Graphic Design Spring 2021
The MAC Gallery and WVC Art Department are extremely proud of this year’s class of creatives earning associates degrees in graphic design. In their final year of the program, as humanity faced a perilous virus and the inequities and injustices of our world became intolerably vivid, the 2021 class moved themselves online and got to work. They asked themselves: How did we get to this state of being? Can graphic design help to better sensitize us to emergent challenges in our world?
They understand, better now than ever, that Graphic Design can be a powerful tool to help us reimagine our world. At this extraordinary time, the distress from the challenges we face offers an opportunity to contribute effective and thought-provoking content to our collective consciousness. If we can do so in a more just and caring way, then graphic designers can be central to making our lives and our world a better place.
Welcome to the future of the graduating Graphic Design Program class of 2021. This online showcase of their Portfolios, a collaboration between the class members, reimagines the usual in-person end of year exhibition, turning it into a wholly virtual presentation. These websites demonstrate how WVC graduates are changing from students into cultural “evolutionaries” who will try to use their skills to make the world a better place.
Dean Barker
Dean Barker has been drawing and creating art for as long as he can remember. Having grown up near Lake Wenatchee, and being older than the majority of current students, he didn’t have the entertainment options that are ubiquitous today, so he spent much of his time drawing. This was mainly a hobby until one fateful day in the seventh grade when his friend Ian let him read a couple of issues of Uncanny X-men. The dynamic visual storytelling is what got him started on the path to Graphic Design.
After working in retail for many years, Dean found himself with the opportunity to
revisit a career in Graphic Design, having taken some classes at WVC several years
ago. Having had a good experience previously, and knowing that the Graphic Design
program has grown into an Associates Degree program, drew Dean back to WVC. The opportunity
to learn from experienced, working designers has been invaluable. The entire staff
of the art department, in fact, has been super helpful and supportive.
Dean’s goal is to find fun, fulfilling work here in the Valley, but if an amazing opportunity arises elsewhere he looks forward to taking on that adventure!
Danielle Johnston
Starting at a very young age, Danielle has always been passionate and inspired to express herself through art. What first started as a fun hobby, quickly developed into a strong skill set that she has continued to evolve through her high school and college education. Born and raised in Wenatchee WA. with a strong set of family values, cultural appreciation, and playing many team sports growing up, Danielle has a drive to level up individuals around her, always keeping a high moral, and a lot of encouraging laughs along the way.
The Graphic Design Program has really connected design with a purpose for Danielle. She is a very hard working, dedicated individual with a great eye and attention to the minor details. She has continued to be fueled by passion, as well as achievements. During the program at the Wenatchee Valley College, Danielle has received 2 Graphic Design Scholarships, and she has been able to maintain a 4.0 each quarter, during her Graphic Design Degree she will be receiving in June.
With a background in marketing and a large passion for brand identity, Danielle is eager apply her new knowledge of programs and design to future projects inside the valley and all over the world.
Ashley Thoroughman
Ashley Thoroughman grew up loving art and was encouraged by her mother to nurture that passion from the beginning. The medium acted as one of the only means of escape growing up moving from house to house, from various places in Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Bonney Lake, and finally back to Wenatchee. They could always be found with their nose buried in a sketchbook. As Ashley got older, she started to listen to other people's doubts, a litany of "you can't do art for a living" and "artists struggle," and tried other career paths before realizing art wasn't defined by only a few paths, but instead a tree's worth of branches, opening the art world back up for them again.
Now, Ashley is nearing the end of their Graphic Design courses and is ready to explore where those branches may lead to, even if it's out of the town they spent so much of their life in.
Katlyn Watt
Katlyn Watt grew-up in a reclusive town located in the northern part of the Colville Reservation. Living in a larger family Katlyn learned through her older sibling’s mistakes, how to succeed in her education, lifestyle and the mental state of living. Since her birth, Katlyn was the more quiet, reserved type. She never talked to relatives, teachers, or in general, anyone. She’d rather keep her composure, observing the world around her. Paying attention to detail is something she had developed over the years which led her to start art with just basic pencils and printer paper she’d find next to her mother's old computer, the one with the fat square back.
As a few years went on the people around her started to notice an interest she had. At the end of every school year, her mother would gift her with a new sketchbook and art supplies as a “job well done” for her commitment/achievements to her schooling. As time went on again, she got her first exposure to graphic design back in 2013 for Paschal Sherman Indian School located in Omak Washington and Inchelium High School. Simple projects like posters, book covers, logos, illustration, signage and large scale murals. Up to this point, she had no real experience with digital art other than Microsoft Paint.
Through the AA-T Graphic Design Program at WVC, she finally got to experience digital art, learn the fundamentals of design and the various components that comprise a good design. Her plan is to move to Seattle, Washington to begin her career as a graphic designer in a larger population with higher expectations, challenges, and opportunity to hopefully gain financial freedom, friendship and a lifetime commitment to the art of designing.
Sasha Cooper
Sasha Cooper has always had a great love for design, and specifically – typography. Born and raised in Wenatchee, she began her ever growing love of design at a young age with a plethora of handmade birthday cards. Friends and family members received a new card every year, with each one growing more and more intricate.
Sasha's passion for lettering and arrangement led her to discover WVC's art program while being a Running Start student, and she has spent the past couple years learning how to design all sorts of things other than cards. While packaging, advertisements, and illustration can be a lot more complicated than they let on, she has grown to love and appreciate them too, and will strive to use her creativity to its greatest extent, no matter the medium. She plans to stay in the valley and use her new skillset to help other people materialize their ideas and share them with the world.
Mia Lopez
Mia Lopez is a WVC student who was raised in Leavenworth, Washington. She has loved art ever since she was a child in elementary school! She loves to draw, paint, and perform lots of other mediums of art to express her creativity. You would think she would go into something more like that then, no? Wrong!! She is super passionate about graphic design! People who go shopping with her all find themselves stuck with her happy tangents about labels and designs!
"Don't even go near the wine section with Mia, you'll be trapped there forever!"
This passion for graphic design was discovered when she joined the graphic design
program by chance after graduating high school. Along with being an artist experienced
in lots of different art forms, Mia also has a minor in computer science and some
background experience with marketing and psychology to go all out with this career!
When Mia is not busy, she likes to read, write, learn and try new things, play different
instruments, play video games, hang out with the people she loves, and stay crafty
and artsy!
In June, she will be graduating Wenatchee Valley College with honors! Mia will be
attending Central Washington University in Ellensburg in the Fall, with hopes to enroll
in the graphic design program there or finish her BA in art and design. Whatever it
is, this girl is ready to take on the world!
Nicole Warren
Nicole Warren grew up on a quaint goat farm in Leavenworth, Washington. Most of her childhood was spent playing with her goats, cooling off in mountain creeks, and documenting everything she saw in her tattered sketchbook. From this description you might assume that she didn’t fit in at school. The truth is, she was so preoccupied in her art that she hardly cared to notice. She hardly cared to listen to all of the people telling her that she couldn't make a living as an artist. As soon as those words were spoken to her, it was decided; she was going to make a living as an artist. As soon as she could, she enrolled at WVC and soaked in all the art classes they would let her take. That is when she discovered and fell in love with graphic design.
Warren will soon be a graduating student from the WVC graphic design program, and she couldn’t be more excited. She, like her peers, has worked incredibly hard to complete her degree during the Covid crisis. It has taken great dedication and determination. After graduating, she hopes to find an internship and attend Western Washington University to complete her bachelors in graphic design. But her ultimate goal is to create a career out of her love for design. She has always thrived in creative environments and couldn’t imagine anything else she would rather spend her life doing.
This year the Graphic Design Program had a non-profit client approach them to develop a new website for the 9/11 Spirit of America Memorial located in Cashmere, WA (911memorialwa.org) This fortunate opportunity allowed the class to gain nuanced experience working directly with a community client and initiate their role, using their skills as cultural evolutionaries.