New class coming soon!

Professor Madison Murphy of Houghton University called her teaching assistant, Rylee Archambault, class of 2023 at HU into her office. Murphy wanted Archambault’s opinion on what she should title a new special topics class that she would be teaching in the fall semester of 2023. Murphy explained that it would be a two credit communications class offered with instructor permission required. The two came up with the title, Digital Portfolios and Personal Brand.

So what is the class?

When asked for her description of the class, Murphy said,

This class is about learning to communicate your skills as an artist working in digital media. Through the commonly

accepted channels of business communication in the arts. Students are going to work on an organizational branding project,

through which they are going to develop the skills to develop their own personal brand and associated marketing materials."

Murphy goes on to say that as a department, they were looking through and decided it was time for them as a communication department to go through and

retool their branding materials that they put forth as their outward facing materials. It is also a great opportunity for students to grow their own bodies of work.

What will students work on in the class?

As far as the criteria for this class goes, the class will be a 50-50 split. Murphy explains that half of the class will be devoted to helping out to create departmental branding materials for the university. The other half of the class will be devoted to working on branding and portfolio materials for themselves.

What tangible materials will students walk away with?

As far as tangible materials that students will get to walk away with from this course, Murphy lists off a number of different branding materials. Some of the things that she said students will for sure walk away with are a website for themselves, business cards, and a cover letter, letterhead and resume formatted to their brand. They will also walk away with a digital portfolio if they are working with more static projects such as photographs or graphic designs, or a demo reel for themselves if they are working with mediums such as videos or animations.

There are some materials that Murphy says that she would like to do with the students but might be more of a reach goal based on how much time they will have. Flatbooks are included in this. Flatbooks are physical portfolios of artists' work that open up and lay flat to fully view the printed work. These kinds of branding materials allow for viewers to look through the physical portfolio and see the work inside in person. Murphy really hopes to be able to implement creating flatbooks into the course for the students.

Who is this class for?

Murphy said that the class size will be very small, with only 5-6 upperclassmen students. A variety of specialized knowledge and expertise in the arts will be brought to the table by every student, each of them with their own focus. Some of the skills include but are not limited to abilities in photography, graphic design, videography, and animation.

Why is it important to offer a class like this?

Murphy was asked why is it important to her that Houghton offers a class like this? Murphy answered,

"it is important in any major to be thinking about the future. We teach things because students are thinking about their future….There

are certain ways that we communicate to an employer what it is that we are, what our value is and what our skills are."

Overall, Murphy is excited for this class and to see what the students taking this class will create.