Katie Herring Q&A, Year 6 Art Scholarship Winner
We followed up with our 2019 Zinggia Ohio Art Scholarship Winner Katie Herring to see how much she was loving her first year of art school. No surprise, she loves it! Checkout some of her latest artwork below and go to her online shop to see what’s for sale.
Q. What art school did you decide to attend & why?
I am studying Visual Communication Design at Kent State University. Originally, my main motivation to attend KSU as opposed to a private art school was that it was more affordable for me and my family. I also dug deep into different universities’ design and illustration programs, and KSU’s really stuck out to me. After attending KSU, I’ve learned that the university setting is actually an awesome fit for me! I love the ability to meet all kinds of different people and have found classes outside of my major to be enriching. If anyone is interested in studying art in a university setting, I would definitely recommend it!
Best of Kent – I created this illustration for the cover of The Kent Stater’s Best of Kent issue, which featured the top places to go for food, entertainment, and more around town! I used Procreate to create it.
Q. Have you learned of any new directions that you can take your artistic talents that you didn’t know about or consider in high school?
Absolutely! It is crazy how many directions I could go! This year I worked as a designer and illustrator with The Kent Stater (KSU’s newspaper). Working in the newsroom alongside editors, reporters, and more taught me that I thrive in fast-paced, collaborative environments. So, working on a similar production team in the future may be a route I take! I also recently got a position as a designer for KSU’s Honors College’s literary arts magazine, Brainchild. Besides that, I was also hired by one of my professors to work on a project creating paper animal sculptures. She has been all over the art world, working in multiple different positions and creating tons of awesome projects. I’m also in the process of putting together a store on Redbubble with my personal work! You can view that here: CartoonDinosaur.redbubble.com. All of these experiences have shown me plenty of different paths that I am thrilled to consider following in the future!
Snowy Shenanigans – This was a project for my Design Illustration Techniques I class, where we were tasked with developing a set of characters waiting in a line. I love snow-skiing, so that inspired me to focus on this theme! I created this digitally with Procreate.
Q. Is there anything you dislike so far with your schooling?
One sort of obvious answer to this is the reality of the past couple of months. I am writing this in May of 2020, following half a semester of online schooling due to the coronavirus outbreak. While my professors have worked hard to move their classes online, it just cannot compare to in-person instruction. Luckily, I was able to finish the semester strong, and I am looking forward to getting back to it at Kent whenever it is safe to do so.
Q. What classes are you taking this semester, and how is your school work load?
This semester I took quite a few classes: Design Illustration Techniques I, Introduction to Typography, Photography I, Astronomy, Astronomy Lab, Self-Defense, Ballroom Dancing, and Freshman Honors Colloquium (an honors writing and discussion class). So, my workload was pretty intense this semester, especially because I had The Kent Stater and several other extracurriculars on top of those classes. However, I enjoyed most of my classes a lot this semester! Design Illustration Tech was definitely my favorite. The professor was extremely knowledgeable and encouraging! Self-Defense and Ballroom Dancing were also lots of fun and good breaks in my days. Although, they were interesting classes to try to do online. I am never going to forget filming myself doing the Cha-Cha alone in my basement, haha.
Still Life 2– This was another project for Design Illustration Techniques I, where we focused on learning how to understand composition, form, and value. I used graphite for this project.
Q. Are you working with digital illustration or is it mostly traditional mediums so far?
I have worked with both digital and traditional mediums this past year. Kent’s Visual Communication Design program is really neat because it meshes illustration, graphic design, and more together. So, I have done everything from InDesign exercises to graphite still life studies. This has been nice because I love creating digital designs and illustrations, but there is something so satisfying, rewarding, and freeing about putting a pencil to paper.
Q. What’s been the most challenging school project you’ve worked on so far?
I would say that the most challenging school project I did this year was my Typography final project. For this project, we created a booklet about a designer or other topic related to typography. It was not only my biggest design project so far, but was also challenging because this professor really pushed us with tough criticism. I learned so much through that process, even though it was uncomfortable at times because she helped me learn how to develop a thick skin, defend my creative decisions, and appreciate valuable advice from others.
Rocktopus – This is one of my pieces featured on my Redbubble shop. I love puns, so many of the works I plan on showcasing there will be similarly punny. I used Procreate for this illustration.
Q. How long do you normally have to complete a class project?
The time I have to complete projects definitely depends on the project, the class, and the professor. Generally, though, we had a least a couple of weeks for each assignment.
Q. Does your school require you to take any financial or business classes later on to help you navigate a more profitable art career?
Kent has a lot of options for classes like this. Next year I will be taking a class geared towards building an online portfolio and preparing for internships. One of my favorite professors is also working on creating a class where she will share her expertise on being successful in the freelance world.
Q. Are you sick of Ramen Noodles yet?
Haha, actually I did not eat a whole lot of Ramen at Kent! The food there was really yummy so my roommate and I would snatch extra stuff from the dining halls to munch on in our room. One time they had soup that was really good, but all we brought was a plastic bag to grab some apples, so we managed to transport the soup back in the bag. It truly was an adventure.
King of Zing – This is the project I consider to be the most difficult one I did this year. I created it for my Introduction to Typography class, and it focuses on the life and art of designer, Edward Fella. I used InDesign and Photoshop for this booklet.
Read all of the Q&A Artist Interviews with our past Zinggia Ohio Art Scholarship Winners.
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