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Issue: Spring 2018 | Posted: June 1, 2018

1050 U.U. Drive

Graphic design students create promotional projects for UN’s Perception Change Project

Union University’s graphic design students have worked for the , based at the United Nations in Geneva, over the past several months, illustrating children’s books and creating projects used in international events and across various social media platforms.

The opportunity began thanks to alumnus Jon Mark Walls, who connected the PCP with Union. Walls has worked alongside Melinda Posey, associate professor of art, and her graphic design classes from early in 2017.

Posey said this marks the first time Union’s graphic design students have worked for an international organization. The students communicated with clients through Skype, Slack and other channels.

“This partnership showed the students that their skill sets and professionalism could be used on a global stage,” Posey said. “The Perception Change Project gave us a wonderful opportunity for our classroom to think globally about messages of design. Students rose to the challenge, meeting deadlines and creating large work for print, web and social media.”

The projects included several illustrations for a children’s book, Fairy Tales for a Fairer World , created to promote the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Union graduate Kayli Sommers, as a senior in 2017, illustrated the book created by the PCP.

Sommers and Union University were mentioned in the liner notes inside After the Rain.

“Needless to say, receiving such a warm reception for something that was very new to me as an artist was really encouraging to experience,” Sommers said.

Mary Scarlett LaBerge, now a Union graduate, said her favorite projects included creating illustrative backgrounds and templates for characters of the Fairy Tales children’s book. The greatest challenge, she said, was that “it had to feel corporate and professional enough to be associated with the work done by an international organization, but also remain whimsical and imaginative enough to be associated with a children’s book.”

“We all competed to have our designs used by an international organization, but at the same time, we relied on each other a lot to carry out all of the finished pieces once the design was chosen,” LaBerge said. “It was the closest thing to agency life I had experienced at that point, and I think it prepared me well for my agency job now.”

In addition to the children’s books, graphic design students created standup character displays, booth designs, coloring book pages and promotional posters for the April 2017 Salon Du Livre book fair in Geneva. They also designed social media templates and other digitally interactive character stand-ups for the PCP’s booth at the Expo 2017 Astana in Kazakhstan.

Posey said her graphic design students have other projects for the PCP that they are continuing to produce on an ongoing basis.