Education Outreach | AIGA Austin

Education Outreach Events

Student Picnic

Join other design students and creative professionals for a picnic, an opportunity to mingle and build a creative network. Also take this chance to meet our Austin board, a time to voice your opinion and share your passion for our amazing profession!

AIGA Student Portfolio Review

This day-long event is designed to give you—a graduating senior or graduate-level student about to embark on a career in the design industry—advice, insight, and useful information about how to present yourself and your work. Here is your chance to have a professional look at your portfolio in a no-risk, non-competitive environment. Practice your interview skills and get honest feedback about your portfolio and resume.

Graphic Design high school mentorship

AIGA Austin has partnered with the Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA) to provide professionals for an electronic magazine class mentorship program. In 2007, Brandi Richey and Kendra Young developed a 9th-grade course for the Liberal Arts and Science Academy called Electronic Magazine. The semester-based class serves as an intro to new media, and the students create magazines, blogs, and podcasts. The course is one semester, so students learn the basics of InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, as well as interviewing, writing, and editing skills. All 9th-grade students are required to take the course, and very few (if any) have had any experience working with design software.

Here are some magazines from semesters past.

What will the students know?
Well, depending on when you visit, students may have just started working with page layout or they may be making polishing edits to their designs. To see what students are learning at a particular point in the semester, please visit our class calendars (Richey) (Young) and reference book. These resources are constantly updated, so check back regularly if you want a glimpse of what we’re working on.

How can you help?
At the beginning of each semester, we seek volunteer graphic design mentors who can meet regularly with 2 or 3 groups of students (each group usually has 3-4 students) for about an hour to an hour and a half. If possible, we’d love you to pop in at least once a month to provide encouragement and constructive criticism to your groups. You are not responsible for reading or editing their content; we only ask that you help them polish their design layouts.

Responsibilities:
1. Provide constructive feedback for students. Remember, most have never had experience in designing and a little encouragement can go a long way. There is no way that we can teach everything about design and writing in 18 weeks, so please understand that there are some principles that we may not have time to address.

2. Ask questions. If you want to know why a student used a particular image or font, ask away. They should be able to defend all of their design decisions.

3. Communicate. We know that the unexpected is bound to happen, but please let your group(s) know if you are unable to make an appointment that you previously scheduled. In addition, your group may email you with design questions, and they really appreciate it when they receive a timely response.

4. Have a good time! Being a design mentor can be a very rewarding and fun experience — especially since the students LOVE getting feedback from the pro’s. If you’re willing to listen, counsel, and guide some enthusiastic designers-in-training, please let us know! We’d love to have you on our team.

Current mentorship needs have been met, but check back for more opportunities or contact LAZA at lasaezine@gmail.com.

AIGA AUSTIN STUDENT GROUPS

Gail Bayeta
ACC Faculty Advisor
Austin Community College, Visual Communications
512 223 4798
Contact Member

Vickie Roy
ACC Student Liaison
Austin Community College, Visual Communications
Contact Member

Barry Underhill
Art Institute of Austin Faculty Advisor
Art Institute of Austin
512 691 1707
Contact Member

Natalie Davis
Art Institute of Austin Faculty Advisor
Art Institute of Austin
Contact Member

Jessica Clark
Art Institute of Austin Student Liaison
Contact Member

Hanna Ensor
Art Institute of Austin Student Liaison VP
Contact Member

David C. Smith
Schreiner Faculty Advisor
830 792 7393
Contact Member

Tom Berno
Texas State Faculty Advisor
Texas State Deptartment of Art and Design
512 245 2836
Contact Member

Natali Villanueva
Texas State Student Liaison
Contact Member