HP
The School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City isn’t just developing talented artists and designers who create beautiful images. It’s graduating entrepreneurs prepared to take the marketplace by storm with innovative solutions to meet complex social needs and enrich our changing lifestyles.
Students’ ideas have included a new location-based mobile app providing stories about places in nature, an affordable micro-loan program to finance student education, and an interactive iPad game to get kids interested in science. These ideas, and others like them, are bursting with potential, and HP and Mohawk have teamed up to help students showcase their work.
Over the past three years, these industry giants have served as sponsors of the MFA Design: Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program at SVA. The program represents two years of intensive training and hard work by aspiring designers, culminating in their final thesis projects.
Graduating students also participate in the annual MFA Design Thesis Forum held at the Milton Glaser-designed SVA Theatre. They present their entrepreneurial products, campaigns, apps and more on stage to their peers, the design community and the public. Moreover, potential clients, partners and investors hear and see these unique proposals and market-ready ventures.
In 2013, 2014 and 2015, HP and Mohawk produced stunning catalogs designed by SVA students to showcase their work. These catalogs were distributed at each Thesis Forum event and mailed to a select audience. The catalogs complement a full marketing mix students carefully conceived and executed to promote their proposals. Each student’s thesis was boldly presented on a full-page layout along with a prominent listing of the project website, personal website, email address and social media networks.
“The SVA MFA Designer as Author and Entrepreneur program prepares designers to enter the real world with valuable design-driven ventures for both the commercial and social arenas. We are leaders in this sphere, and it stands to reason that we seek equally high quality leaders like HP and Mohawk who sponsor and co-produce our catalogs,” says Lita Talarico, SVA faculty member and co-chair of the program.
The catalogs represent a true artistic collaboration with HP and Mohawk introducing some of their latest printing and paper capabilities to help bring student concepts to life. The 2013 “Hatched” catalog featured new transparent ink on a black substrate; the 2014 “Venture” catalog incorporated white ink; and the 2015 “Emprise” catalog employed a digital short run.
These innovations underscore the continuing relevance of print in today’s creative environment where the lines between traditional and digital marketing continue to blur. While exciting new applications to engage consumers electronically emerge, print is likewise evolving, providing enhanced color, sharper detail, broader substrates and greater immediacy.
The end result with print is a striking visual piece that is luxurious to hold, challenges the imagination and secures its place among unique audiences as a valuable artifact.
“This project is a perfect fit for HP Indigo digital print technology. The quality and craftsmanship of the students’ projects was flawlessly represented through the rich color reproduction and gallery-quality printing that pieces like this deserve,” says Doris Brown-McNally, HP worldwide brands business development manager. The catalogs were produced by Bennett Graphics in Atlanta.
HP and Mohawk are investing in ongoing industry innovation, and their sponsorship of SVA reflects this effort.
“Mohawk has a long-standing commitment to design education and is especially happy to lend our support to help a new generation of designers discover the lasting impact of printing and paper,” says Chris Harrold, Mohawk vice president of business development.
If you’d like to see an impressive array of projects that represent the nature of future innovations, visit SVA’s MFA Design website at http://design.sva.edu/thesis/ and learn more about what its recent graduating designers and entrepreneurs have been doing. You’re bound to be inspired at the very least, and you may even want to adopt one for your own benefit.
For more SVA MFA Design success stories, visit http://design.sva.edu/podcast/mfa-design-success-stories/
For more information about HP, visit www.hp.com/go/discoverdigital
For more information about Mohawk digital papers, visit www.mohawkconnects.com
PaperSpecs readers, enter to win one of 20 copies of the stunning catalogs mentioned above! Hurry, contest ends April 29th!
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