Weinberg sophomore Benedict Dungca and McCormick freshman Arisa Toyosaki met through a mutual friend Winter Quarter and discovered they both were often looking for graphic design opportunities on campus. Now they are holding meetings in hopes of creating a graphic designers’ alliance on campus to give students opportunities to learn design and do commissioned work.
“For the first two quarters, I joined a ton of student groups and joined their public relations committees just so that I could pursue my passion in graphic design and work on all these posters and whatnot,” Toyosaki said. “I realized they didn’t really have a club like this on campus that kind of piqued my interest.”
Dungca told Toyosaki he had a similar problem when she approached him asking if he needed design work done for a ReFresH Dance Crew advertisement. The pair began coming up with ideas for a graphic-design-focused student group.
Dungca and Toyosaki envision three goals for their group: commissions, workshops and fundraisers.
“The commissions are basically the kind of work we’re doing for other student organizations who want to outsource, say their flyers or Facebook cover photos, and we make the design for them,” Toyosaki said.
Commissioned work would be done by “senior designers,” or members of the group with graphic design experience. The pair would review portfolios and applications of members to determine senior designer status.
The two hope the group will eventually do work for businesses, and they have had discussions with students who do freelance promotional graphic design work for local stores.
“For some of the commissioned work that we’ve already been talking to people about, it involves the greater Evanston community,” Toyosaki said.
Dungca and Toyosaki also want to hold workshops two to five times a quarter. They would feature guest lecturers or experienced group members who would teach their skills to the rest of the group or other interested students.
This quarter, the group may hold a typography workshop taught by Dungca, Toyosaki said.
Dungca and Toyosaki sent out surveys and held an informational meeting earlier this month to determine student interest. They received about 50 responses from interested students, Toyosaki said, and will hold another meeting Sunday.
“I think we had a pretty good spectrum of people who were just starting out and people who were pretty experienced,” Dungca said.
To fund the group, the two are considering designing and selling merchandise, such as shirts or hats, that would appeal to the NU community. They are also working to become a student group recognized by Associated Student Government.
Communication freshman Roberto Drilea said he attended the group’s first meeting because of his interest in design, which he considers a hobby. He said he hopes to learn more of the skill.
“It seemed really interesting because there is no such thing on campus yet,” Drilea said.
The pair hopes that mutual interest will “unite” graphic designers on campus, Dungca said. He called graphic design an opportunity to “take what I see and make it my own.”
“I really enjoy creating it and seeing it come to life,” Dungca said.
