Typographic installation welcomes students in different languages
BY : MELISSA WILKINSON
Editor-in-Chief
Meramec’s campus is about to become a lot more welcoming. Circa this May, the blank wall on the first floor of the Student Center will be adorned with a mural produced by students from 
Michael Swoboda’s typography class.
Swoboda, who teaches many graphic design classes at Meramec, said he’s always seen the wall as an opportunity to tell a story. His first idea was a history of the campus.
“In the past few semesters I’ve tried a couple of projects where [my class] went down to the archives of the college near the Forest Park campus and went through all of their slides and spent a day scanning things. Those designs didn’t really come to fruition,” said Swoboda. “So I met with some of the [English as a Second Language] faculty here. We have a growing and outstanding body of students who come from all over the world and I think collectively we thought, wouldn’t it be fun to visualize a welcoming spirit for all these people from all these places?”
According to Swoboda, some of the ESL faculty asked their students to write a welcoming message (such as ‘hello’, ‘welcome’, or ‘we’re glad you’re here’) in their native language. Swoboda then gave the samples to his fall 2017 typography class, alongside the assignment to create a mural utilizing them.
Students were divided into groups to create their murals, which were then voted on by Meramec faculty, staff and students in January of this year. The winning mural was produced by Carl Contevita, Hannah Hinton and Amanda Reagan.
“There were two weeks of school left and [Swoboda] said we have this big project to do,” said Hinton. “We were like, come on, two weeks?”
Hinton said the group was stuck for a while but eventually came up with several ideas. Rather than focusing on layout first, the group first acknowledges that they wanted their design to be handwritten.
Hinton worked with Contevita to copy the messages from ESL students using paint brushes dipped in India ink. Reagan then took the messages and scanned them, working with Hinton to place the words into their design.
“Our group was the only group that had three people in it. Everybody else had four,” said Reagan. “We were the underdogs. So when we found out we thought, “Oh, we were chosen? That’s awesome!”
According to Swoboda, all the entries had strengths, but the selected mural was chosen for its “good hierarchy,” a design term referring to the conveyance of important information in a way that’s easily navigable for the reader.
“It was a good deal of big and small, interesting angles used. The type the students chose was recessed against other moments of type,” said Swoboda. “It was 50 different writing styles that, by virtue of the good design skills of these three students, was made to look like almost a singular icon.”
Though the team submitted several color schemes, the version selected by campus vote was a version with six colors: red, orange, yellow and three shades of blue. According to Reagan, her team wanted to go beyond STLCC’s trademark blue.
“We figured, since people are coming from all over the place, why have it be basic school colors?” said Reagan. “First it’ll catch your eye from the color but then you’ll look at it and think oh, this has more of a message to it than a colorful wall.”
Swoboda said that now that the design is finalized, the next step is to create a mocked-up version. After that, research will be done to see if the mural can be produced on campus using the vinyl cutter in the Center for Visual Technology lab, or if bids should be taken from other companies. Swoboda said he hopes it will be displayed in the Student Center by May.
“People want to see it now,” said Swoboda. “This is a 40-foot long typographic mural that says ‘we are happy you’re here.’ I hope once it’s installed that’s the spirit that people feel when they see it.”
Though he has since graduated, Contevita echoed similar thoughts about his team’s mural.
“I want everyone to feel welcome when they come to STLCC Meramec,” said Contevita.
