March 28, 2024
Spoke reporter Melissa Burks went on scene at Conestoga College’s Doon campus on Nov. 28, 2019 to find out about the Graphic Design students’ annual holiday card sale and how it ties into their year-end showcase. The showcase is designed for the GD graduates where they are able to show what they have learned during their time in the program while networking for their futures.

Conestoga College’s second-year graphic design students held their annual holiday card sales on Thursday, Nov. 28 and Friday, Nov. 29. The sales go towards funding the year-end showcase for the program’s third-year students.

This will be the ninth year in a row the graphic design students will be participating in the holiday card sales. The cards displayed had a wide range of designs from classic to contemporary.

According to Zoë Woodrow, one of the students selling the cards, the students had about 30 different designs to offer this year.

“Every student in the program draws a card and then we have specific ones selected so we get about 10 from each class,” she said.

According to John Baljkas, a graphic design professor, the year-end showcase hadn’t happened for a number of years until it was revived in the 2011-2012 school year by one particular student at the time, Samantha Johnson.

“The students find opportunities to network and hand out business cards to potential employers (at the year-end showcase),” said Baljkas in an email.

Baljkas also said the theme for this year’s showcase is “multi,” and will display a number of words relating to multi, all in relation to the students’ successes and the culture of design.

When asked about the most successful year the holiday card sales have seen, Baljkas said 2017 did the highest numbers in sales.

“Conestoga’s president’s office purchased a set of 100 cards,” said Baljkas in the email when talking about 2017’s vast number of sales. Hopefully the program will see similar numbers this year.

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