Graphic Design students rose to the challenge after the university failed to create an adequate resource for them. Previously without a print lab and tired of running around campus for supplies, the Friends of Graphic Design student group created a space that Tina Snow Le, a graphic design student and the group’s media/tech guru, said serves as the “hub of the graphic design program.”
Graphic Design students rose to the challenge after the university failed to create an adequate resource for them. Previously without a print lab and tired of running around campus for supplies, the Friends of Graphic Design student group created a space that Tina Snow Le, a graphic design student and the group’s media/tech guru, said serves as the “hub of the graphic design program.”
Formerly a pieced-together supply space, room 154 in the Art Building’s North Annex is now the Green Room–a centralized community for art students with needs. It has a room of supplies ranging from glue sticks and scissors to frame mounts and paper samples, and it also displays work from students and staff and hosts a library of graphic design texts.
Before the space was created, all of the necessary supplies weren’t even in the same part of campus, let alone in the Art Building, where the majority of classes are held. The resources they did have before, such as the above-mentioned pre-existing supply room and computer lab, were poorly utilized or inconveniently located. Students found themselves interrupting classes trying to get to the supplies they needed or being forced to walk across campus to find resources, use computers and print work in spaces provided by other departments.
Corbin Lamont, a graphic design student and the programming coordinator for Friends of Graphic Design, said the set-up didn’t work. “We’re so separate from the rest of campus. We’re literally fifteen minutes away, and the other labs were so inconvenient to use,” Lamont said. “Because we’re so far from campus, we get pushed aside.”
At such a large university, it is easy to get pushed aside. It is easy to end up with a small amount ofscattered resources that inadequately fits a department’s needs. With so many people asking for time and money from the university, it is difficult to get those needs taken seriously. This is especially true for a department that is so out of sight.
The Friends of Graphic Design student group came up with a commendable solution to their problem. They realized that the burden of inadequate spaces for graphic design was falling on the students, and instead of relying on the university to come up with a solution to their problem, they utilized pre-existing resources to centralize their department. In creating the Green Room, they have created a useable space to fit all of their needs without an excessive allocation of time and resources from the department or the university.
This has created not only a resource, it has made a community for the arts. Any student with an art need can go there to use supplies, work with others and learn about networking events where they can meet designers and interact with artists and the community.
This kind of cooperation and utilization by students is a great thing to see within the university. Having students acknowledge a need for something and taking the initiative to figure out how to make it work has changed the graphic design program for the better. The best part is that they did not have to rely on outside sources.
“You can’t do something unless you know it’s possible,” Lamont said. The Friends of Graphic Design have shown that making a difference where it matters to them is possible in more ways than one. It is possible for students to take responsibility for their space and implement change within their department. Other groups and departments should learn from their example and take initiative to solve their own problems.
It is possible to create a space that fosters creativity and shows students what resources are available to them in order to produce fantastic work within their field. By bringing all of these things into a single space, the Green Room serves not only as a print lab but also as a place of congregation and accumulation of resources previously unavailable to students. And that is the real victory here.
