GRAPHIC DESIGN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS

From 2018 to 2023, I taught a variety of design courses at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and helped build a culture of critical thinkers, visual experimenters and all around creative hooligans. I’m very proud of what I accomplished with an amazing team of educators/friends and will miss working with the passionate, determined students who will become advocates for smart design and world domination. Browse below and see for yourself.

WIZOGRAPHY (my version of printing on our Risograph MC790)

This journey took years of research and determination and then finally in the summer of 2022, we officially made the purchase from our friend Travis Shaffer at the University of Missouri School of Visual Studies. While I still don’t claim to know more than I should, it’s be a fun ride of experimentation, frustration, failure, and jubilance. One result I’m proud of is this book we produced in the Spring of 2023. With an equal amount of determination and gusto, senior Trevor McGonnell took the initiative to print like there’s no tomorrow. The ultimate goal was to create something we could leave behind that would inform and inspire future designers and artists to create something even more spectacular. We achieved this by overprinting a variety of images, text, and patterns using different colors on paper stocks. The images and type came from a variety of sources including letterpress and laser printed output. We also included special caption leaves to help readers understand ink color, paper stock, and image source.

also with support from Maddie Callewaert. And check out Mizzou’s Riso Instagram.

SENIOR SHOW 2023

The Senior class of 2023 is deeply connected — to their work, their families, and to each other. After the ups and downs of working completely online through the height of the pandemic, being together again has a whole new meaning for them. As a class, they are rediscovering how to be a team and reinventing how they work. Learning fully in person again has meant a renewal of their collaboration and collective purpose: to connect. Designers not only connect concepts to forms, but also residents to communities and insights to brands. Their presentations are held on March 15.

2023 GRADUATES

Nicole DuFour Kaleigh Grace Sarah Jane Matt Trevor McGonnell Gabby Nettles Sarah Patch Eric Pham Em Wuest

ROMAN JASTER LECTURE / FALL 2022

Roman Jaster is a graphic designer, web developer, and educator. He is the principal of Yay Brigade. We invited him to UMSL to share his UX wisdom and teach us a few things using Figma. He’s an awesome human being who has really good taste in beer and bread!

DANIELLE RIDOLFI LECTURE / FALL 2022

If you don’t know Danielle, you should. She’s an amazing illustrator and designer and just so happens to be a graduate of UMSL Graphic Design and a graduate of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts Illustration & Visual Culture program at Washington University in St. Louis. She’s an incredible collaborator and teacher in the making. She came to UMSL to inspire our students by sharing her creative journey and then teaching us how to make cool stuff with our analog and digital tools. We hope she comes back soon!

SENIOR SHOW 2022

With the theme of Serious Play, eight seniors create a unique capstone portfolio of projects that invite a variety of user interaction. This marked the third year in a row our senior class took ownership of promoting themselves as viable candidates for the design profession. Review the site and reach out to those who you might want to ‘play’ with.

2022 GRADUATES

Anna Bakowski Taylor Becherer Maddie Callewaert Joerdan Carney Chris Dudley Haley Hoffman Kirsten Kimbrell Amina Taylor-Allen

KELLI ANDERSON WORKSHOP

We were honored to have Kelli conduct a flexagon making workshop with our students this fall. If you don’t know her, and you should, I describe her as the queen of analog animation. I took influence from her many creations and created my own analog animations to promote the event and force myself to learn something new. I created the letters KELLi within perfect square shapes to design patterns and animated gifs using both digital and cut paper forms.

2021 GRADUATES

Katie Cartee Destini Clark  Cade Crites Faith Ferguson  Kaley Humphrey  Nick Magelizt  Anel Mehmedovic  Tanner Moritz  Miranda Murray  Marlena Neal  Dzana Parla  Landon Ruan  Concepcion Salazar  Zack Scholl  Elyse Seibel  Dylan Stevens  Brandon Steward  Rebekah Walker Dani Wegman  Chris Young 

SENIOR SHOW 2021

Another unprecedented year, another portfolio website produced by our 20 Graphic Design seniors. This marked the second year in a row the senior class took ownership of promoting themselves as viable candidates for the design profession. Take a moment to review the site and reach out to those who you might connect with.

I couldn’t help myself from creating a few GIFs.

DESIGN TELEPHONE 2020

A global pandemic and social lockdown threw our design lives into utter chaos. One way to keep the creative juices flowing and stay in touch was our version of telephone: one professor mails something to another professor, that professor adds to/alters the piece then mails it to another professor who, in turn, adds to/alters that piece until it makes its way back to the originator. A variety of tools were experimented with, including: letterpress, typewriter, sewing machine, spray paint, embosser, ink stamp, and die cutter. We had fun with materials, too: washi tape, vintage textiles, vintage wallpaper samples, makeready screen prints, tissue wrap, Japanese wax paper, transparency film, label paper, and Letraset transfer letters. Below is a sampling of those interactions.

Design professor collaborators: Jen McKnight, Elizabeth Buchta

2020 GRADUATES:

Andrew Clark    Jack Cradic   Blake Estes Leah Gornet   Maddie Green Aaron Haller Justin Harris Rachel Indelicato
Kristie Karibian Mariah Lauer Carrie Lembke Danielle Ridolfi   Melinda Schmidt Jimmy Sharp   Tyler Warren

Tiny Books, Big Hearts
How do you commemorate a group of talented seniors on their “virtual” graduation during the most unusual time in modern history? Design them a beautiful, limited-edition, handmade tiny book, of course! My colleagues Jen McKnight, Liz Buchta and I created this unique gift by dividing and conquering. The book was designed around our theme: DESIGN HAS PURPOSE. Each student was assigned a letter spelling out our theme—16 students, 16 letters, what a purpose! Each professor alternated designing each student page using work they created at UMSL. If the letterform wasn’t an original student creation, we used David Jonathan Ross’ Manicotti typeface and Fontfabric’s Mont Black to capture their work in. We knew we wanted it to be produced using different methods and techniques: the cover was letterpressed on cream card stock and make-ready silkscreen sheets, the end papers were inkjet printed on red Astrobright, and the text pages were laser printed on our Xerox in the print lab. We carefully took turns printing, cutting, scoring, stapling (red staples, people!) and assembling each book, numbered and signed. Then each book was set into a die-cut slot on pink card stock, personalized and mailed inside a pink envelope. We’re super proud of our graduates AND this tiny book.

Pro Tip: Don’t throw away scraps! You can see how we used them to assemble beautiful collages we’ll continue to use for inspiration.

2020 Senior Graphic Design Thesis Projects Go Online
Due to the unprecedented circumstances we find ourselves in, the UMSL Senior Graphic designers have purpose now more than ever. See their work and share your thoughts with them here:  Design has purpose.

2019 GRADUATES:

Krasi Angelova   John Beckmann   Hannah Clark Tori Gildehaus   Alyssa Halloran Brandon Hills Daylee Hopson Igor Juste Brandon Kelly
Stewart Kirchhoff Brad Liermann  Hayden Loos   Elise McMindes Chelsy Middleton   Sierra Morrison Jonathan Neal    Salena Niemann         
Lizzy Ramirez Maxwell Seal Spencer Smith   Tatiana Vanagas Alison Viehman   Tisha Wextten