Today we’d like to introduce you to Adrienne Schwarte.
Hi Adrienne, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I started off as a journalism major in my first year of the undergraduate program and quickly realized that I was not as outgoing as I thought to be a journalist. However, I still loved the communication and my advisor helped me find the fields of Visual Communication, e.g., Design. I immediately knew I was in the right place. After I completed an undergraduate degree in Communication and Art, I began working as a graphic designer in the non-profit industry. An internship as an undergraduate student at the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation helped solidify my plan to provide good quality design to non-profit organizations.
Twenty-two years later, I still focus my design work for non-profits and pro-social organizations and I’m very passionate about it. After working for a while, I went back to graduate school to complete my M.F.A. in multimedia design and knew I wanted to teach full-time. I found the tenure-track position in design at Maryville College and have been a Professor here since 2005. I love teaching and watching new designers find their visual voice and see their work out in the world making a difference. My professional research is in sustainable design, so much of my work focuses on communicating climate change and environmental issues and solutions.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Honestly, I’ve been very grateful that my road has been relatively smooth to get where I am today. However, I attribute that smoothness to the many, many wonderful advisors I’ve had over the years — undergraduate faculty advisors, graduate advisors, new faculty mentors, division chairs and so many other colleagues and fellow designers that have been supportive, provided great direction and advice and always been able to help me learn the ropes and make my way.
Without these people in my life, I’m certain the road would not have been smooth! Because of the support I received along the way, I’ve worked hard over these past years to pay that forward as we’ve hired new art and design faculty in our program, and to share what I’ve learned along the way with other new colleagues coming up the ranks.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I currently serve as a full-time faculty member at Maryville College in the field of design. I specialize in teaching graphic design and photography. I also have a Professional Certificate in Campus Sustainability Leadership and developed and coordinate the Sustainability Studies Minor at MC and teaching within the program.
I have a unique mix of creative work and research between the fields of design and sustainability and am passionate about utilizing the field of visual communication to help solve the wicked problems that stem from climate change. I’m most proud of my public work which is designed to educate awareness around environmental issues.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
I think like so many others, I learned all the things I took for granted that I couldn’t do. For example, it’s much easier and more effective to teach design when you can stand over the shoulder of a design student and walk them through a technical element or simply discuss aspects of the design like balance, movement, etc., and how to adjust the design.
But, during COVID, I would not have that luxury…I had to have them share their screen on zoom, deal with glitches, or shoot videos explaining how to do a particular thing in Illustrator, etc. It was much more efficient to simply show them and I really missed the interactions we had working through a design – the process became so much more rigid, which was not ideal.
At the same time, I did learn there were some things that were useful that I could keep, such as having instructional videos available for students, even if we did meet in the classroom, so if they missed a class, or wanted to watch something over again, etc., it could just be another resource available to them and that I could refer to.
Contact Info:
- Website: adrienneschwarte.com
