Not only is the spring 2016 semester coming to a close, but so is the 2015-16 school year and with that, different media and design departments both reminisce on this past semester and look forward to fall.
Timothy Samoff, instructor of game design and multimedia, reflects on when the director of the USC Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center hosted “Living, Loving, Dying in Games & Virtual Reality” back in April.
“We had a really great event when Marientina Gotsis came to talk about games and health and had a good turnout and the talk was really insightful,” said Samoff. “It’s going to be fun to have more events like it in the future and it was good first event to have.”
The Game Design Department is not only growing in terms of classes and faculty, but is also gaining publicity with the Ventura County Star, the Moorpark Acorn and a recent interview on KCLU on NPR, said Samoff.
Game design students have been very excited to see new courses launch in the fall such as Game Level Design, Game Theory and Mechanics, the second semester of Game Design Technologies and possibly a class called Mobile Game Development, said Samoff.
“Game design has always been one of those things where you sort of take a couple classes just because you’re interested and that it doesn’t really go anywhere, so now that there’s a pathway,” said Samoff. “A lot of students are really eager to start with that and finish it and in fact, a lot of our multimedia students are well on their way already because a lot of the multimedia classes apply to the degree, so they’re pretty excited.”
Samoff is also proud to see his students taking the skills they’ve learned at Moorpark to other areas whether it be a university or the business world.
“A lot of our students have already gone on to places like USC and UC Santa Cruz—other schools that have good game design programs,” said Samoff. “I’d love to see more of that happen. Other students I hope go out and just start making games.”
Ellen Terando, multimedia major, said one of the challenges of the semester was learning how to use the pen tool in Illustrator, but through a lot of hard work, hours and failure, she said she conquered it.
Another goal Terando had was completing her “New Yorker” covers which were awarded at the Graphic Design and Multimedia Scholarship Awards Show in May.
“I’ve always admired the New Yorker covers,” said Terando. “I’ve read that magazine since I was in high school and I always consider those covers a very high level of illustration. I never thought I could do anything anywhere near where those were, so I find it kind of gratifying that I came up with something.”
Jayce Hawbletzel, 19-year-old graphic design major, says one of his most memorable moments of the semester was winning the Multicultural Day poster design.
“It was late at night in my room and I thought a good idea would be to add a lot of colors,” said Hawbletzel. “When I won, I felt good because I was like, ‘oh my design won something for the first time.’ I was like, ‘that’s pretty cool.'”
Over the past semester, Hawbletzel has seen himself become stronger within the technical execution side of graphic design.
“I’ve learned how to, not as much my ideas, but more in technical,” said Hawbletzel. “Like Illustrator, I’m a lot faster at it now. I know all the tricks and all the shortcuts and line work and what not.”
Hawbletzel is excited for the fall semester just so he can keep doing what he enjoys and working hard to learn more about graphic design.
“[I] just keep on doing graphic design and having fun and hoping to keep on growing as a graphic designer,” said Hawbletzel.
Alon Weinberg, 26-year-old graphic designer, was presented with one of the Body of Work awards for his piece he completed for the Year of Wellness at the Graphic Design and Multimedia Scholarship Awards Show in May.
“In the fall semester I am going to be doing the internship in the design area so that’s going to be really nice because I did a lot of the work with the wellness like doing the layouts,” said Weinberg. “Even if I didn’t do the illustration, I put them together. It was a good learning experience.”
While looking forward to a graphic design internship in the fall, Weinberg has seen himself become closer to his goal of being a professional graphic designer.
“Even though I’ve been going on and off since ’08, only now, these past two semesters really, have I seen a light at the end of tunnel, like, ‘okay, I can see myself really getting into this and doing this professionally; making money off of it,'” said Weinberg.
Susan Gardner, graphic design faculty, reflects upon the Graphic Design and Multimedia Scholarship Awards Show where they awarded 14 awards to students along with two Body of Work awards to not only Weinberg, but also to Diego Buller.
“Hard work almost over talent,” said Gardner. “Diego, one of the winners [at the GRMM Scholarship Awards Show], and Allan both work tirelessly and they do things above and beyond. If they’re given a project, they’ll do 50 sketches instead of one, so that’s what it takes. Pure and simple: nose to the grindstone and a lot of passion.”
Gardner also looks forward to the fall semester to update her classes so that students can have the most current knowledge within graphic design and the industry.
“I always redo my classes and I take what I’ve learned every semester and freshen up and add to it,” said Gardner. “So that’s always fun to kind of redo the class and reflect on the industry and try to bring anything current people need to know to be successful in this field.”
Gardner, just like other graphic design faculty, is very pleased with the way students have progressed throughout this semester and looks forward to more of it.
“I really see a big growth,” said Gardner. “We have a lot of talented people this year that is unusual and great so who knows? Maybe the program is attracting.”
