By Joe Arney
Kate Chambers didn鈥檛 enroll in a graduate-level design program to make other people鈥檚 ideas look pretty. In fact, she was tired of her role coming so late in the process, when her work could add only style, not solutions.听
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鈥淚 felt I was seen as an order taker鈥斺�楬ere鈥檚 my idea, now go make it pretty,鈥欌�� said Chambers (Anth, Soc鈥�18), a master鈥檚 student in the strategic communication design program at the University of Colorado Boulder鈥檚 College of Media, Communication and Information. 鈥淎nd no matter how much learning I did on my own, I kept running into that roadblock.鈥澨�
So, perhaps no one was more surprised than she was a few months into the program, when she found herself venting to her dad about how she didn鈥檛 feel she鈥檇 done any great designs yet.听
鈥淗e said to me, 鈥榃ell, maybe it鈥檚 not so much about teaching you to make things pretty as it is about changing your thinking about design,鈥欌�� Chambers said. 鈥淭hat was the lightbulb going off for me. The technical skills are the things I learned on YouTube tutorials and in my associate鈥檚 program. In a master鈥檚 program, you want to learn the high-level thinking鈥攏ot just be told which buttons to press.鈥澨�
Chambers may have been slow to see it, but her hard work in the program is paying dividends. This spring, she took top honors in the local student competitions of the American Advertising Awards, earning Best of Show and a gold award for a campaign promoting a live auction at Denver鈥檚 Threyda Gallery, along with a silver award for a poster that was part of the same campaign. The awards are presented by the American Advertising Federation of Colorado; her work now advances to the regional competition.
Pushing boundaries
She said the strength of her entry was a direct result of her classes, which forced her to experiment with new ideas instead of falling back on what had served her in her career, which includes both freelance and nonprofit design work. In fact, as one of the more experienced students in her class, Chambers admitted she brought 鈥渁 bit of an ego鈥� to the program, which she will complete in August.听
An assignment in a design fundamentals course鈥攚hich became part of her winning entry鈥攃ame out just like she hoped, with the simple aesthetic that she enjoys, but it didn鈥檛 get the reception she hoped for from her professor.听
鈥淪he said to me, 鈥業 can tell this was easy for you. You didn鈥檛 need to take my class to do this kind of work,鈥欌�� Chambers said. 鈥淎nd, she was right. I didn鈥檛 come here to be the best, I came here to grow and learn鈥攖his is my time to try things I couldn鈥檛 do before.鈥澨�
But it was hard to put into practice. Chambers found herself frustrated when, in trying new approaches to projects, 鈥淚 just wound up with a lot of stuff that was horrible.鈥� Working with her professor, Parisa Tashakori, she identified one concept with potential that she presented in class, 鈥渁nd people were like, 鈥榃ow, that鈥檚 cool.鈥� They kept pushing to try other things that made it even better. I never would have made this if Parisa didn鈥檛 push me to do it.鈥澨�
The master鈥檚 program is run as a cohort, with students moving through courses as a group. That familiarity encourages a network of ambitious professionals while helping classmates trust one another and seek feedback and insights from their peers.听
Chambers, Tashakori said, was an important voice in that room.
鈥淜ate brought a lot of design knowledge to our program, and each time she showed her work in class, everyone would talk about how great it was,鈥� said Tashakori, a teaching assistant professor and director of the strategic communication design program. 鈥淎nd it was good鈥攂ut our job is to challenge you to be as creative as possible.听
鈥淜ate gave me that permission to push her, to have her challenge herself, and I see a very bright future for her, because she puts all of her love, passion and effort into every project she works on.鈥�
Faculty influences
Chambers called Tashakori a major influence, but also said she鈥檚 also benefited from other faculty and the extensive industry experience they bring to class.听
鈥淎 lot of our projects are vague on purpose,鈥� Chambers said. 鈥淭he prompts are very broad, so you can interpret them how you want and bring what you want to the table. My professors have always left a lot of room for me to be creative.鈥澨�
Alongside creativity is an emphasis on critical thinking, which trains students to approach problems like an entrepreneur who is comfortable rapidly prototyping and iterating to develop the best solutions.听
鈥淭hey teach you a design-thinking mindset, so you look at the problem from different angles and understand the problem space before getting to a solution,鈥� she said. 鈥淚nstead of being told to design a flyer, we鈥檙e told to design a solution to a particular problem. At the end of day, maybe a flyer is the solution, or maybe it鈥檚 to build an app. It鈥檚 up to you.鈥澨�
It鈥檚 great training for someone who eventually aspires to open her own design shop鈥攁 future she feels more confident in thanks to her education and her impressive haul at the AAF awards.听
鈥淎 lot of really good work gets entered in the awards, which brought to light that I had grown a lot,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 really hard on myself and my work, so it was a really nice moment to celebrate, to look back and appreciate that I couldn鈥檛 have made this a year ago.鈥澨�
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