As more students find themselves drawn to graphic design, junior digital media communications (DMC) major and non-profit minor Ryan West and DMC professor Julianne Donovan worked together to create a space to foster and share that creativity. The club was officially created in 2022, in which West acted as president and advertised the club for all to join.

“Design Hive is a branch of William Jewell [College]’s Art Club, where we help other organizations with their marketing – such as [with] posters, flyers, logo designs, t-shirts, stickers, you name it,” West said. “We are here to help others get creative while growing our passion for digital media as well.”

Prior to the club’s start, West admits that she had been thinking about creating such a club since she was in high school, but remained unable due to the stress of graduation. However, at Jewell, West was given the perfect components to finally make her vision of a graphic design community a reality.

“Since [my] freshman year of being at Jewell, I have been planning and recruiting other creative individuals to help me bring Design Hive to life,” West said. “It’s been a great journey, and I’m grateful to have so many helpful hands in this club.”

West created Design Hive with the ultimate goals of having fun and providing her peers with creative opportunities in a relaxed setting.

“Having a space where people can just be creative without the pressure of grades, deadlines and stress on their shoulders is the end goal,” West said. “We want to help our Jewell community out while having fun doing so.”

With Design Hive being newer on campus, West was still testing the waters throughout the first year of the club’s creation. Now, she is focusing on recruitment, expanding the club’s community, and collaborating with other campus organizations.

”We’re planning on working with the Art Club more this year, as well as other clubs to boost their marketing,” she said. “We also plan on having guest speakers who are in the marketing and digital media field to talk with us about the future, networking, etc.”

This year, Design Hive is out of its creation phase and is ready for student leadership to elect an official Executive Board. While West had to step down from the President position, she is encouraging students to pursue leadership and membership in the club to those who are interested. 

“A way to be involved is to come to our weekly meetings on Wednesdays at 4 p.m.” she said. “Our meetings are held in the DMC lounge in Brown Hall.”

Another way to keep in touch with Design Hive is to follow @jewell_designhive on Instagram and/or to fill out this Google Form to sign up for newsletter emails.

On the evening of Oct. 24, the class for Digital Media Communications Theory and History, DMC 100, hosted a Halloween party in Jewell Hall’s IDEAx lounge. Inside room 103, students set up a photobooth, haunted house walk-through set and Día de los Muertos altar, along with plenty of places to sit and hang out. The set will be available for everyone to experience until Halloween night on Oct. 31. The entire event was planned and executed by students using self-made decorations with some props supplied by the Theater Department. 

“I think the event ended successfully because each group completed their tasks to prepare and communicated with one another,” Jolia Bernal, a junior DMC major, said. “All members took part in the event and were able to apply their creative skills.”

Beginning as just an idea the week before fall break, the DMC 100 class eventually settled on the idea as their final project. The class then sectioned off into teams to brainstorm how to plan and execute the event. Their main focus was not whether or not the event  would be successful, according to Bernal.

“I was on the scene setup team and we prepared for the event by deciding on the theme of the room, collecting props from the Theater Department and setting the scene in the IDEAx room,” Bernal said. “I [also] had the opportunity to paint the backdrop for the photo booth at the event.”

During the week of Oct. 17, as the set team worked away decorating for the party, the advertisement teams posted on social media, distributed flyers and decorated campus sidewalks with chalk to get the word out.

“[The event] was successful due to the advertisements and the amount of chalk designs that were placed on campus,” Andrew Ivy, a junior theater major with a DMC minor, said. “Plus a lot of people walked in the first five minutes of the event.”

Overall, the event turned out “spook-tacular,” according to the class since many students from different areas of study showed up. Participants were given a quick tour through the haunted house set, then sent over to get jumpscared at the photobooth. Lastly, they were shown the Día de los Muertos altar and asked to take a survey about the event. Some students stayed to hang out and tell stories, while others grabbed candy and headed out for the night.

Photos courtesy of Koda Payton, the class of DMC 100 and the DMC Department.

Ryan West, a sophomore digital media communications major, is a member of Alpha Gamma Delta, GIFT and is also working on developing a new design club at William Jewell College.

Along with being a full-time student, she owns her own business called “Ryan West Creatives.” Her business caters to individuals in need of creative products, such as web design, social media marketing, graphic design and photography. Her past work includes senior portraiture, engagement photography and design work for JoeShmoe’s coffee shop.

After attending Summit Technology Academy for her junior year of high school, she realized she was interested in photography and graphic design. Now, digital media is a passion of hers that she hopes to pursue as a career.

“I quickly fell in love with the different styles of design and learned how to make design ‘work.’ With photography, I’ve grown an eye for what looks best, especially with location, angles, posing and even outfits that the subjects wear.”

Her long-term goals include evolving her business and eventually becoming a digital media professor. West said no matter where she ends up, she would like to help people. Whether that’s helping them to grow their small business or capturing moments in their lives through photography, West wants to positively impact others through digital media.