Teaching and learning in the VID program
The Pearce Center for Professional Communication focuses on message delivery in all forms of media, from the written article you’re reading now to the website you navigated to reach it. Pearce also utilizes visual communication, particularly in the Visual Information Design program, where interns Juliette Fleck, Emily Pautler and Ella Fales reflect on their favorite memories and successes from the past semester.
The program helps Clemson students and faculty bring their creative visual ideas to fruition through consultations, providing help from the brainstorming stage to teaching software like Adobe InDesign and Illustrator. While VID works with people to help them develop their graphic design skills and polish their projects, the VID interns use their own skills and abilities to produce marketing materials, infographics, posters and more for the Pearce Center and various nonprofit organizations.
Fleck, Pautler and Fales have had the opportunity to work with various clients this semester, including the South Carolina Watermedia Society, Southern Circuit and Revolutionary Westchester 250 to create everything from websites and social media content to flyers and TV displays.
Through their semesters in the program, Fleck, Pautler and Fales have made great memories with their colleagues and clients while watching their personal and professional skill sets grow and evolve. The client-facing aspect of the VID internship offers a great opportunity for the interns to develop client-side proficiency and feel more comfortable. While working with clients, Fleck found that she was able to lean into creativity and focus less on strict parameters.
“The most rewarding part of working with clients has been watching my communication skills develop and learning how different perspectives on design can be greatly beneficial to the final product! I am a huge perfectionist, and working with clients has taught me how to let go of some of those rigid boundaries and work well with others. Some of my favorite deliverables have come from the iterative process we have gone through with our clients!”
As the interns teach Clemson faculty, staff and students, they also learn about branding and graphic design at Clemson university. Fales particularly enjoyed the sticker project, an internal VID project done at the beginning of each semester where interns turn their favorite quotes into stickers. The experience allows interns to explore their creative individuality while familiarizing themselves with industry standard software and Clemson University branding practices and guidelines.
“One of my favorite memories from VID so far was the sticker project
critique day. I loved being able to see everyone’s designs and styles. The project also allowed everyone to express their creativity while still learning about the Clemson branding requirements.”
Pautler works with the Southern Circuit, a nonprofit organization that supports independent movie screenings at Clemson University and at other venues across the country. Through her work with the organization, she is able to highlight the work of independent filmmakers and bring together movie lovers on Clemson’s campus.
“We work to create paper flyers, display screen materials, and social media posts that emulate the particular character of each film screening.”
Aside from social media and promotional work, Fleck has had the opportunity to work on her client’s website. The South Carolina Watermedia Society promotes watermedia painting through education, programs and exhibits for its members. Though website design is a new challenge for Fleck, she has taken the project in stride, taking the initiative to learn WordPress software to create a website that she is really excited about.
“I’ve had the opportunity to help update, develop and refine their branding, as well as working on a full website revamp … I’m so excited to finish up the website rebrand for South Carolina Watermedia Society! It’s been a learning curve as I’ve never had the opportunity to work in WordPress before, but we’re getting to a point where everything is coming together! I can’t wait to show the final website to our client.”
From learning new ways to create to teaching others and helping them bring their creative visions to life, Fales, Fleck and Pautler have developed their professional skill sets and connected with clients, the Clemson community and each other.
“It has been very rewarding to see self-growth over the semesters … I now feel so much more confident in leading meetings, directing clients and my overall professionalism,” Fleck said. ”VID is such an amazing community, and I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to work here with amazing mentors and amazing friends.”
By: Serena Johnson