Multidisciplinary student team creates award-winning journal

A printed and electronic multidisciplinary journal produced by students from various programs in Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Art and Design was recently recognized in a competition against institutions from around the world.

RIT’s Technical Association of the Graphic Arts (TAGA) all-volunteer student chapter won the award for best electronic publication, eBook and web page at TAGA’s 70th annual Technical Conference in Baltimore, Md., which ran March 18-21.

This year’s RIT TAGA journal entry was comprised of research submitted by students across RIT. The journal's design, digital production, printing, copy editing and photography and video (for the website, app and fundraising) was completed by the TAGA student team.

The annual publication is a year-long project, which culminates with the competition at the conference in mid-March. Students raise funds to support not only the trip to the conference, but also for the materials required to complete the printed journal.

Throughout the conference, students attended presentations from internationally renowned academics, researchers and leading companies in the graphic arts, while answering questions about their publication, networking with industry professionals and meeting students from other educational institutions. This year’s competition was especially fierce, with student journals also from Clemson University, California Polytechnic State University, Ryerson University (Toronto) and Grenoble Institute of Technology (France).

Together with RIT TAGA faculty advisor Bruce Leigh Myers, School of Media Sciences interim administrative chair, the TAGA members who attended the conference this year were:

• Emily Sharp, president (fourth-year graphic design)
• Margaret Sommers, vice president (fourth-year graphic design)
• Kevin Geary, creative director (fourth-year graphic design)
• Alex Greenhalgh, production manager (fourth-year media arts and technology)
• Rachel Goldberg, treasurer (second-year industrial design)
• Htaw Pakao, secretary (third-year graphic design)
• Cameron Czadzeck, web lead (fourth-year graphic design)

Additionally, School of Media Sciences faculty Chris Bondy (Gannett Endowed Professor) and Elena Fedorovskaya (Paul and Louise Miller Endowed Professor) presented recent research at the conference. Media arts and technology (MS) student Hanyi Cheng also presented her capstone research, which, according to Myers, was well received and will be published in the subsequent proceedings.