WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. — While most West Liberty University students are navigating midterms, searching for quiet study spots, or stressing over 10 a.m. parking, a select group of students is practically living in the Mac lab. The WLU graphic design program offers a college experience unlike any other, where passing a test means pouring your soul into a digital canvas.
Many students on campus might not even realize the university has such an intensive design program. However, for those enrolled, the thrill of the major begins early. Nevaeh Pulver, a senior preparing for the upcoming showcase, noted how quickly students get thrown into the creative deep end.
“The coolest thing I would tell an incoming freshman would be that they could be designing full-scale branding projects, and possibly pitching them to real clients, in their first semester of college,” Pulver said.
Earning a spot in the senior exhibition requires intense dedication and a level of flexibility that regular majors might not fully understand. Morgan Howard, a WLU senior finalizing her portfolio, emphasized the patience required to survive design school.
“You never know if Adobe Illustrator is going to crash and change your plans for the day, if you’re going to get hit with a completely new critique 12 hours before a project is due, and when the printers will actually decide to cooperate,” Howard said. “It’s important to stay ready.”
Balancing endless studio hours with normal college life demands strict time management. Pulver explained that basically living off coffee has helped her manage the workload, though she is preparing for the massive physical setup required for Thursday’s show. “As long as I keep to a strict schedule and do not get behind in printing any of my pieces, I will be okay,” Pulver said.
The ultimate test of a design student’s preparation is their final senior exhibition. Stepping into River City and showing off four years of hard work to the public is a major, and sometimes nerve-wracking, milestone.
“It was a really weird experience,” Pulver recalled. “One thing that was going through my head was that if my professor trusted me with a spot in this gallery, I knew I could do it. Don’t get me wrong, I was definitely nervous, but once my display boards were up I felt so much more confident in myself.”
For Howard, the reality of her final showcase hit her while she was already in the middle of preparing her layout. “I knew I was putting my own work out there, but it didn’t sink in until I was formatting my personal branding and saw the empty gallery space waiting for it,” Howard said. “I laughed to myself. The whole experience felt surreal.”
Interestingly, the high-stakes pressures of perfect typography and color grading often pale in comparison to standard campus struggles. When asked if setting up a senior gallery was more stressful than finding a parking spot on campus at 10 a.m., Howard didn’t hesitate.
“I would rather redesign a portfolio every day of the week,” Howard said. “Not to suggest that prepping for a senior showcase is easy, but finding a parking space on campus at 10 a.m. is almost impossible.”
Because the River City venue is located off the hilltop down in Wheeling, design students get a unique, real-world view of the local art scene. Pulver described the Artisan Center space as beautiful, though she admitted she can’t admire the view for too long since she has to make sure her displays are perfectly aligned.
As these students look toward the future, the creative limit is quite literally boundless. Howard plans to discover her ideal agency job, eventually run her own design firm, and take her first fun trip away from a computer screen. Until then, West Liberty’s design seniors will continue balancing their time between the classroom and the canvas.
