Herron is all about real world experience for its students, as Tabitha Cravens, Ross Shafer, and Vincent Roemer can attest. They are the Visual Communication IV students who created a new identity for the Greenwood Senior Center, which has now comfortably settled into its new name, The Social of Greenwood.

“In VC4,” said Visiting Assistant Professor Jeff Tzucker, “students work with local organizations, coordinated by Associate Professor Paula Differding, to provide design research, brand analysis and visual communications solutions for clients. It’s gratifying that The Social has adopted the branding solution presented by my students.”

From left to right: Tracy Heaton (Near Eastside community liaison), Christin Kim, Samantha Julka, Emily Stump, Professor Young Bok Hong, and Alli Schultz. Photo courtesy Nancy Patron

In the spring of 2011, the IUPUI Solution Center was given the opportunity to partner with the Super Bowl Legacy Project, resulting in IUPUI launching a cross-discipline program of targeted engagement. Aimed at increasing student and faculty involvement in the Near Eastside of Indianapolis, Visual Communication Design graduate students were the first group to begin working on the project.

Image courtesy Jason Murdock

Once upon a time, to use a computer, a person needed to be fluent in programming languages. Eventually developers understood that users just wanted to create end products like documents. They were not excited to learn the complex, behind-the-scenes coding that allowed the creation of the documents.

All these decades later, the same held true for Jason Murdock’s visual communications students at Herron School of Art and Design. They needed to be able to show their projects electronically, but didn’t have the proclivity for coding.

Ashley Davis

Design is an ever-evolving discipline that continues to transform just as the world and the individuals within it proceed to change. Design is not only about creating logos and killer advertising campaigns or pumping out shiny pamphlets with amazing fonts; it's much, much more. Designers are problem solvers, and it's becoming increasingly evident that the same kind of careful design attention that's being applied to products and advertisements should also be applied to social contexts. As designer John Heskett wrote, "Very few aspects of the material environment are incapable of improvement in some significant way by greater attention being paid to their design."

Everyday at nine AM when I walk into the studio, I'm greeted by the faces of my fellow students, their range of expressions welcoming me back to the community. The sound of grinding coffee beans marks the day as commencing, and the aromas of spiced teas and warm breakfast cereals make the studio feel warm and embracing.