Healthy Honey O’s isn’t a real cereal, but its packaging could fit in at any grocery store. 黄色蜂窝状的盒子, 还有营养成分和一只微笑的大黄蜂, is a completed student project that’s on display in Suzy Johnson’s classroom. 作为课程主任 项目 & 组合四世 in 满帆的平面设计学士课程, Suzy shows students how to marry art fundamentals like drawing with the latest digital design tools to create portfolio pieces like Healthy Honey O’s. Suzy’s varied professional experiences and inherent love for both artistry and technology helps guide 平面设计 students as they build their professional portfolios.

在对艺术感兴趣之前，苏西对科技感兴趣. 当她长大的时候, she loved taking apart everything from computers to her Sony Walkman to stereos to vacuum cleaners. She pursued a Digital 媒体 degree at the University of Central Florida and learned how to manipulate objects on a computer. 当苏茜到达节目的艺术部分时, she realized that she wanted to combine technology and art by pursuing graphic design. She wound up graduating from UCF with dual bachelor’s degrees in Digital 媒体 and Fine 艺术, 两者都以平面设计为重点.

苏茜毕业时正值经济大衰退最严重的时候, but she used the connections she’d made in the graphic design community to find an eclectic combination of internships and contract positions. She did everything from designing newspaper inserts for used car sales to creating branding for events and initiatives under UCF’s Office of 本科 Studies to serving on the board of Orlando’s AIGA chapter. One of her favorite jobs was doing screen printing for a boutique agency.

“I loved screen printing, even though I didn't take any printmaking classes in college. 我是在实习时学会的. 它是科技的混合体, 在电脑上创作, 然后以某种方式将其转换成模拟并打印出来. 它是高端技术，也是基本功能. 墨水是怎么用的? 纸是如何工作的?? 你如何在屏幕上推东西? Figuring out the process was more interesting to me than the actual design,” Suzy says.

She also gained experience with retail packaging during a stint at office and art supply company Dixon Ticonderoga.

“I would make the prototype packaging for [Dixon] sales associates to take to meetings with retailers. They told me I got so good that most buyers couldn’t tell the difference between the potential UPCs and the real ones. It was tedious, but really taught me a lot about layout and craftsmanship,” she says.

Suzy found a long-term job that embraced her experiences with art and technology in 2009, 当她开始在满帆教书时. She’s spent over a decade showing future designers how to thoughtfully approach design projects. 她现在的班是项目班 & 平面设计专业的作品集四. 该课程将艺术和技术基础与品牌相结合, 概念的发展, and form and function knowledge to help students build their first campaign portfolio piece.

“我给他们选择项目的机会. 我有一个零售品牌包装项目, 我有一个插画项目, 也就是运动品牌. 我有移动应用程序设计, 哪个比响应式web更复杂, 我也有一个项目. Then I have a project that's [doing whatever you’d like] within certain parameters,” Suzy explains.

在苏茜的班上, the concept and process behind a design is just as important as the finished product. She challenges her students to think carefully about all of their project’s graphic elements while they’re under a tight deadline — for a recent in-class project, they had just four hours to create “Welcome to Earth” brochures for visiting aliens.

“Not only do they get to test their knowledge of what a brochure is, 它们可以探索多重折叠, 面板, 大小, 诸如此类. It can even be a custom shape if they want… They also work on 概念的发展. 每次实验作业之后, we wait a couple days and we hang it up on the board and critique… I like to talk a lot about context and process [during the project critiques]. You can do the surface level and be okay, and for some people that's cool. Or you can go really deep with it and do something crazy and take a risk, 因为你在这里损失的只是分数. 你不会失去薪水或工作，”她说.

Suzy hopes that encouraging her students to take risks and explore the interplay of art and tech will help them walk away with a graphic design essential: developing their own creative voice.

“I'm looking for the traditional and the digital and I want my students to do that too… I think that's when you find your voice is when you think about design beyond having the latest and greatest tech, 或者你找到功能和设计技术之间的平衡点.”