Category: Uncategorized

Students in the fall sections of the ADVANCED CLASSES submitted their 2025 GATEWAY TECHNICAL COLLEGE DISTRICT-WIDE STUDENT DESIGN SHOW design submissions way back in October and November of 2024.

Members of GTC’s Administration team have helped us each year in the selection of the Show Identity and Direction… and this year’s show identity has been selected.

The DESIGN SHOW has been scheduled to run from May 11 through the 18th, in the Bay Area of the S.C.Johnson iMET CENTER in Sturtevant, Wisconsin.
A gala AWARDS RECEPTION PARTY is scheduled for May 15th, with MUSIC, hors d’oeuvres, open labs, and of course the awarding of our panel selected show category winners.

The DESIGN SELECTED for this year’s design show (the item that received the most ordinal vote points) by the participating administrators was:

Jaden Hinds’ submission that captured color and a metaphor for creativity was selected for the 2025 STUDENT DESIGN SHOW Identity by the voting Administrative staff at GTC.

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Cole Garland’s colorful and ‘illuminating’ submission was an extremely close second place entry— only 4 ordinal points separated the first and second place entries.

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Jennifer Maldonado’s submission was a close third place. The analogous/ monochrome retro-feel poster illustration capture the idea of “doing.”

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Please read the 2025 rules for submission statement sheet before submitting work.

We are calling for submissions to the 2025 Edition of the STUDENT DESIGN SHOW, to be held May 15, 2025 ay the S.C. JOHNSON iMET CENTER (in Sturtevant Wisconsin).

Students must submit the following work:

1. A properly prepared Mounted Work (on presentation board, black board, or black foam core) for hanging in the SHOW EXHIBIT SPACE
   as well as
2. A digital image submitted for use in this website and for Judging.
   (PLEASE see the Submission rules for details, JPG image size, etc).
   
   Submitting both items is necessary to have your work appear in the show.
   
   STUDENTS MUST utilize their GTC email addresses to submit the digital portion of the work for the 2025 Student Design Show. [The form will filter non GTC email addresses.]

[link to the work Submission form is below]
https://forms.gle/rFcNc1wfZFVTdaY86

BE SURE TO READ and FOLLOW the submission rules for this year’s show!

This is a link to the FULL PDF DOCUMENT [downloadable as well as embedded] containing the submission rules for students who wish to submit work for the 2025 Student Design Show. Please read and follow the guidelines for work submission. If you have ANY questions, please ask your instructors!

This is a link to the FULL PDF DOCUMENT [downloadable as well as embedded] containing the submission rules for students who wish to submit work for the 2025 Student Design Show. Please read and follow the guidelines for work submission. If you have ANY questions, please ask your instructors!

We’ll see everyone there!

We’re sharing images from the SDS 2023 Awards Reception on this site.
If you have any images that you would like to share with us, Please contact one of the instructors and share any photos or videos from the show that we can in turn share with everyone!

Susan LaCanne lacannes@gtc.edu
Laura Laznicka laznickal@gtc.edu
Peter Pham phampete@gtc.edu

In addition to the folks who have contributed their work and talent to the show (and their families and supporters), we’d like to extend thanks to others who helped us make this years “comeback” show a success.

2023 Design Show

The 204 GRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS PROGRAM is going to be changing to the 201 GRAPHIC DESIGN PROGRAM.

Please keep this in mind as you select your classes and do your planning with Advisors.
Mrs. Sue LaCanne has made a Panopto video on this topic .

A single/continuous shot walk-through of the iMET CENTER during a quiet moment
before our upcoming STUDENT DESIGN SHOW.
We hope to see everyone and their supporter there.

from Peter Pham

As I process the work for each year’s Student Design Show, I muse at the trends that appear among the submissions each year.

In the early 2000’s (when the analytics were not as easily processed and quantified) there was a definite preponderance of Layout and Illustration student work. It had been a mainstay of our program from its inception, and oft-associated with the practice of graphic design.

In the 2010’s, we saw a tremendous increase in the amount of photography work––possibly correlating with the increased availability of really good consumer digital equipment… and a notable trend towards people becoming more interested in creating high quality products for a variety of uses outside of the traditional scope.

It appears that everything old is new again.
Much like the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, illustration, posters, and layout is at the top of our list this year! Items associated with traditional print-media categories are making up teh vast majority of submissions… with traditional illustration coming in right behind them.

While Graphic Design is not necessarily synonymous with illustration, (and definitely not in the same category as Fine Art) the crossover point emphasized by volume of entries is worth noting.

A few facts about this year’s show:

• Around 160 pieces were submitted this year. [We’ve had in excess of 300 in a very active year with high enrollments]
• Qualifying student work was to have been created between Spring of 2022 through April , 2023.
  It may be selected from student coursework, or from parallel individual practice to coursework.
• Categories needed to be made up of minimally 5 submissions, or that category was closed and merged with another. (Since the Districtwide Student Design Show began in 1999, we have had anywhere between 7 and 14 categories in a given annual show).
• This year’s categorical submissions (from MOST submissions in a category to the least) were:  

1. DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION (21%)
2. POSTERS (18%)
3. LAYOUT (13%)
4. TRADITIONAL ILLUSTRATION (12%)
5. LOGOS/ IDENTITY/ CAMPAIGN COMBINED CATEGORY (~9%)
6. EDITED PHOTOGRAPHY (9%)
7. UNEDITED PHOTOGRAPHY (6%)
8. 3D/ PACKAGING (5%)
9. MULTIMEDIA/WEB (4%)
10. PHOTO MANIPULATION (3%)