graphic design

UMD Community Learning Garden Banner

| randie.hov

Check out our crew in front of the fancy new UMD Community Learning Garden banner! We are but a few of many burgeoning gardeners who meet at 4 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays to learn about sustainable food production and help tend the raised beds and terraced plots.

umd-clg-banner
At the official hoisting of the garden banner last Monday. I ended up in the middle of the photo. This is awesome.

Sustainable Ag advisor Meredith Epstein (middle, in teal) manages the garden and leads the work hours. When I started working with Meredith at the Institute of Applied Agriculture, the garden quickly became one of my favorite spots on campus. This summer I grew soybeans, pole beans, green peppers, tomatoes, kale, thyme, sage, and basil in my garden plot.

I was excited when Meredith asked me to design a 12×4′ banner for the garden. I had previously made a sticker design for the garden club, so I took this as an opportunity to build consistent branding by pairing the same colors and fonts with the provided terp/carrot logo.

comm-learning-garden-banner-preview-option2
At 12′ wide by 4′ tall, if you can’t see the banner to find the garden I feel bad for you.

The UMD Community Learning Garden is one of four campus gardens at the University of Maryland, College Park. Formerly called the Public Health Garden, it is nestled between the School of Public Health and the Eppley Recreation Center. You should definitely follow on Instagram.

I Went Viral

agriculture-in-maryland-header
| randie.hov

Last fall, my co-worker Larisa Cioaca presented me with some statistics about Maryland agriculture and a request to create an infographic. Larisa is the Agricultural Business Management lecturer and advisor at the Institute of Applied Agriculture (IAA), where I am the Student Services Coordinator and Graphic Designer.

The project was shelved for a little while, but I eventually put it together and posted it on the IAA Facebook page last Friday at 10:00 a.m.

As of right now (11:00 a.m. on Sunday) it has 40 likes and 84 shares. Whaaat? Why wasn’t there this much hype about my Open House post?

I credit Meredith Epstein, lecturer and advisor of the Sustainable Agriculture course of study at the IAA, with the idea of drawing male AND female farmers in the “350,000 Marylanders” block. Because: equality.

I feel so affirmed by my newfound ag peers. I look forward to creating the next infographic for the IAA, Alternative Agriculture in Maryland.

Please feel free to download the infographic from the IAA website for printing and posting in classrooms.

**Update: We are now up to 121 shares! Whaaat?

iaa-agriculture-in-maryland

 

 

USG Recruitment Folder

Universities-at-Shady-Grove
| randie.hov

USG-RecruitmentMy biggest design project of the Fall semester at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) was definitely our new recruitment folder. Our marketing team needed to cram as much information into this piece as possible, since USG is a unique campus and also fairly new. As a result, a lot of locals don’t realize that they can earn a bachelor’s degree without leaving Montgomery County. Hopefully they will now!

Here is my shameless plug of the day: USG offers programs from nine Maryland public universities on one campus. The list of schools includes:

• Bowie State University
• Salisbury University
• Towson University
• University of Baltimore
• University of Maryland, Baltimore
• UMBC
• University of Maryland, College Park
• University of Maryland, Eastern Shore
• UMUC

Want to become an Registered Nurse or Pharmacist without driving to Baltimore for class every day? Boom, we have it. Want to major in Hospitality and Tourism Management without relocating to the Eastern Shore? We have that too. There is no such thing as a degree from USG; when you finish your program, you receive your diploma from your home campus (SU, UMD, UMES, et cetera).

Another point that we took special care to emphasize in the folder is that much like you would find on a traditional campus, USG offers a library, gym, bookstore, café and an Office of Student Services. The only thing we are missing are the dormitories. A pretty big perk of working here is that they are paying for me to earn my M.S. in Marketing Management from UMUC. USG makes higher education accessible for a lot of people, myself included.

The bottom line is: If you want to earn a bachelor’s degree at a beautiful campus with free parking while still getting to live at home and eat your parents’ food, then you should visit USG’s Academics page and check out the USG Recruitment Twitter feed.

Click on any of the tiles below to view close-up images of the recruitment folder.

USG Recruitment Folder
Outside of Folder
Inside of Folder
Rounded Die-Cut Cover

“Art Work” is not an Oxymoron

| randie.hov

Because I like having money but not too much of it, I went to college and majored in Graphic Design.  On a scale of One to Miracle this puts me at “Unicorn,” because not only am I one of fewer than 6% of college grads under the age of 25 to have full-time work, but I am actually employed as a graphic designer.  If you’re in the process of considering art as a career path, remember that I didn’t fall into my awesome job right off the bat.  I had a full-time job as a designer prior to this, but I quit because my paychecks didn’t always clear and certain people in my close proximity were surfing the personality disorder wave. Sometimes you have to wade through a lot of shit to get to the golden rope, as my brother likes to say.

If art is what you really crave and you think you can achieve full time employment, you must first ask yourself: Could I tolerate 18 months of mental abuse from a short man who shaves his arms before I can level up to a job that includes dignity and retirement options? If you answered “Yes” then congratulations, you are tough enough to be an artist.

—

“I know it looks like I am drawing a snowman, but this is work.”

– said while designing this year’s company holiday card.

photo

Career results not typical.