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Alumni highlight real-world graphic design experiences

Two Bradley alumni provided wisdom for getting into the professional world of design with the Visual Voices lecture yesterday.

Val Hebda ’05 and Matt Dunlap ’09, two previous graphic design majors gave a lecture that highlighted their professional experiences in the field and the processes they go through within their jobs. Hebda is currently working as a senior designer at Liska Associates while Dunlap is the manager of creative services for the Chicago Bears.

According to Chelsie Tamms, president of Bradley’s student American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) chapter, the Visual Voices lecture series is a program of art and design speakers brought in each semester to talk about their work. Their work is typically shown throughout the semester in the Heuser Gallery or Hartmann Center Gallery.

Gary Will, associate professor of graphic design, organized the lecture. Even though the lectures are open to everyone, he said they work in part with the schedule for ART 220 and 221.

Will provided feedback for students about the world of graphic design.

The Visual Voices lecture series brought two alumni, Val Hebda `05 and Matt Dunlap `09, to campus yesterday to talk about their careers in graphic design. Photo by Ann Schnabel.
The Visual Voices lecture series brought two alumni, Val Hebda `05 and Matt Dunlap
`09, to campus yesterday to talk about their careers in graphic design. Photo by Ann Schnabel.

“It’s a deadline-based industry and the hours and stress can be overwhelming, but it’s a wonderful career,” Will said.

Hebda outlined her journey in the workforce as a designer. It took her 160 applications, 27 interviews and five job offers until she finally accepted her first job as an exhibit designer for a museum. Later on, she became a board member for Chicago’s AIGA chapter.

This led to her designing the first ever Chicago Design Week.

“I had no idea what a design week was, never heard of one and have never planned an event before,” Hebda said. “I quickly realized that planning an event is kind of like planning a project. You start off with an idea, you have a lot of coffee, you have a lot of late nights and you hope something good comes out of it. Luckily, it did.”

Hebda told students to stay passionate about what they do at Bradley. To end her lecture, she stressed the importance of finding something they enjoy doing, taking risks and occasionally asking, ‘What’s next.’

On the other hand, Dunlap opened his lecture with a quote by founder of the Chicago Bears George S. Halas: “Love what you do, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

Dunlap got his first taste of sports when he interned with the Peoria Chiefs. He said he fell in love with the job and knew he wanted to work in sports. He was able to land a job with the Bears and has been working there for five years.

Dunlap made a point to tell students that what he accomplished at Bradley helped him succeed in the real world.

“When I got to my job with the [Chicago Bears], I realized that there was no difference,” Dunlap said. “I took everything that I learned from Robert [Professor Rowe] and Gary [Professor Will] and I put it right into what I’m doing today.”

An interesting aspect of Dunlap’s lecture was how sports designers copy each others work.

“Sports is all about copying,” he said. “If someone does well in one place, everyone else is going to do it because it works.”

Will taught both Hebda and Dunlap during their sophomore, junior and senior years when they attended Bradley. He described them as good students and a joy to have in class.

Will said he hopes his students connected to Hebda and Dunlap.

“The graphic design program at Bradley University has made a big effort to remain in contact with our alum, in particular from the past 15 years when professor Rowe and myself took over the program,” Will said. “Consequently, those graphic design students who graduated 10 years or so ago are now ‘big players’ in the industry. We have found that bringing some of these alum into our Visual Voices lecture series, the current students appreciate the quality of experience they bring, but more importantly, they can also still relate to them as former Bradley University family and also because they’re not too far removed age-wise from themselves.”

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