The showcase will feature a variety of projects, highlighting students’ skills in branding, typography, illustration and other areas. Portfolio Day provides a platform for students to present their work to potential employers, industry professionals and the public.

Senior Roann Carter emphasized the event’s importance, calling it “more important than a graduation ceremony” for students to display their work and network. Carter is particularly excited to present a packaging project created for a Japanese root vegetable company.

“The journey for this project was a long one and its evolution is probably the most satisfying of all my projects as it all came together beautifully in the end,” Carter said. “I’m also particularly proud of the way I used Illustrator to create the effects I was looking for.”

Canon, a valued UofL partner since 2018, is sponsoring the event. The company’s ongoing support provides mentorship, workshops and learning experiences for students. Canon also provided funding to enhance the graphic design program’s Digital Print Lab.

Peter P. Kowalczuk, Canon U.S.A., Inc.’s executive vice president and Client Services Group president, said the support for the program remains an important way for the next generation of designers to learn from – and connect with – members of the creative industry.

“We are pleased to again be part of Portfolio Day with the University of Louisville and its wonderful program that helps to inspire young artists and designers,” Kowalczuk said. “Providing talented students with the means to succeed in the world of design remains a worthy goal, and we appreciate all the hard work the team at the Hite Institute continues to put in to make this event so successful.”

Portfolio Day will be held at the UofL Belknap Campus, Miller IT Building, Bigelow Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.

Learn more about Portfolio Day and Canon’s involvement by reading UofL News’ recap of the 2024 event.

Held in the ASC galleries through Dec. 16, the exhibit will open with a reception on July 14 at 5 p.m. featuring the dedication and renaming of the Photographic Archives gallery in Friedman’s honor.

Friedman’s sister, Carol Abrams, donated the bulk of his artistic works to the Photographic Archives after his passing in 2017.

“Julius loved to mentor students and fellow artists. In giving his work to the Archives and Special Collections, students can learn from his work,” she said.

Abrams also provided support to renovate the gallery, enhance storage for ASC’s photographic holdings, including Friedman’s work, and prepare the collection for research by the community. This preparatory work is ongoing, and the full collection is expected to be open to the public in 2023.

Beloved by the local arts community, Friedman also was highly regarded among international audiences. Perhaps best known for the posters “Fresh Paint” and “Toe on Egg,” Friedman created posters and other graphic works for a broad range of clients. Outside of his design work, Friedman created his own artwork through photography – often printing on unique surfaces like metals and fabrics – as well as sculpture, furniture design, collage, book art and collaborative video. While this exhibit focuses on his early posters, the collection includes this broad range of media and formats.

“Julius Friedman was such a significant figure in our local arts scene,” said ASC Director Carrie Daniels. “We are delighted to serve as the home of his archive, and to present a slice of it to the community in this exhibition.”

Friedman was a graphic design graduate of UofL and had a decades-long relationship with the University Libraries. His work frequently appeared in ASC exhibits, including a 2012 celebration of Photographic Archives’ 50^th Anniversary, which featured Friedman’s photographic capture of a ballet dancer in mid-swirl. Friedman’s close friend, former Art Library Director Gail Gilbert, inspired one of Friedman’s later efforts, a project titled The Book. Gilbert suggested that Friedman create works of art from old books that otherwise would have been thrown away, and he ran with the project, taking old books, tearing them, twisting them, boring into them, reconstituting them and creating art. The Book consists of 130 photographs of that art.

Among ASC’s digital offerings are two recordings of conversations between Abrams and ASC archivist and local historian Tom Owen. In them, Abrams discusses her memories of growing up with Julius, her older brother and only sibling, and how she came to work alongside him in his studio and then gallery to exhibit and sell his work commercially. Abrams recounts observing her brother’s talent burgeoning in childhood and watching him become successful as an adult. She also talks about establishing a nonprofit foundation in her brother’s name to help young people pursue academic degrees in the arts, the .

The Early Poster Designs of Julius Friedman, 1965-1980 will run July 14-Dec. 16 in the Julius Friedman Gallery, on the lower level of Ekstrom Library on UofL’s Belknap campus.��

After developing symptoms such as fever, fatigue and trouble breathing, Booker headed to a Louisville emergency room for what he thought was a case of pneumonia. Much to his surprise, the nursing staff informed him that had contracted the COVID-19 virus. He was admitted to the hospital and was immediately prepped for a CT Scan. That’s where Booker’s memory goes dark.

“I woke up over a month later in Lexington, not knowing where I was at. A nurse came in and started asking me questions. She asked me what month I thought it was. I went in on July 18 – so I told her July. It was September.”

Booker awoke from his medically-induced coma over 70 miles from home and surrounded by a sea of needles, tubes and life-supporting medical equipment. The medical staffs of three different hospitals had worked diligently to save his life, but Booker wasn’t out of the woods just yet.

While Booker had survived a 95-day battle with COVID-19, the long road to rehabilitation was still ahead of him when he was transferred to Baptist Health Louisville on Oct. 11. He had lost over 50 pounds over the course of treatment. It was difficult to bear his full weight on his legs, and even more difficult to start walking again. The feeding tube that had kept him alive now presented him with new challenges to overcome. Booker had to re-learn how to eat, drink and speak again.

Overcoming these new challenges was a feat on its own, but Booker was determined to reunite with his family as soon as possible.

“I’m a father, so my biggest concern was getting back to my daughter. We are so close it isn’t even funny. For me, quitting wasn’t even an option,” Booker said.

On Oct. 23, Booker was discharged. He was met by a processional of friends, family and coworkers waving signs saying, “best day ever” and “welcome home.”  After months apart, Booker was reunited with his overjoyed 4-year-old daughter. But this happy homecoming would unfortunately be cut short.

A sharp pain in his stomach immediately set off alarm bells for Booker. After returning to the hospital, doctors informed Booker that his gallbladder had failed. It needed to be removed, but his lungs were still weak for the surgery to be performed safely. After weeks of outpatient care and recovery from his rollercoaster battle with the COVID-19 virus, the surgery was carried out successfully. Demetrius Booker was finally going home for good.��

Coworkers at the University of Louisville were among Booker’s biggest supporters during his battle with COVID-19 and gallbladder failure. Colleagues transferred their own sick days and vacation days to Booker. Some came with homemade signs for their coworker to celebrate his recovery. Many donated money to the GoFundMe page that mitigated healthcare expenses. Over $21,000 was raised throughout 5 months by over 340 donors.

When asked about the actions of his UofL family, Booker stated, “I was so taken back. I truly felt blessed. I didn’t even know that I impacted people like that. To everyone who donated hours, who donated money, who reached out saying they were praying for me – all I can tell you is thank you. I don’t know how to ever re-pay you. It truly was one of those things I’ll never forget. It really did touch me.”

Booker went on to highlight the impact of his supervisor, Kari Donahue. Donahue helped promote the GoFundMe page started by Booker’s family. Through Donahue’s coordination and commitment, Booker was able to maintain his full salary despite his months of intensive care.

“She fought tooth and nail to make sure people knew my story. She wanted people to know that one of her employees was going through it, and that alone speaks volumes. We truly are a community within the workplace,” Booker said. “To know an employer is standing beside you like that – it makes you love and enjoy where you work and what you do even more.”

“I started designing in high school, but high school Ava’s design capabilities would not have won this contest, that is for sure,” she said.

Becker decided to focus on the unique architecture of Columbus and the winning logo features (see below, from left to right) the Robert N. Stewart Second Street Bridge, First Christian Church, the Bartholomew County Courthouse and North Christian Church.

“They were looking for submissions for a logo that encapsulated Columbus and its 200 years of history,” Becker said. “I referred to things that I learned about graphic designer Paul Rand in my ‘Typography and History of Graphic Design’ classes with and .”

Rand, known for his corporate logos, was influential in branding for Columbus, she said. “I was very inspired by this as Rand’s designs are still very present in Columbus almost 50 years later, so I wanted to allude to him, or almost honor him, by following the color scheme from his work. I chose Avante Garde as my font, which is also commonly used in branding across Columbus.”

Becker said she will wait until this year is over to decide on her specific career goals, but is thinking about merchandise and packaging design.��

This year’s rite of passage will be a little different.

Graduating graphic design students of the Hite Art Institute collaborated with their program administrators to determine how to virtually celebrate their long awaited celebration.��

“It’s the chance for students to have their moment in the sun, shining the light on the impressive work they have done throughout the graphic design program, culminating in their senior portfolio,” said Leslie Friesen, Power Agency Designer-in-Residence, who teaches the Portfolio class.

With all university events being suspended until further notice due to COVID-19, the program decided to transform Portfolio Day into a set of virtual experiences.

First, they launched a web portal, , where each graduate’s picture and portfolio card are shown. Additionally, they scheduled, “Virtual Portfolio Days,” to take place May 6-8. These three designated weekdays are when graduates will connect one-on-one with graphic design alumni and professionals through the Zoom videoconference platform.

“Like everyone in my class, I wish we could have had our portfolio day as usual, but this is a great alternative. With this virtual solution, we’ll be able to reach professionals and alums from all over the country, not just the Louisville area, and that’s super exciting,” said Logan Wells, 2020 graphic design graduate.

In the 15-minute video sessions with alumni and professionals, graduates will receive feedback on their work, along with ideas for how to start building their professional network.

“I’m looking forward to getting feedback on the work in my portfolio,” said Susan Pallmann. “I am also looking forward to meeting potential employers and getting a better sense, based on the people I meet and talk to, of what kind of place I want to work in going forward.”

The program invites all willing alumni and community professionals to sign up now for one or more virtual meetings with graduates. The allows professionals to select the specific students that they’d like to meet with on May 6-8.

“This year, more than ever, we want great participation by our amazing, supportive professional community to help make this a special experience for our grads,” said Friesen.

Kim, who was born in South Korea and raised in Kentucky, is the recipient of the Dunaway Scholarship and the Mason Family Foundation Scholarship from the foundation.��

“Growing up for me was a little different than for most kids. I learned two different languages and had two different cultures,” she said.��

The one part of her life that wasn’t split between the two, however, was art.��

“I would draw all over the house and everywhere, including my dad’s car,” she said.��

Kim said her parents moved to the United States to chase their dreams and to give her the opportunity to pursue hers as well. That is precisely what she is doing at the University of Louisville.��

“Ever since I was young, I knew I wanted to do something in art,” she said. “I chose graphic design as my major because it gives me lots of opportunities and I get to help people communicate their messages through the field of graphic design.”

More information about the Community Foundation’s Scholars of Kentucky program is .��

Two alums of got to be part of the action.

The company tapped Ashley Trommler, who graduated in 2011, to design the graphics for its installer vans. They also commissioned Carrie Donovan, class of 2016, to design a building mural in Portland, one of the first neighborhoods to receive the service.  

“While, yes, I’m stoked to have Google on my resume, this project meant so much more than that,” Trommler said. “I’m honored to be a small part of something so monumental for our city.”

Trommler said Google reached out to several Louisville designers in June to submit concepts for the van design.

“They gave us a lot of freedom,” she said. “It had to contain ‘Louisville’ in the text, no Google branding, represent our city in a unique way, and be inclusive and mindful of the city’s diversity and not isolating in any way.”

Trommler immediately got going, waking up at 5 a.m. for several days on her family vacation to hammer out concepts. She ended up presenting three different designs that included a breakdown of symbols and meanings and mockups on the actual van. Six days later, she received an e-mail from Google Fiber saying they loved her artwork and wanted to work with her exclusively.

Trommler, who is the art director at  marketing agency, spent the next month tweaking the design, knowing that Google Fiber would launch this fall.��

She wanted her design to convey the overall southern hospitality that Louisville is known for. She used a light-hearted color palette and playful “Hey Y’all” banner to give that friendly Louisville feeling.��

“In a community that is saturated with amazing design talent, I tend to fall victim to imposter syndrome more often than I’d like to admit,” she said. “This partially became a project to prove to myself that yes, I can do work for Google and it’s going to be great.”

Donovan answered a call for murals from  a partner with Google Fiber, and was one of three artists chosen to complete murals in the company’s initial neighborhoods. She worked with , a non-profit, pay-as-you-can restaurant in Portland, to come up with a mural design that represents their mission.�� 

“Letting the community shine was really important to Google Fiber, and I love that they are supporting the arts and neighborhoods in Louisville,” said Donovan, who works as a graphic designer at the .��

Her design says “Portland flows with promise” which represents all that happens in the Promise Building (of which The Table Cafe is a part). The semicircle and banner shape connect the different spaces in the building visually and the type style and layout represent ‘flow’ as Portland is near the river and the work that happens in the Promise Building flows into the community.

“My experience at Hite prepared me so well for a project like this, especially my letterforms class with Professor Steve Skaggs and Design for Public Issues with Leslie Friesen. They taught me to look carefully at type and to manage real life projects,” she said.��

Friesen maintains contact with both students and is proud of the work they are producing.

“I’m always impressed by what our alums are doing. It’s a great point of pride to see their work selected for projects like this,” Friesen said.

They passed a binder, wrapped in gold paper, off to members of the Louisville Climate Action Network, the nonprofit they were tasked with working with for the semester.

The binder held the brand standards guide for the new suite of marketing materials the students had designed for the group – everything from a new logo, website, print materials, social media elements and environmental graphics for a proposed brick and mortar outreach center called the EcoDepot.

Like passing off a driver’s manual, the brand standards will allow LCAN to use the students’ designs to fulfill its mission of educating locals on how to reduce their carbon footprint.

“It makes us feel good to see it all out there in the world,” said Leslie Friesen, class instructor.

Since 2010, the course has served as a culminating, service learning experience for BFA students in the Graphic Design program, where they can apply all they’ve learned in their prior two years of classes. Students work as a team with a nonprofit to develop materials that effectively communicate the organization’s message and provide a strong, cohesive visual identity.

“The overall goal is to increase awareness, involvement and support for these nonprofits,” Friesen said.

Organizations selected have limited resources and couldn’t otherwise afford the work.

For example, Friesen said a private agency would likely have charged LCAN as much as $200,000 for the the number of hours that the team of 13 students put into the project.��

“This is the huge advantage of having a metropolitan research university in this city – the focus on service. Students and faculty take the education process and apply it to the needs of the community as they’ve done here,” said Barry Zalph, an LCAN board member.

Zalph said the experience was educational for them as well, as they were exposed to tools they hadn’t even considered using.

The group had a simple website, a Facebook page, a few flyers, but not much else.

“They needed everything from soup to nuts,” Friesen said.

To help with the large task, the class visited Humana’s Digital Experience Center where members of their creative team, which included several Hite graphic design alums, lead them in a workshop that introduced their process of designing collaboratively. That process was incorporated into this year’s class as they developed initial design ideas for LCAN’s work.

“It got us building off each other’s work,” Friesen said.

Students said they felt proud of the end product.

“I’m surprised by how much work we got done,” said senior Jenna White.

“… and how well we worked together,” agreed Jennie DiBeneditto, also a senior.

The shelving graphics, called endcaps, highlight call numbers for Bridwell’s collection, displayed over multilayered, fragmented images from within the library’s art books. Not only is the design of high quality, it showcases the talent of UofL graphic design sophomore Jenna White.

Bridwell Director Sarah Carter was first introduced to White in Fall 2015, when UofL Graphic Design faculty member and Power Creative designer-in-residence Leslie Friesen approached Carter with the idea of allowing Friesen’s graphic design class to use the library as a blank canvas of sorts, for environmental graphics within the space. Carter would be under no obligation to implement a design, but if one emerged, the library had the option to see the project to completion. The class gave students real-world experience, but also allowed them to explore the limits of their creativity without feeling too constrained by the client-artist relationship.

Eager to upgrade the library’s interior, and loathe to turn down an opportunity to work with student designers, Carter agreed.

“I was happy to offer our space as their laboratory,” said Carter. “I knew we really needed something to display the call numbers at the end of the stacks shelves, something functional but with aesthetic parameters. So I agreed.”

The students first met with Carter to hash out details and learn about the library’s collection, color palette, furniture, lighting and environment. They then immersed themselves in the library’s interior space for several weeks, poring over stacks of art books, taking notes and pictures and “learning about us,” said Carter.  After a design charrette where Carter offered a critique of students’ work, they refined their designs.

“It was really gratifying to see, as a client, how they listened and met my needs,” Carter said. “The trickiest part of the design was that the call numbers were variable, ranging from short to long, depending on how the books are catalogued, so the design had to be flexible for future updates and additions to the collection. Many of the students had innovative ideas, but they were not flexible or modifiable.”

Carter said the chosen design “accomplished the functional goals we had, enhanced wayfinding, but was aesthetically pleasing and visually exciting  ̶  and most of all, it was flexible.”

“I felt so honored to have my design selected,” said White, a UPS-sponsored sophomore and graphic design intern with the Alumni Association. “It was just a class project; we had no idea it would be implemented, but when it was, it was such a great opportunity.”

Finding the balance between aesthetically appealing graphic design and practicality was the main challenge, she said. “I was good at coming up with the creative side of things, but I had to work with Sarah quite a bit to make sure it fulfilled all the needs she had, like wayfinding. That was all new to me and more of a challenge.”

Carter says the process of working with a designer as a client helped her understand the patrons she serves much better. “It was really important to me, because I need to learn what they need so I can help them do their research,” she said.��“I really wanted to invigorate the space and the endcaps really have done that. They help visitors conceptualize what we have on the shelves, and who we are.”

White entered UofL as an art major and was involved in studio art, eager to grow as a painter. “But after I took my first graphic design course, I thought, ‘this is it.’ I just felt pure enjoyment and I was so successful, and then all these opportunities came my way.”

Carter was so impressed with White that she hired her as a student assistant for the library after the project was completed. White is also a graphic design intern with the Alumni Association. Beyond those two commitments and her full class load, White works the night shift at UPS from 6 p.m.��to 8 a.m. three days a week.

Even though she stays busy, she has welcomed new requests for design work. “I try to say yes as often as possible,” she said.��“I love UofL. It’s a wonderful place. I feel like I’m leaving a mark.”