Opening Reception: April 21, 5-6:00pm
The annual capstone exhibits by BFA in Graphic Design students features the work, passion, and educational journey by PSU senior students. Graphic Design students have been working all year, developing materials for their invented company concept and brand.
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Sara Ascanio
SARA’S SMOOTHIES
Working on Saras Smoothies I enjoyed working and creating new designs that I got to come up with on my own. I challenged myself to work hard and come up with new things I wouldn’t want to do in the past. I struggle with going out of my comfort zone, which I recommend to do instead of restricting yourself to small ideas.
Plymouth States BFA program has strongly helped my art and skills grow. I have matured as an artist and hope to continue to grow and learn more skills after my time here at Plymouth State. I hope to get a job in a field that I enjoy, which is still up in the air for me, however as I mentioned before I am considering paths that I enjoy.
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Company Website: Sara’s Smoothies
Branding/ Style Guide: Sara’s Smoothies
Danielle Bernazani
JUNIPER VALLEY SUMMER CAMP FOR GIRLS
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Company Website: Juniper Valley Summer Camp For Girls
Brochure: Juniper Valley Summer Camp For Girls
Brand Guide: Juniper Valley Summer Camp For Girls
Letterhead: Juniper Valley Summer Camp For Girls
Brigitte Boss
PIQUE PESTO
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Company Website: Pique Pesto
Keegan Burch
KARMA KOSMETICS
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Brand Guide: Karma Kosmetics
Company Website: Karma Kosmetics
Nora Butler
FRANCONIA 2030
Hello! I’m Nora from Tewksbury, Mass. I am a pretty chill person that loves the fact that I am a Graphic Designer. Graphic Design is one of the coolest jobs, because we get the chance to basically do whatever we want! Design is everywhere and there will always be a need for good design in any industry. As for my thesis. It’s actually happening! Let’s get the Winter Olympics to New Hampshire, we have plenty of snow and the White Mountains are amazing. On the real the traffic would be out of control and residents would go crazy, but it’s worth a shot.
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Brand Guide: Franconia 2030
Bid Book: Franconia 2030
Event Website: Franconia 2030
BFA Portfolio: Franconia 2030
Cameron Clark
PRÖJECT
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Brochure: Experience Columbus
Company Website: Project
Rachel DeWolfe
SUGAR HILL MAPLE CO.
My name is Rachel DeWolfe and I am from Bellingham, Massachusetts. I feel that I have been very creative since a young age which led me onto the path I am on today. I attended a vocational high school where I studied multimedia communications and found my passion for graphic design and photography. Having studied graphic design and other media for four years before attending PSU I knew that this is what I wanted to do as a career. During my time at PSU in the BFA program I had the opportunity to further develop my graphic design and photography skills as well as experience other forms of art making that I had not previously. The variety of classes and experiences I have had in the art department here at PSU have pushed me as an artist and greatly improved my skill set. In my work I like to combine my strong photography with my graphic design, allowing me to have more creative freedom in my work. I have had many opportunities here at PSU to work on real graphic design projects for different departments across campus and with real clients. These real world experiences and skills I gained at PSU helped me get an internship this past summer with PUMA
Growing up in New England I developed an appreciation for all things New England made. When I think of things made in New England maple syrup is one of the first things that comes to mind. Fall is also my favorite time of year and I wanted to capture that in my product and brand. Creating this brand allowed me to stretch my photography as well as my design skills, through experimenting with food and product photography. I also faced the challenge of wanting to photograph my products in the Fall foliage but not having the final design complete that early in the year, pushing my digital editing skills. After looking at many different maple product lines in local country stores I, tried to move in a direction that was not as traditional as typical maple product design, but still felt like Fall in New England.
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Design Guide: Sugar Hill Maple Co
Company Website: Sugar Hill Maple Co
Personal Portfolio Website: Rachel DeWolfe
Nick Doughty
VOLAR DISC GOLF
The Volar logo is a simplified version of the peregrine falcon, and it conveys the essence of speed and precision through its sharp points and directional velocity. The bold use of the colors: yellow, black, and white allow for maximum contrast enabling our brand to stand out against competitors. Heavy typefaces are used to represent strength and power. The use of high-contrasted images and intense compositions provide the viewer with a great sense of the energy. Angles can be seen throughout my designs as a way to evoke movement and create a sleek appeal. A key graphic element that is reflected throughout the brand is the use of carbon fiber. I created a simplified carbon fiber texture out of two mirroring right angled triangles, this pattern can be seen as an accent found within many of my designs. “Made to fly” is the motto Volar lives by, and I created all of the branding and products to inspire and motivate others to uncover their inner energy, live to their highest potential, and fly above any hardships they may face.
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Company Website: Volar Disc Golf
Brand Guide: Volar Disc Golf
Personal Portfolio: Nicholas Doughty
Sherry Lin
CRAVE BURGER
My name is Sherry Lin and I am from Woodsville, a small town up north. I must admit, I was not an artistic person growing up. I did not find myself enjoying working with any of the traditional art mediums such as paint, charcoal, or graphite. When it came to a digital medium, however, that is another story. My interest in graphic design started in middle school when I first discovered Photoshop and started to experiment with the program. I quickly became fascinated with the various ways you could alter an image and was eager to find out how certain effects could be done. I continued to teach myself how to use the program as a hobby and later put my skills into real-life applications by becoming a member of my high school yearbook staff during my senior year. It was at this point where I decided to pursue a professional career in this field and chose graphic design as my major. After four years, this has led me to my senior thesis—one of my favorite pieces I have designed throughout my college years.
Crave Burger is a burger joint company inspired by the diner and retro aesthetic. Since I had never taken on a food-related project for my portfolio and graphic illustrations were out of my comfort zone, I treated this project as an exploration and experimental piece; this helped fuel the origins and visuals of this branding project. My primary source of inspiration was classic American diners—neon lights, checkered patterns, and the overall retro atmosphere are all features that I tried to emulate in my design. I combined this aspect with my personal clean and contemporary design style to come up with the final visual language used throughout the design. My ultimate goal was to create a sense of nostalgia and playfulness at the same time.
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Brand Guide: Crave Burger
Company Website: Crave Burger
Amy Luther
BEACH BREAK SURFING CO.
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Jacob Mikucki
COASTAL CRUISES
Hello, my name is Jacob Mikucki,
My first experience with designing started my sophomore year in high school at Notre Dame Fairfield. It was a beginner’s class that taught us photoshop and illustrator. It really intrigued me, for the first time I had been introduced to a new way of designing other than my normal sketching. The following years I signed up for the more advanced courses, where we started learning the process of logo development. Going into college my major was not graphic design. I found myself missing those classes I had took back in high school. I met a guy who’s major was graphic design, he’d turn out to be my best friend, he took me to the GD lab and showed me some things he was working on and the following day a switched my major to graphic design. While studying at Plymouth State University I have been geared towards branding and rebranding companies. My experience ranges from just the basic job of creating a logo to fully branding a company with animation advertisements, I can do it! I’m looking forward to being able to graduate and start my, hopefully, bright future.
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Riley Murray
WILD VALLEY JEWELRY CO.
I’m Riley Murray a senior with a BFA in Graphic design along with a minor in Business Administration and I’m from Merrimack New Hampshire. I am currently working on creating and marketing for a jewelry company based in Portland, Oregon. My company is called Wild Valley Jewelry Co. I wanted the name for my company to be more personal, so I used part of my own name my middle name is Wild. I went to visit family in Oregon and thought it was so beautiful I wanted to base my jewelry company from there. My style for jewelry is more organic and geometric shapes and designs so I wanted my brand to reflect that which brings in the nature side. I’ve been making and selling jewelry since high school and this was the perfect opportunity to continue designing and creating jewelry to actually build a brand for myself. I work at a small business jewelry store in Nashua, NH and have taken courses through the Gemology Institute of America where I’ve become certified as an Applied Jewelry Professional. I can use all the products I’ve made long after graduation to use in my portfolio and continue to update as I grow and experiment as an artist. I love that I’ve had the opportunity to combine my passions for jewelry making with graphic designing.
My company for the BFA is a jewelry company based in Portland Oregon called Wild Valley Jewelry Co. The company mission statement is “Here at Wild Valley Jewelry co. We are bringing nature back into the city. We believe in making the highest quality designs while also being sustainable and using materials that come from the earth. Creating jewelry has always been our passion! We hope you enjoy our pieces as much as we enjoyed creating them”. These values are apparent throughout all the applications from the brand guide to the physical materials used. I wanted my brand to feel like a high-end fine jewelry store but with my organic style of making jewelry. I’ve taken all the photos used throughout my applications so that I could blend the digital aspects of building the brand to the physical aspects like the jewelry and packaging. I think using my own photographs helped keep the brand work as a whole as well as individually.
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Brand Guide: Wild Valley Jewelry Co.
Spring Catalog: Wild Valley Jewelry Co.
Summer Catalog: Wild Valley Jewelry Co.
Fall Catalog: Wild Valley Jewelry Co.
Winter Catalog: Wild Valley Jewelry Co.
Mike Najemy
NORTH RIVER FLY FISHING SHOP
My name is Michael Najemy and I am working on North River Fly Fishing Shop. Coming to school at Plymouth State introduced me to fly fishing and it has been a passion ever since. Once I started to think about options for this project I knew a fly fishing shop would be a great idea. Growing up in Grafton, Massachusetts, I was unable to get into fly fishing just because the location did not allow for easy access so I am glad I was able to experience it once I came to the White Mountains.
After school I am planning on getting a design job in Boston and start my career there. It is an exciting new chapter to start in life and I am eager to get out there.
The North River Fly Fishing Shop came to be this past summer as I was wandering along the Pemigewasset River in search for trout and salmon that fill the river. Fly fishing was a late passion for me that started when I came to school here at Plymouth State, so when the idea came to me, I knew it was an easy choice. I initially struggled with finding a name for the company. As a resident of North River st. in Holderness, I figured the street name flows quite nicely. I wanted to keep a rustic and outdoorsy feel to the brand which can be seen through the logo and primarily the color palette with the earthy tones I chose to incorporate. As many fly fishing brands try to have this sophisticated look with their brand, I wanted to stray away from that and have a more welcoming and less intimidating feel to the brand. My goal was to have a style that seemed to be professional but also open to teaching people about fly fishing and let them enjoy this amazing hobby.
This project was an awesome experience that felt like a real world application. The time and energy devoted to this project has been unmatched by anything else I have done. It tests your creativity and drive that challenges the decisions make throughout the year.
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Brand Guide: North River Fly Fishing Shop
Fly Line Box: North River Fly Fishing Shop
Baker Palmer
Brand Name
Dystopia is the outcome of my passion for games mixed with my admiration for illustration.This has been by far my favorite project throughout my time in the graphic design field and I have been able to express myself with not only art but functioning artwork that you can interact with. I spent a lot of time testing how the game works and making decisions on what should be changed with the end goal being a fun game to play. Admitally it does not really matter how the game works or how fun it is because this is graphic design not game design however I had too much pride and love for this project so I had to make it playable. Since I chose to keep testing it I now have a completely original board game that I can show and play with people. I have always loved drawing and it was a great feeling seeing something come together such as Dystopia.
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Raquel Pratte
CARE CANDLES
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Company Website: Care Candles
Jake Toolan
FOOL’S JOURNEY BREWERY
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Company Website: Fool’s Journey Brewery
Brand Guide: Fool’s Journey Brewery
Personal Portfolio: Jake Toolan
Instagram: @otoolahan
Alexis Turner
TWO FACED WINERY
I’m a Senior at Plymouth State University studying Graphic Design. I grew up in Vermont and throughout my high school experience I was always into art and designing. When I first got to Plymouth my freshman year I was unsure of where I wanted to go with my degree. After taking a few classes in each subject I found my love for art again. Art was a way of expressing myself and portraying my feelings through design. I began taking design courses at PSU and declared Graphic Design as my major. Throughout my four years here I have had nothing but good experiences. I’ve made new friends, experienced different life away from home, created more artwork than I could imagine, and found my second family. Plymouth is one of a kind and my professor’s passion for my success has made it all better. My professors at PSU have always pushed me to do better which is something I always appreciated. At times it has been stressful but I always found a way around stress, and graphic design was my out. My hopes for after college is that I will use my graphic design career to find a good job that I’m passionate about. Design is everywhere and I hope to use my abilities to better the design world. If I had to give someone advice about my experience here at PSU it would be to try everything. Don’t be afraid of new challenges and go in it with 100% effort. Don’t let the fear of something hold you back for trying something you might end up liking. We’re so young and have our whole life ahead of us so why not reach for the impossible.
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Brand Guide: Two Faced Winery
David Varney
Brand Name
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Design Guide: Color Wheel Candy
Company Website: Color Wheel Candy
Personal Website: David Varney