over the next two weeks, the Student Art Gallery in the Student Center will be displaying a collection of art created by graphic design students in Eastern Michigan University’s chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
AIGA is a national organization of graphic design professionals with branches throughout the United States. EMU’s chapter belongs to the Detroit branch.
At EMU, AIGA provides the opportunity for graphic design students to connect with professionals in the field, while meeting other students and honing their skills.
“The show that’s going on right now is the AIGA EMU Student Show,” said Matt Swiarowski, president of EMU’s AIGA chapter. “The show doesn’t really have like a theme at all, but it’s more just to show people what we’re doing and what we can do, and what we have been doing inside and outside of class.”
Between 18 and 20 students are showing pieces in the gallery. Works on display include digital printed posters, three dimensional typography, record cases, books, pillows, a 3-D poster that requires special 3-D glasses and even motion graphics that play on a projector.
“We’re trying to do at least one show a year, but it’s really hard to try and book a show. We have to book months, months in advance with IGG, the Intermediate Gallery Group,” explained Smiarowski.
“We got really lucky getting this show because we were hoping for something a little later, but they didn’t have one. But this one opened up and we took it as quick as we could. We threw the show together in about two weeks maybe, so we’re pretty lucky to get a response of that many people in two weeks.”
The showing is but one of the many events the group has planned for this semester.
On Thursday, Feb. 11 from 7pm to 1am in room 228 of Ford Hall, the group will be holding a similar event called Six Hours of Design.
“We are sitting down for six hours straight and you have four projects to choose from and you have six hours to complete one,” said Smiarowski, who is a graphic design major in his fifth year at EMU. “The goal of Six Hours of Design is to get everyone to make one completed project that they can use, hopefully, in their portfolio.”
On Feb. 13, the group will be traveling to the International Academy of Design and Technology in Troy, Mich. for an AIGA student portfolio review, where students can bring in their portfolios and have them evaluated by design professionals.
“This is a really good opportunity for students to go to,” said Smiarowski. “This allows people to get good feedback from professionals in the field, and let them know what their strengths and weaknesses are, what they can work on and what they’re doing really well in.”
The group will be taking a trip to Chicago in the second week of
March to visit a number of museums and design studios.
The different events and trips the group puts together are meant to help students perfect their techniques and get an idea of what careers in graphic design are like.
“We’re just trying to get fellow graphic design students more involved in the design community, and hope to get more people involved in our organization,” said Smiarowski.
“We have a wide variety of people who have different skills in graphic design. Some people are really good at screen printing or doing motion graphics or websites; and there’s some other people who don’t know how to do all of those things, and we help pass on that knowledge to other people, so they can get better at that and be a more well-rounded designer and have more knowledge and skills that employers are looking for nowadays.”
There are no specific requirements for joining the group, other than occasional participation in events and attending meetings when possible. There are currently about 12 active members, with at least 15 to 20 members that participate infrequently.
The group holds bi-weekly meetings on Thursday nights at 7pm at the Tower Inn on Cross Street across from campus. For more information visit the group’s page at www.emustudentorgs.com.