Students from the interior design, graphic design and marketing departments are taking flight in a collaborative airline-rebranding project. This capstone project has two teams, which have been working in full swing since the start of the semester.
The overall goal is to create a luxury airline from scratch. Lori Sloan, assistant professor of marketing, said there are many important aspects and lessons learned through this project from creating social media content to handling constructive criticism.
“What we’re trying to do in this (business) building is to train you in the areas of marketing where you will be communicating with the advertising department, the PR department, graphic design and you’re going to be working with the interior designs and colors and everything when it comes to branding products and company images,” Sloan said.
There are six marketing students in the class this semester, putting three on each team. The two teams have different target audiences: one focuses on business executives, called Business Boss, while the other focuses on adventurists, the Heavenly Holiday team. Senior marketing major Jacob Bommarito is on the business executive’s team.
“The life of your company is dependent on the brand being well represented,” Bommarito said. “If you are poorly represented through customer service, people are not going to want to go. One thing I’ve learned from this is details matter a lot.”
The project will be judged by professionals from the three fields. The students will be able to share and discuss with the professionals and their professors during this time. Their work will remain in the gallery through Spring Sing weekend for public viewing.
Senior graphic design major Jennifer Allen, who works on the Heavenly Holiday team, said students should check out her team’s hard work this weekend.
“It’s good for other students to see, you know because most people think, ‘they’re design majors they must not do anything,'” Allen said. “But I think it really shows and educates people on what other majors are doing, and it shows what can be done. I think it’s a good cultural experience, too.”
Visitors can vote for their favorite display by donating money, which then will be given to Habitat for Humanity.
“God has granted us all different gifts. Whatever your gift is, I think it is your duty to do good with that gift,” Bommarito said. “So for us to use what we have been studying for the past three or four years, and having a competition element to the project that helps others is so cool.”
The reception for the gallery is from 2-3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
