Since late fall of 2018, I have had the privilege to create nine production posters at Central Connecticut State University’s Theatre Department. Productions have included:
Peter and the Starcatcher, a prelude to Peter Pan
The Importance of Being Earnest, an Oscar Wilde play.
Mama Mia!
Romeo & Juliet
Sherlock Holmes
The 25th Annual Spelling Bee
The Wolves
A Beckettian Menagerie
This Random World
The 225 issue spans the extensive rich history of Cheshire Academy, a day and boarding private school in Cheshire, Connecticut. My thought process on the design of the magazine was to fully immerse the reader in Cheshire Academy's history and present day. Articles and stories from the past are shown in black and white with the school blue as an accent color. The transition to full color was to integrate the present. I used illustrations for the title of "History of the Arts" to honor the incredible work done by art students of the academy. To contrast the arts, I restored, edited and re-purposed the cover of a football program from 1964 for "Legacy of Athletics" to show the rooted history of the athletic’s programs. For the main feature of the magazine, "Early Academics", I wanted to show the full scope of how old the academy is. The academy opened when George Washington was President so it was critical to incorporate as many images as possible that the article focused on.
The 2019 acceptance package was redesigned with a refreshingly designed folder incorporating a custom letter head, photo prop for social media and a welcome note card from a Cheshire Academy student.
The thought process behind this design was to make it colorful, welcoming and exciting! The images were selected to show a complete, cohesive look at what school life is at the academy. The space on the inside of the folder was used to maximize the information that needed to be presented to the newly accepted students.
Volunteering is incredibly important to me. I have been volunteering for Dog Star Rescue for over 3 years. Dog Star Rescue is a non-profit rescue located in Bloomfield, CT. The rescue just celebrated it’s 3,000th life saved as of June, 2020! My role in volunteering is to work with the “A-team” (short for advertising) to produce marketing pieces intended to continuously build the rescue’s reach. Recently, I created a branding guide to help the rescue to create consistency throughout all of the marketing pieces.
Meriden Human Society’s Animal Care Coordinator Danielle Consiglio, and Kim Drew Sauer, Board of Directors has worked with a dog named Echo who has been at the shelter for 2 years. She is going to explain why it is crucial to establish a foundation of trust between Echo and his potential new adopters to ensure a successful relationship. Due to his past history of trust, the shelter has to take extra steps in order for Echo to have a successful adoption. I want the viewer to understand that not all dogs that have issues are broken and that they can be rehabilitated. For the viewer to be more educated on difficult adoptions, this will help them understand that dogs do not innately know how to communicate with humans and that we must train and work with them to communicate.
This project was created during my fall 2018 graduate semester at CCSU. For my final project in film, I was assigned to create a short documentary. Since my capstone is about how humans and dog communicate, I choose to work with the Meriden Humane Society to get a better insight into how building trust is a crucial part for dogs. Especially dogs who have been through tough situations.
When you hear a dog breed, an image and emotional feeling may come to mind. A Golden Retriever, Husky, Labrador, Poodle, may promote very happy and positive images. What about when you hear breeds such as a Rottweiler, Doberman, German Shepard or even Pitbull? The images that come to mind may be more anxious and fear based.
For my final project of my master’s program, I am researching how dogs and humans communicate. In order for humans to understand dogs, we must first understand who they are as an animal. Over the past 35,000 years, dogs and humans have evolved together, creating a bond that is more sacred than any other co-species relationship on this earth. For my final project in photography, I wanted to capture a dog’s life. My dog Fitch is a dog breed that has a bad reputation and his intimating look certainly doesn’t help. He is a brazen 116-pound American Bulldog/Pitbull mix. To help ease his stereotype, I want to capture photos that help eliminate those stereotypes when you look at the images. Take a look at the final project here.
The concept behind dressing Fitch as a human was to evoke happiness and laughter. Photographs of dogs naturally capture people, so I wanted this series of photos to be playful, imaginative, silly and fun. In all his photos, there is either a single bright color in each photo or multiple bright colors. Color in photos can promote a tone or emotion and since this series is focuses on optimism, I wanted the colors to be bright and engaging as a secondary component while Fitch was the primary focus. I don’t believe I have found my style of photographing dogs just yet, though I am excited to see where it will go and the positive impact I hope it makes on those breeds that are often seen through a negative lens.
