Eastern Design Group, "Willimantic Food Co-Op"

ART 432 Eastern Design Group Design

In Fall 2019, the ART 432 Eastern Design Group Design class worked with the Willimantic Food Co-op, a local member owned and operated food store who believes in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others. The project was creating a variety of promotional materials including a billboard, T-shirt, poster and invitation card for the store’s 40th anniversary celebration. Digital Art & Design student Michael Zuraw’s design was chosen as the final. As a Senior Capstone course, the students were engaged in the design process and delivered versatile visual solutions to this comprehensive design project. The class conducted their onsite visits to the store and researched the history and principles of food co-op. The students collected the info from the meetings with the store’s manager Alice Rubin who also participated the students’ design presentations through the semester. Most importantly, during the process, students and community partners collectively built strong relationships for social benefits and outcomes. As Alice wrote in her letter to us, “I really enjoyed going to the class and meeting the students. It was great to learn through their presentations how each of them thought about our project...I feel very fortunate to have this wonderful resource in our community.”

Community engagement projects and experiences are a way that Digital Art & Design program educates our students not only to be professionals in the fields, but also to develop their lifelong engaged citizenships. In this course, students produce professional design products for real world clients (most of them are local non-profit organizations) under the supervision of a faculty member. The class format and the way of each project set up intent to mimic a design agency’s workflow which helps students gain further understanding of real-world design procedures. Students will demonstrate the ability to engage in independent inquiry, apply critical thinking skills, communicate ideas effectively in oral and written form, understand the ethics of the design profession and be able to seek and apply new knowledge relevant to professional projects, and reflect upon their work as an outcome of their course work and their liberal arts education. 

Students:

Antonetty, Jenilee

Capello, Brandon

Christensen, Zachary

Colon, Adriel

Corvello, Connor

Deschene, Jake

Gugliotti, Alexandra

Hamilton, Cameron

Koval, Alyssa

Michaud, Maria

Morrell, Tatiyana

Nichols, Anne

Ondras, Holly

Orellana, Juan

Roy, Andrew

Stefano, Mekaila

Tomson, Nicholas

Zuraw, Michael

Faculty:
Associate Professor Tao Chen

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