Communiversity - Spring Cover

I was asked to design the University of Missouri, Kansas City's (UMKC) Communiversity cover after taking a class through their program. It was a very informative letterpress class taught by Chuck Harper. I made stationary for George, but of course, he hasn't touched them. Communiversity offers a multitude of classes that range from sewing and writing essays to dancing and car maintenance. The community are the teachers as well as the students. It's a great way of continuing your education without a ton of money or commitment. The classes are so varied and interesting that it's easy to be a life-long student. Communiversity has been "teaching people since 1970" and its free catalog of classes comes out five times a year.

The concept for the spring cover was to show the vibrancy of the season by using vivid, eye-catching colors. Mainly, I wanted to show the variety of classes available. This collage is a amalgamation of line drawings, painted background textures, and manipulated clipart. Now go take a class!

Women Vision International

Women Vision International is a volunteer-based organization made up of mostly women. They raise money to send to women in third world countries so they can start their own businesses. I got involved in the organization because my friend, Jennifer Conkling is on the board. Jenny, bless her heart, fought really hard to get me this project. She kept saying, "I have a friend...." and they promptly ignored her. Then, she inadverdently became the Event Chair for their annual International Women's Day Luncheon and I was in. I've done several more pieces for them since and now I am a complete believer in all the good work they do.


INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY LUNCHEON 2005. I didn't know much about the organization when I worked on the first WVI piece except that they were sending the money to women in Ghana and that it was officially the year of micro-credit. Both the invitation and the program were two-color pieces (PMS 8201 and black) with stock photography as the main source of imagery. They were content heavy with a strong emphasis on layout.







FRAMING A BETTER WORLD. After receiving some great advice from a business-savvy friend and client, I attended committee meetings while I worked on this project. This gave WVI a chance to connect a face with a name and a design. I ended up calling my contacts and friends for donations and became very involved in the event. Now that I knew a bit more about the organization, my design approach changed. I used bright colors and patterns. Framing the event logo in simple corners was simplified from my initial idea of creating an ornate gold frame. Partly it was due to my limitations as an artist, but it worked out because a glitzy frame would have been so wrong.





INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY LUNCHEON 2006. This year, I was a little concerned about how I would approach this event -- WVI is still in Ghana and I had to keep it new and different. During many of the meetings, one thing that came up over and over was the batik fabric. And that is what inspired me. I researched batik fabric and created a patchwork of imperfect squares that told a story of Africa and this year's event. One thing I learned is that COLOR is vital. The women in Ghana wear bright, colorful clothing and my design had to reflect that. There is also another idea that I came up with and am still developing that is in this piece. It's the woman-tree figure of a woman holding up her arms to support other women - which WVI strives to do.