Amanda Smith '24 | Marcom Intern Designs Hood T-shirt

I decided to come to Hood College because my mom graduated from Hood in ’95. I have also always admired the beauty of campus and its historical architecture. I have always been an artistic person, but I became especially interested in graphic design during my sophomore year of high school, when I took my first computer graphics class. I ended up taking every graphic design class my high school offered and then continued to enthusiastically pursue it throughout college. What I loved about the communication arts major is that it wasn’t restricted to just one specific field; instead, I learned about a wide range of digital media, including photography, journalism and videography.

During my final semester at Hood, I interned with the College’s Office of Marketing and Communications, which was an amazing experience for me. I designed digital ads, logos, posters and t-shirts, and I created original illustrations of campus landmarks and Hood’s mascot, Blaze. Throughout my internship, I gained experience working with InDesign software and learned how to properly set up my files for print, which is an extremely important part of the design process that’s often not taught in design courses. I feel as though I also strengthened my illustration skills through the completion of challenging projects, such as my mascot illustrations. It was my first time working in a professional setting as a designer, and I learned so much from my supervisors Renee Rohwer and Ronda Wolford-Smith, who cultivated such a comfortable work environment that allowed me to learn quickly and efficiently.

When I began conceptualizing my design for the new Hood t-shirt, I started by roughly sketching out different ideas using pencil and paper. I knew I wanted to do an illustration, and I eventually settled on the idea of a campus map. I walked around campus and took photos of each building, used additional photos from Hood’s servers, imported them into Adobe Illustrator and then created vectors of each landmark. The buildings are roughly in accurate placement to Hood’s actual layout, and the cardinal directions displayed by the compass are also accurate. I chose to use a cartographic font that replicates the text seen in old maps. I’m really happy with how the final product turned out!

My proudest achievement as a Hood student was graduating summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA.

My advice for incoming communication arts students would be to not get discouraged when you don’t know something. Since the major itself is so broad, I felt intimidated when I had to take classes in subjects I wasn’t very familiar with, such as journalism. However, I feel as though I have graduated as a much more well-rounded individual who has skills in a wide range of fields not just limited to graphic design.

I have simultaneously had an eventful and relaxing summer so far. Two days after graduation, my family and I took a trip to Austria and Germany. Afterwards, I spent my time polishing my design portfolio and job searching. I was just recently hired for a junior graphic designer position at Syzygy Events International in Frederick. They design customized events for a wide range of reputable clients, and my first day was on August 26. I’m so excited to grow as a designer in this position! I’m very grateful to all of my amazing professors and internship supervisors, who gave me the skills, confidence and experience I needed to succeed after graduation.