Graduating Graphic Design students are reinventing their annual year-end industry gala with an online virtual experience.
Revive 2021 is a web-based platform which features student’s final projects as well as their digital portfolios, created due to the pandemic not allowing a face-to-face event.
Graphic Design instructor Mike Lovell said it is a real win-win situation.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about exposing the work of the students and sharing what we do with the community at large regardless of the limitations we were faced with this year.”
Planning for the event began in the fall, knowing the pandemic would not permit a typical year-end grad show gala.
“We looked at alternatives and knew we wanted to give the students something to be able to share their work with friends, family, industry and college community,” said Lovell.
The students looked at what was logistically possible and decided they wanted to create an online hub for their portfolios.
Lovell gives credit to professor Glen Evans and former grad student/current St. Clair web technologist Anthony Loncaric for doing most of the heavy lifting when it came to mapping out the idea and building the web page.
Graduating design student Isabella Cheng was given the task of designing a logo for the platform.
Cheng said she wanted to create something trendy and minimalistic while expressing her personal style and displaying the idea of REVIVE.
“I think the one stroke constructed letter emphasizes the idea of everlasting and restoration,” said Cheng. “I really wanted to tell a story of the hardships the class of 2021 has experienced from the pandemic to coming out stronger on the other side.”
The lack of a regular grad show was extremely disappointing to all the students.
“It was supposed to be an event of celebration, with our friends, family, and teachers. It was also an opportunity to meet with industry professionals and a chance to network. It was an experience we couldn’t get out of a virtual exhibition.”
Already working pre-graduation in a freelance capacity, graduating design student Josh Boutros volunteered to manage and promote the virtual show creating social media pages on Facebook and Instagram.
Boutros said working on this event specifically taught him how much different things are going to be in the future.
“It showed me that there is so much more opportunity online, specifically in the art world,” said Boutros. “It’s simply available to so many more people.”
Revive 2021 is now online for public viewing at stclaircollege.ca/revive.
- Todd Shearon