Every year, students in the Graphic Design Studio I class create a series of posters for various organizations in the Bar Harbor community. Through the process, they gain realistic experience developing advertising strategies and meeting one-on-one with real clientele. They also learn the steps involved with the process of design, from brainstorming and research to thumbnail sketching, digital roughs and execution of the final product.
Graphic Design Studio I Posters
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Designed by Zachary Taibi ’17 for the Jesup Memorial Library.
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Designed by Hana Keegan’18 for the Jesup Memorial Library.
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Designed by Alyssa Seemann ’16 for the COA Admissions Office.
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Designed by Maya Critchfield ’16 for the COA Admissions Office
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Designed by Tyler Prest ’16 for the COA Admissions Office.
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Designed by Madeline Motley ’16 for Local Solutions.
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Designed by Miriam Vergara ’17 for the Jesup Memorial Library.
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Designed by Nicholas DuPont ’16 for Local Solutions.
“I think it really helps people in the creative problem solving world and I also think that it helps students when there is some inkling that their work might be published outside the college, that it might actually be useful for somebody and help someone out that can’t afford design services. So they feel like they’re more a part of the community in a sense, and they’re contributing,” says professor Dru Colbert.
“In donating their work, COA students make it possible for these local groups to spread their messages and advertise locally” - Professor Dru Colbert.
Over the years, students in the class have done work for the Down East Aids Organization, the Bar Harbor Food Pantry, The Criterion Theatre, Friends of Acadia, The Wild Gardens of Acadia, Island Connections, and the Women’s Collective, among other groups.
“There’s hardly an organization that we haven’t covered,” says Colbert. “Many of them can’t afford the $100-an-hour rate that professional graphic designers charge, and so in donating their work, COA students make it possible for these local groups to spread their messages and advertise locally.”
The project does a lot to integrate both the college and its students within the local community, which benefits everyone in the end, Colbert says.
“It shows that the college is interested in the community enough to want to get involved, and it gets the students involved in ideas and people outside the college, which I think is invaluable,” she says. “Graphic design really helps people in the community talk to each other. It’s a platform for visual communications. People are able to convey important ideas through it.”
