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.

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.

One side effect to being enrolled in a college is many nights filled with endless studying – which we all know can be quite a draining task. However, there is a simple solution to this tedious task: listening to music. Depending on who you are as a person, the music to which you are listening may vary — from rap all the way to slow, sad songs. So where do we start when we want a good playlist to listen to while studying?

Classical Music 

We all know that classical music has to be on this list. Who doesn’t love listening to beautiful piano mixes and strings making outstanding melodies? According to a study conducted at the Stanford University School of Medicine, classical music “can help your brain absorb and interpret new information more easily.” This is great news for people who are in dire need to quickly learn or memorize material, as well as people who love classical music. 

Lofi

Due to uprising popularity, lofi is now considered one of the best music genres to listen to while studying. The mix of calming chords and beats form songs that are easy-going and create an environment where you can focus more easily. Another great aspect of lofi is there are no words, so there are little to no distractions while listening to this type of background music. 

Indie music

Just like lofi, indie music is rising in popularity and is great to listen to while studying. This genre is relaxed and calming and can easily be found in study playlists across Apple Music, Spotify or even YouTube. There are many different kinds of songs that are classified as indie music, so it is simply a preference of which songs would be most beneficial for people who are studying. 

Instrumental

Instrumental music is also on the list for best songs to listen to – and for good reason. This kind of music can allow you to concentrate fully as there are no lyrics and no distractions within the songs. Instrumental music can have a wide range of types too, such as the Mario Kart soundtrack, movie soundtracks or even music simply composed with no words. Adding a couple of instrumental songs to your study playlist may be the key to good grades.

When it comes down to it, the person studying needs to do what is best for them, whether that’s listening to rock and roll, lofi, r&b or anything else. If you need to find inspiration and motivation to keep studying, I highly recommend listening to some songs that fall into these four categories, as they may be the key to better focus and good grades.