The moment I have been waiting for the last (almost) 4 years has came and gone. Let me start from the beginning. I started college at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in August of 2012. In that time I worked my butt off to get as much information, work, and experience that I could get. I was even the President of the Circular Photo Club in my school. Then all of a sudden, I was graduating. March 25, 2016. I want to say this came out of nowhere, but Id be lying. It came up too quickly is more of an appropriate phrasing. I graduated with my Bachelors of Science in Photography.
The week of March 20-26th was one of the busiest weeks of my life. Many people know that my boyfriend lived in West Virginia. So I would go see him every weekend. In the beginning of the week I was in West Virginia helping him pack since he moved up to Michigan with me. When my portfolio show came around, the next day, it was one of the most stressful days of my life, and the very next day at 6:30 am,. my boyfriend and family were packing up my apartment, and I moved to Michigan. That was just a little bit of a life update for you all on where I am. Now I’ll tell you more about graduation!
At the Art Institute, we have these quarterly portfolio shows where all the graduates present their best work. These get show to our professors, employers, friends, family, and the general public. In order to graduate, not only must you participate in the show, you need to put together a print portfolio, web portfolio, resume, show you have social media platforms, promotional pieces, and a display. For your displays, you can do just about anything you want as long as it fits your brand. I have seen some amazing and creative displays. Being the perfectionist I am, I spent many hours and days stressing over every detail.
I started with drawing out ideas for my display. I had a lot of help on my display. I could not have done it without them actually. the four wonderful people that helped me were Mel, who got was able to help show us what we needed to make this happen, and also was able to borrow a truck and bring all the materials to the school. The other three fantastic people that helped me out were Paige Piotti, Jackie Pickens, and Jackie’s dad who came in super early and put my board together. Shelves, legs and all. They were also both graduating that day which makes them even more amazing. The most nerve wracking part of it did not know until the morning of portfolio show if my display would actually stand because the ceilings were too low to bring it in finished and had to be put together on site. I decided to keep my design simple. The board was painted dark blue, to match the dark blue in my logo, and I had my logo with pictures on all sides to draw you in to my table.
My promotional pieces were a lot of fun. I made two variations of chopstick labels, both blue raspberry flavor to match the color of my logo. One was a clear tube; the other had a white tube. I also had stickers on my table of my images, and my logo. I also had goodie bags. Blue drawstring bags each filled with 4 blueberry hard candies, a candy bracelet, my business card, and one of each tube of chopstick. They were a hit. I made 50 and had 1 left at the end.
On my display I had two PGH You magazines that are student published magazines that I had work in, as well as my iPad with my website up I also had my business cards, and resumes.. My business cards and resumes are all he same fonts and colors as my logo. I also had a contest drawing where people put their name and number on a slip of paper, and you could win a print of your choice. (Winner revealed soon!)
Finally, the biggest part of the entire display, my print portfolio. I chose to work with KLO Portfolios based out of Vancouver. I just love how it came out and would recommend using them for your portfolio case. I went with white acrylic case with my logo both in the middle. The “b” was surface printed, and the “e” and “photography” were both engraved and color filled around with the same colors as my logo as well. Inside. Along with my cover and artist statement are full bleed fashion and advertising images.
With all the running around of the day, I completely forgot to take a lot of pictures. I only got a few of me and my display by myself unfortunately. But here is the final display, which so much work went into, and so many people helped me make this happen. I would like to thank everyone that came to support me and everyone who pushed me through as well as making this possible.
Although I did not take any other pictures myself, there was a student photographer going around. These are some of my favorites as well as my fellow friends and photography graduates. I want to give them special thanks for all of your advice and options. I’ve spent a lot of time with great friends and great artists. Which helped make this an awesome presentation? This blog post is dedicated to everyone that turned this into a reality! Thank you so so much for all your hard work and stress relieving tactics!
in the above images are some great friends and fellow photographers/graduates. you can see some of their websites below:
Jeanette Shustack: http://www.shustackphotography.com/
Amanda Vinecourt: http://www.amandavinecourt.com/
Mackenzie Cowan: https://www.facebook.com/Mackenzie-Lynn-Photography-640012992722983/?pnref=lhc
Tyshane: n/a
Just For fun, here are a few behind the scenes images from my social media platforms about graduation.
