Advanced Media Design, Selected Coursework

Collaboration with Fruit of the Loom and Vanity Fair

My Advanced Media Design course has established a relationship with Fruit of the Loom. Since Spring 2018, these students have participated in a simulated, multi-media campaign design project implemented by members of their creative team, some of which are WKU design alumni. Introduced during the mid-point of the semester, students are given a creative brief drafted by Fruit of the Loom that challenges them to create a cohesive campaign for their target audience. Students have multiple check-points with the creative team and this culminates in a final presentation and pitch. These projects have included: an underwear/apparel line for kids ages 8-12, a sports bra promotional campaign under the Vanity Fair brand promoting breast cancer awareness, a partnership/collaboration for men’s brands under the Fruit of the Loom product line, and a white-space/pop-up-shop campaign. While these works make unique portfolio pieces and experiences, they have also received national recognition. Recent graduate, Molly Lee’s Fit Bit and Fruit of the Loom partnership project was awarded an honorable mention at the 2021 UCDA design awards.

Travel & Tourism Website and App Prototype, Spring 2021

For this assignment, students selected a state or country as their focus location. Prior to developing anything visual, they researched the location extensively and approached the assignment as a first-time visitor to this location. They created a website from scratch utilizing Webflow (the free version allows 2 pages) with the intent that the website serves as the first point of contact/initial planning tool for a user who may be interested in visiting this area. For the website they played close attention to developing both an inviting user interface as well as a site that is easy to use.

After developing the site, they moved on to developing the app prototype in Adobe XD. The goal of the app was to serve as a tool while the travelers were traveling on site. Students spent time researching travel app best practices as well as fundamental UX/UI principles of design and interaction.

Individual Research Projects

The first iteration of independent and self-directed research in Advanced Media Design took the form of “senior-project” style research projects. In Spring 2018 students selected a theme, topic, and area of focus. Students drafted research project proposals and developed their own project timelines. Throughout the semester, students developed multi-component projects that responded to their research and solved the creative problem for their target audience. Students presented their final projects at the end of the semester.