Abstract:

Professional experience is more critical than ever to undergraduate design students before they complete their educations. Our department created a student-led design firm five years ago to provide high-performing students with professional experience.Team members of the firm are selected by faculty based on academic achievement, portfolio quality, and personal interview. Students are selected during sophomore year to serve in the firm during their junior year and are phased out during senior year because of academic commitments and to provide more opportunities to underclass students. Faculty serve as account executives who interview and procure clients, provide administrative support, and contribute art direction and feedback during milestones as required. The design firm receives some financial support from the College but is self-sustaining through client fees. Students are paid hourly for their work and track their hours to adhere to budgetary constraints. A student manager assigns teams as required by the brief and needs of the client. Clients include internal university clients, not-for-profit organizations, start-ups, and established local, regional, and national firms and groups. Teams meet with clients in person or virtually and address a diverse range of visual communication needs such as branding, User Experience / User Interface (UX/UI), packaging, wayfinding, exhibit design, and social media strategies. Students gain design and execution skills with every project. In addition, students learn to communicate with clients and vendors, work collaboratively, complete revisions, meet deadlines, and to utilize processes and technologies for successful implementation. This design firm has been so successful with projects on campus that there is a wait list for its services, and its outreach is expanding exponentially every year. In the five years of its existence, the design firm team has increased from four members to twenty on staff. This virtual presentation will provide information about the design firm’s business plan, organizational methods, and highlight a range of case studies of completed projects.

Keywords:

University and Industry Cooperation, University and Industry Experiences, Collaboration, Experiential Learning, Graphic Design.