Design on Display

Posted on September 1, 2018 by admin

On a recent trip to the Heritage Center, the sophomore Graphic Design and Communications class had the unique opportunity to learn from Genia Hesser, Curator of Exhibits with the ND State Historical Society. Hesser gave students an in-depth tour of the most recent exhibit in the Governor’s Gallery, The Horse in North Dakota. The class learned of the many challenges that faced the curators, preparators and designers as they brought the exhibit to life. Hesser stressed the importance of generating content that is descriptive but also very efficient – so that every word written is necessary to tell the story. In turn, the design, or form, of the exhibit must visually reinforce the content. Hesser’s wealth of knowledge will prove useful to the students as they begin the process of creating two new display cases for the program area this semester.

2017 Halloween stop motion animations

Posted on October 30, 2017 by admin

Each year the freshmen students learn a tiny bit about stop motion animation through a collaborative project that focuses on Halloween. The groups of students have a little more than an hour to come up with an idea, then execute it with white board markers, taking a photo each time the action changes. Check out the videos at the links below.

Updating the dining experience

Posted on February 21, 2016 by admin

The GDC staff are big fans of the Bismarck State College Mystic Marketplace. If you aren’t on campus frequently or don’t know much about BSC, the Mystic Marketplace is the dining hall. The food is great and the staff are very nice people, plus, they have free ice cream on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Food Services Manager Mike Wavrin pointed out a few weeks ago that the wide open tile walls were begging for art work, so we put the freshmen GDC students to work fixing that problem.

Each student piece is the same size – 7 3/4 inches by 15 1/2 inches, half of the students did a vertical layout and the other half had to use a horizontal design. Students were further constrained with a design style, possibly using other students’ thumbnail sketches or a continuous line drawing. Some students were limited to only working with type, others had to use photos for their piece.

The finished wall looks great and the Mystic Marketplace staff has been very complimentary. The students like it too – most stuck around and shot a photo of the installation.