Andrew Reifman

The new year has began for me, just like it has for many, as a fresh start in life. Myself, along with hundreds of other UGA students have finally reached the goal of graduating before hitting that five year mark. After four and a half years of sitting through hours of class and making meager wages working a part-time job at The UPS Store, I have earned my degree in graphic design. Although many automatically think, "Art degree? What do you do for a job? Draw stuff? Sounds easy." Wrong! Yes, majoring in art does mean that you greatly reduce the amount of tests you take in college, but that doesn't mean it's any less work. And my department definitely didn't make my last semester at UGA easy by any means.

For my graphic design class' final semester, we were required to work on a 4 month long project and present it to our teachers and peers at the end of the semester. The purpose of the project is to give you a more, real-world sense of what graphic design is. In other words, you pick a company, or organization, and treat them like a client. You design their identity, create brochures, booklets, posters and whatever element is needed to make your client look good. All of this also needs to be within a reasonable "budget". So no holographic advertisements projected over the Empire State Building in New York.

For my project, I combined my interest in music with my love of design. I used the name of an existing record label, and without knowing anything about them or what their identity looks like, I created my own designs for my "client". Being in Athens, it's not very difficult to find good bands to use as clients, either. I selected 3 bands, all diverse in their musical style and fan base, and proceeded to design album packaging for each group. My main goal was to create packaging different from the typical jewel case everyone has seen for over a decade. At the same time, thinking of 3 different ways to present new and interesting packaging for each band.

To wrap this mini-bio up, after months of working, and by working, I mean actual effort put forth into making a good project, everything came together in the end. Sleep was scarce during those months for everyone in my class, but everyone was extremely happy after seeing their finished works hung up in a gallery downtown.

You've probably already guessed that my teachers passed me and gave me good marks for my project. Otherwise, I'd still be sitting in class, getting one step closer to falling into the bottle. I can proudly say that I'm now working at the best darn Web site design company in all of Athens. Seriously, I am extremely relieved to have a job right out of college. Before, when I would sit around doing nothing, I wasn't getting paid. Now, I can sit around all day and do nothing, and get paid! Just kidding, Stephanie.