Every spring, North Idaho College graphic and web design students plan the production of their annual Graduate Portfolio show, a networking event that showcases their work to local professionals, friends and family.
This year’s show was set to open April 24 at the Jacklin Arts and Cultural Center in Post Falls, Idaho, but due to the COVID-19 social distancing requirements, the graphic and web design students had to reassess their plan and find an alternative for their portfolio show.
As avid users of technology, the class of 2020 embarked to create a premier event for the department: a virtual portfolio.
“In discussion with the students, we said ‘hmm, what if we did the portfolio show online? Nobody has done that before, what if?”” said Phillippe Valle, associate professor of graphic design. “And this is what we did.”
The show will still take place this Friday, April 24, but it will now feature a Facebook live tour of each student’s virtual gallery. Students will also be available to discuss their work after the live tour via Zoom.
“The strength and innovation of our students have been demonstrated as they produced the show in less than three weeks,” Valle said.
Through their innovation and hard work, graduating design students showcased the technical knowledge and teamwork they acquired during their two years of instruction together.
“In two years they’ve learned a lot of things,” Valle said. “To me it’s amazing that they were able to assemble that knowledge from two years in a very, very short amount of time and the result is we’re all going to be live tomorrow.”
Assistant professor of web/graphic design, Brad Schwartz said, “The students demonstrated a very high commitment toward testing multiple platforms,”
NIC’s design programs have won several awards in the past for their students’ work. On Thursday, April 23, two NIC design students, Aiden Oliverio and Lydia Rasmus, were awarded silver American Advertising Awards for their work in the program.
Friday’s presentation will showcase some of Oliverio’s work, along with 12 other design students; Kiersten Becker, Rhett Candela, Eric Ellis, Lily Funk, John Gaherty, Tyler Hardy, Tatum Hartley, Justine Juarez, Miracle Kaiser, Megan McPhee, Steven Miller and Hosanna Schumacher.
Valle encouraged everyone to watch this presentation, even non-design majors. “Everybody is watching Netflix, everybody’s on YouTube, everybody has a smart phone, so why not?” He said. “It’s so fun for everybody.”
Attend the April 24 online portfolio show on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/nicgdes/ from 4 to 6 p.m. and congratulate NIC’s soon-to-graduate graphic and web design students.
View the show’s virtual gallery at http://diverse.welearndesign.com/.
For more information: pfvalle@nic.edu
*This article was edited on 4/24/2020
