Hello everyone, my name is Laura Gonzalez, and I am a full-time student at Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts and a Douglass Residential College student. I am also the current graphic designer for the Margery Somers Foster Center, Douglass Library. For the past 2 years, I have been working for Kayo Denda, creating visuals for the Center including event posters, booklets, and infographics.

The first project was a multiple parts project for the retirement of Professor Mary E. Hawkesworth, a distinguished professor in the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at Rutgers University. I created the event program and the PowerPoint Presentation using design elements, book cover images of books authored and edited by Professor Hawkesworth, and images from her significant career accomplishments. The event posters used the images of the front (right) and the back (left) covers of the event program below.

The second project consisted of a set of Douglass Library’s signage with the purpose of orienting the students and visitors to their desired destinations, including study rooms, bathrooms, and computer labs, in order to enhance their experience in the library. The colors used are bright, warm, and welcoming to the visitors, with easy to understand and straight forward information, perfect for everyone.

The third project was a collaboration with a fellow co-worker Merna Ahmed, an amazing design student and friend. We designed the user manual for the new presentation technology in the Mabel Smith Douglass Room, with easy to understand, and clear step-by-step guide of setting up and using the new devices in the room.

The fourth project consisted of the creation a poster about the former Douglass College Dean Margery Somers Foster, as a way of honoring her legacy and accomplishments. I used photos from her deanship years from the yearbooks and archives.  The color palette of the poster is on a pastel side, and I used the existing decorative patterns in the room creating a sense of harmony to the room.

 The fifth project is a bookplate for the Celebration of Scholarship 2020 event that was scheduled in the Margery Somers Foster Center, but it was cancelled due to the novel coronavirus. However, the design is still relevant. The picture of the MSFC that I took depicts the beautiful room and an environment that makes the Center a great place to study, learn, and relax as well.

(Post by Laura Gonzalez)

Hello everyone, my name is Whitney Kehl (pronounced like the vegetable, kale), and I am the current Graduate Specialist for the Margery Somers Foster Center. This summer I have been working on creating some original workshops for Rutgers students to participate in this Fall and I am very excited to see what type of engagement we get in them! These 3 workshops are a blend of presenting on certain information tools and discussing the use value they may hold for students in academic as well as personal life, while also giving artistic tutorials and providing an opportunity for students to express themselves creatively in multimedia. Blended into the conversations will be the topics of the politics of visuality, power systems within “free” digital technologies, differences in personal subjectivity, incidental blockages that happen during information sharing and knowledge production, as well as things like metadata, weeding library collections, self-promotion techniques and basic filming tips.   

I am a graduate student in the Rutgers School of Communication and Information, in the Master of Information program. My concentration is in Archives and Preservation and in the future I hope to work in as an archivist or a records manager, in a non-profit organization or government. My goal in creating these workshops was to blend instruction on information resources, with opportunities for communication and art creation for students. I have a background in the arts and art history, and when I was an undergraduate student working as a resident advisor, my supervisor used to tell us that our programs for residents could look and taste figuratively like cotton candy, but that we needed to disguise a nugget of education in the center of that, to try and pass along to the students. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to do something similar with these workshops through the Margery Somers Foster Center. I hope participants will walk away with some tangible skills and ideas to reflect on, but ideally really enjoy themselves and feel inspired along the way.

Without further ado, here is the Fall 2020 Workshop lineup!

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Exploring Google Street View: Learn Landscape Drawing with Virtual Mediation and Metadata 

Thursday, September 17, 2020, 7:00-8:15PM

Registration for Exploring Google Street View: Learn Landscape Drawing with Virtual Mediation and Metadata.

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“Weeding” Books and Creating Your Own Blackout Poetry

Thursday, October 15, 2020, 7:00-8:15PM

Registration for “Weeding” Books and Creating Your Own Blackout Poetry.

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Augmented Reality: Bring Your Resumé and other Projects to Life with Zappar

Thursday, November 12, 2020,  7:00-8:15PM

Registration for Augmented Reality.