Students show off colorful design work

The room is covered in colorful graphic art, talk of a 3D printer and drones can be heard, and someone is putting together a paper race car. Welcome to the Graphic Communications department at Palomar.

Palomar’s Graphic Communications held their Student Expo on Nov. 18 in MD-118. Students, faculty and friends all visited to see what the graphic communication students had created this semester.

The Student Expo also included a design competition. It included many different categories such as book cover design, package design, screen printing, motion graphics, and best of show.

Kenneth Dodson, Graphic Communications professor, said that the goal of the Expo was “to expose our students’ work to everyone on campus and get them excited about the graphics department.”

Mark Bealo, Graphic Communications professor, was proud of the student work. “We have this in order to showcase the quality of student work in our courses… Many people have no idea that we do this certain quality of work,” Bealo said.

Some students had followed the signs from the Student Union Quad to the Student Expo. The current and former graphics students were welcoming and excited to show their and other’s work.

Raymond Diramos, a Graphic Communications student, explained that the Student Expo was a great way to bring in more students and to meet people. Though he did not have anything in the Expo, this was not his first Expo.

“We have been doing this for the last two years and have done two each year,” Diramos said.

Each Expo is different, due to the different students and the change in the graphics industry.

“We have to evolve and change with industry … We do so much package design and product design because that’s what is happening with industry. We used to teach a lot more print, we have all of the printing presses in the back. We hardly use any of that stuff because industry has changed … [now] we are teaching them relevant information that will help them get a job, which is key,” Bealo said.

One of the package designs was done by Palomar student Joseph Goodman. When asked what inspired him to design his arcade game change jar, Goodman answered, “to save up money for video games, and possibly beer.”

Goodman designed in the arcade in the spirit of old school Marvel Vs Capcom cabinet with Wolverine and Ryu on the side. “I found an actual design for an arcade cabinet, but I designed all the images myself,” said Goodman.

Goodman’s piece won Best in Show and package design.

With the change in industry, new graphics classes are being added each semester. A drone class was added for Fall 2015 and a 3D printing class will be added for Spring 2016.