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Welcome to the 2024 Gateway Technical College Districtwide Student Design Show!

The Website for the 2024 Student Design Show is now live, and student work has been hung in the NORTH BUILDING COMMONS on the Elkhorn Campus for the show launch 4/16/24.

An OPENING RECEPTION and AWARDS CEREMONY is slated for THURSDAY, APRIL 18th , from approximately 5 until 8 pm.
Hors d’oeuvres will be served and the event will feature a LIVE performance by the GEBEL GIRLS.

The event is open to the general public, and the greater business community. Invitations have been extended to area high schools through our outreach employees, and our collegiate and business parters in the region.

To view the 2024 Student work, please look undertake main menu for the STUDENT DESIGN SHOW WORK CATEGORIES.

This year’s show will feature work in ten categories.

You can access the show work by going under THE 2024 STUDENT DESIGN SHOW menu and selecting the area you would like to view.

The 2024 STUDENT DESIGN SHOW area features information about this year’s show identity, and additional student winners for competition work undertaken by the class sections. We also have some information about the entertainment and our faculty.

The GRADUATING SECOND YEAR STUDENT area features the banners and Behance portfolio links for ours Applied Exit Strategy students.

For our 2024 STUDENT WORK (entered into the judging):

COMPREHENSIVE CAMPAIGNS is an area that features multi-component/multi-phased student projects

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION features illustration work using a variety of digital media.

LAYOUT is an area featuring published items (mostly multiple-pages or panels) with layout as the major skill set

LOGOS & IDENTITY is a combined area featuring Identity Projects, Logo and Mark Development projects, and Stationery-style projects.

MULTIMEDIA / WEB is a combined area featuring timeline-based projects (audio/video/presentations) and any web mockup.

PACKAGING & 3D is a combined area featuring 3-D software related items, 3-D printing, and dimensional packaging projects

PHOTOGRAPHY SOOC (SOC) features photography “straight out of the camera,” with only cropping allowed

PHOTOGRAPHY with POST (PHE) and PHOTO MANIPULATION/COMPOSITES (PHM) is a combined category this year for images with multiple levels of post-processing or manipulation and composites.

POSTERS contains poster-based designs.

TRADITIONAL MEDIA contains illustrations using traditional illustration media (charcoal, pastel, colored pencil, paints, etc.)

We hope you enjoy viewing the work of this year’s students both virtually as well as on campus.

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CONGRATS to GTC ALUM JASON HEDMAN!

Works by local artist (and GTC Alum) Jason Hedman were on display through March 30 at Kenosha Creative Space, 624 57th St.

Jason Hedman, a lifelong Kenoshan, has been a creator in many different avenues through life. With past dabbling in writing and music, visual art has always been the medium Hedman has embraced time and time again.

In the past few years, Hedman has become well-known throughout the community as an up-and-coming artist. Hedman’s style is always evolving, but tends to reflect his interest in history, society, and pop culture.

Some of his well-known pieces have incorporated other popular icons in new and different ways. Much of his art represents his own anti-authoritarian nature which he has finally found a safe (and legal) path to cast his interests.

This past winter, Hedman has experimented with collage art – mixed media with acrylics on canvas. This style shift is partly in response to the growing trend of artificial intelligence. With an interest in history, Hedman dove into collecting a large supply of newspapers and magazines dating back almost 100 years.

Check out Jason’s FACEBOOK PAGE , INSTAGRAM, and LINKED-IN Profile.

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The 2024 Student Design Show Identity!

Students in the fall sections of the ADVANCED CLASSES submitted their 2024 GATEWAY TECHNICAL COLLEGE DISTRICT-WIDE STUDENT DESIGN SHOW design submissions back in October and November of 2023.
The event has been scheduled this year on April 16th – 22nd, in the North Commons of Gateway’s Elkhorn Campus, with anAWARDS RECEPTION PARTY scheduled for April 18th.
Members of GTC’s Administration team have helped us each year in the selection of the Show Identity and Direction.

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

Voting was a bit tighter this year, and Alexander Barthuly’s Design won by two points among our Administrative Team. A faded and scratched retro-poster feel, colorful design, and “entry ticket” concept make a loose allusion to Gateway being an entry-ticket of sorts, 
as well as being an invitation to people to attend.

The SECOND PLACE SELECTION:

Aaron Zachar’s design has a “traditional media” feel of chalk and pastels against a sketch-like typographical treatment emphasizing the traditional artistic underpinnings
sometimes utilized in the graphic design field.

The THIRD PLACE SELECTION:

Erika Menzel’s sketch-style butterfly makes a fine art-style allusion to a metamorphosis, with a sketchbook-style “doodled” typographical treatment in the fore.

The Graphic Design Department would like to thank all of the Administrators who helped us select this year’s identity, and congratulate all of the students who participated in this year’s competition.
We look forward to seeing everyone at the show in April!

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SHARE YOUR IMAGES WITH US!

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

  • John Zehren of teh Fab Lab, Bob Kaebish, and Dr. John Thibodeau
  • The BEST OF SHOW AWARDS
  • The exhibit space
  • hors d’oeuvres
  • Laura Laznicka and Dr. Thibodeau
  • Welcoming guests
  • perusing the work
  • perusing the work
  • Attendees enjoy the food and discussion
  • Multimedia and Web display
  • conversation
  • The exhibit space
  • friends and classmates
  • Dr. Isensee enjoys the work
  • A student discusses his work with a guest
  • An Alumni catches up with Laura
  • Students visit and admire work
  • Faculty member discusses the eSports team


  • Community Art Piece directions
  • Magill Meinel shares the directions with attendees
  • Attendees add to the Community Art Piece
  • The Artist Ms. Meinel and guest
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REMINDER to PROGRAM STUDENTS…

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 .

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WALKTHROUGH

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.

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The 2023 Student Design Show “By the Numbers…”

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%)
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WELCOME to the 2023 District Wide Student Design Show

The Website for the 2023 Student Design Show is now live, and student work has been hung in the S.C. Johnson iMET CENTER in Sturtevant, Wisconsin for the show launch 4/17/23.

An OPENING RECEPTION and AWARDS CEREMONY is slated for TUESDAY, APRIL 18th , at 6 – 8pm.
Hors d’ouevres will be served and the event will feature the recorded music of DJ SPUNKSHINE.

The event is open to the general public and the greater business community. Invitations have been extended to area high schools, and our collegiate and business parters in the region.

To view the 2023 Student work, please look undertake main menu for the STUDENT DESIGN SHOW WORK CATEGORIES. This years show will feature work in ten categories.