Graphic design students inspired by fairytales, textiles

Alexis Bolton, Jessie Begani and Rachel Ando are students in Mt. Hood’s graphic design program. All three students have helped design various aspects of the upcoming World of Wonders exhibit, from the event posters to its website.

Alexis Bolton originally heard about the graphic design program from a friend who graduated from the MHCC Integrated Media program. “I saw what he was doing and I thought it was really interesting, so I joined the program and started liking it, so I stayed with it,” she said.

Bolton has always had an interest in art. She took general education classes at Mt. Hood for a year before enrolling in graphic design. Many of her first classes at Mt. Hood were art-related, such as drawing, ceramics and jewelry making.

Each graphic design student has their own portfolio book on display at the exhibit, featuring five to ten pieces of their best work, whether from past course assignments to their own private projects. It is up to the student to decide what to include.

Bolton is including many of her own projects, such as a poster she made for the Portland Japanese Garden. “You want your work to shine through in your portfolio,” she said.

Besides the portfolio, Bolton likes that the graphic design students also have separate books to hand out to prospective future clients. These books had to be at least 20 pages on any subject; she created hers on the Aztec tribe, and included illustrations. “I wanted to do a subject I didn’t know too much about so I could research everything and learn as I was going,” she said.

She has high hopes for the exhibit. “I’m hoping it (the portfolio) will be good enough to get either a job or future clients — (and then) maybe free-lance for a bit until I can find an actual good place to work at,” she said. “I’m hoping all this kind of pays off.”

Begani and Ando are also helping prepare for the exhibit.

“I’ve been doing all the (event) graphics so far,” said Ando. This includes designing typography, circus tents and pennant banners. “Most of it is patterning and banner,” she said.

Begani has become a money manager. “I’ve mostly been a part of the managing team – going and getting the funding to put on the event and trying to keep things organized, get the budget organized, stay within the budget,” she said.

Along with their classmates, Begani and Ando have also been designing books. “They’re personal books, more or less,” said Ando. “We design it ourselves. We have our own concepts.” She is doing a storybook for the fairytales that include transformations, an idea she said “just came” to her. She grew up watching fairytales and reading fairytale books, and sought to create something similar in design.

Begani is making a book for the Marimekko design company. “They do graphic patterns on textiles, like fabrics. That would be pillows and towels and all that sort of stuff, too,” she said. The Finnish company is a leader in the fabric-making industry, she said. “It’s like a catalog of their different patterns and some of the products that they apply to.”

The graphic designers’ books will help prepare them for their professional futures. “The whole purpose of these books is to get us used to layout and the print-on-demand concept. The key is sending our work out to another printer and trusting them to get it right,” said Begani.

In the classroom at MHCC, the students have the freedom to change and reprint designs. This isn’t an option when sending the design to a publisher. “You can’t stay in class and do your printing and see the colors and then go back to your computer and change it,” said Ando. “You have to be really sure” before ordering the outside print job, she said.

Growing up, Ando saw her future in the fine arts. However, she said her drawing and painting style didn’t “line up” as much as she wanted them. Her high school art teacher suggested she look into Mt. Hood. “Coming here, I initially started off going into the fine arts, but the more I thought about it the more I was coming to realize there isn’t going to be too much of a job market for a fine artist, unless you want to be a teacher.”

Ando had heard good things about Mt. Hood’s Integrated Media program and signed up. “The more that we worked with (design software) programs and tried to figure out what we were doing and doing all the different projects, (the more) I started to really enjoy it.”

Begani is back at school after deciding she wanted something new. “I needed a new career path basically, and I’ve always been a creative, crafty type person. I consider myself more of a maker than a graphic designer.” She wanted to make herself “employable” while still maintaining her passion for arts and craft. She said graphic design fits those criteria.

“So many different things fall under the graphic design umbrella. I’m loving it. It’s awesome,” she said.

Both Ando and Begani love all that graphic design has to offer.

“There’s always something new to learn,” said Ando.

There is more to graphic design than “just posters and logos,” said Begani. “It’s magazines and newspaper layout,  or the front of the Coke can for that matter. You don’t think about that stuff; it’s just there.”

Noted Ando, “It’s poster signs, like on the street. You don’t think (about how) somebody has to make that and get it printed. It’s just there. …(But) there’s somebody there that actually has to design what the package looks like and what colors and there’s all kinds of different factors that go into it that you don’t think about.”

Begani said problem-solving “is definitely one of my favorite things,” which relates directly to graphic design. “The problem might be people aren’t noticing that item anymore. So we’ve got to find a new way. We’ve got to solve the problem of getting people to want it again.”

She wants to start out in basic production work. “It’s basically following someone else’s directions and how they like it will definitely give me more focus onto if I want to get into like, page layout or logo design,” she said.

Ando really enjoys typography and would like to pursue it professionally. “It’s a message without the image,” she said. “It’s the designing and formatting of typefaces and different fonts – how they’re laid out, how they’re designed. To me, it’s like another illustration, but it says something.”

Begani can’t wait for the World of Wonders exhibit to begin. “The best thing about this portfolio show is it really gives us a chance to get our friends and family out here,” she said.

The exhibit will give both students the chance to truly explain and show where they’ve been investing their time for the past two years, they said.

“Eat, sleep, click,” said Begani.

“That’s our life (right) now,” Ando said.