Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 10880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           985/549-2341/fax 985-549-2061
    Date: 2/27/02
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple 5

Editors: Photos accompany release
SLU STUDENTS STUDY DIGITAL DESIGN, ART IN STATE-OF-THE-ART LAB
     HAMMOND -- The space tucked below the bleachers on the east side of Strawberry
Stadium has always been a gathering place for Southeastern Louisiana University students.
     They congregated there in the 1940s and '50s to gab and grab a bite to eat when the area
housed the campus snack bar. Later, they queued up outside its wide doors each semester to rent
their textbooks.
     Today, the area is again drawing a crowd as the home of Southeastern's Digital Arts
Center (DAC). 
     The state-of-the-art Center includes three labs, a video studio, a printing room, a photo
shoot room, faculty offices, an art gallery, even a small student lounge. The labs house more than
50 powerful Macintosh computers, including 22 top-of-the-line models   G4s   paired with
sleek, 17-inch flat screen monitors. In one corner of the center's attractive open layout is a
Roland FJ-500 printer, a huge machine that can generate quality prints up to 53-inches wide and
of any length. At the computer stations, students are learning graphic design software such as
Director, Flash, Freehand, GoLive, Photoshop and Quark Express.
     Experts have praised the Digital Arts Center as "a national-level lab." It's a dream come
true for the students studying digital design and art and for artist and designer Gary Keown, who
joined Southeastern visual arts faculty in fall 1996. 
     "When I first came to Southeastern, the graphic design program was basically in a closet
on the second floor of Meade Hall," Keown said. "There were drafting tables in the main part of
the room and about eight Macs" in the closet. Keown's basic digital design class contained about
10 students.
     Today, the DAC is busy with classes and lab hours from early morning until late
afternoon, even after dark when night classes are in session. Approximately 60 students are
taking classes in basic, intermediate and advanced digital design, while another 40 are studying
digital art with professor John Valentino.
     This semester, the DAC is also offering a new "computer" version of a required course 
for art majors, basic 2D design. 
     Although some of his peers still teach traditional methods of graphic design, Keown is a 
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DIGITAL ARTS CENTER   Add One
firm believer in the marriage of technology and design.
      "I definitely feel that you should start with the tools you will be working with," he said.
"Concepts are still important, but the media have changed. I teach students to start the design
process with  thumbnail sketches, but right after that stage we go to the computer, using software
such as Freehand, PhotoShop and Quark Express. Students are doing high end stuff right at the
start, in the first basic design classes."
     Keown said Southeastern "is one of the few universities in this state or in the country that
have a curriculum in digital art."
     "This is by far the best facility where I have taught and that's including the Rochester
Institute of Technology and the University of Buffalo," said Valentino.
     Keown gives credit for the rags-to-riches transformation of the graphic design program to
the university, which committed to improving the digital design program, renovated the East
Stadium space, and originally purchased the 20 Macintosh G3 computers  now being used to
teach the basic 2-D design class. The Center's latest upgrade -- the G4s -- was made possible by a
$75,000 Louisiana Board of Regents grant. The grant was the highest rated among 67 proposals
submitted in the category dealing with enhancement of undergraduate programs.
.    "I love it," senior Jennifer Davis of Denham Springs said of the DAC. A mother as well
as a student, Davis switched her career plans from teaching to digital design because of
Southeastern's program. "One day, I just happened to be walking by (the Digital Arts Center) and
I saw the lab," she said. "I love computers, but I had never connected computers and art. Now,
I'm minoring in digital design and that's what I want to do."
     Davis is one 18  students who are currently working on senior projects, which include
designing portfolios, logos and resumes for their entry into the design profession.
     "We 'package' them for when they are ready to go out into the industry," Keown said. "I
also assign senior students to go on a practice interview, where professionals evaluate them."
Students also have the option of participating in graphic design internships that often develop
into job offers, Keown said.
     Keeping the DAC abreast of the continually changing and advancing technology in the
design field will be a  challenge, but one that Keown is willing to meet. He hopes the program
will continue to expand. "I would like to see some additional courses -- in digital photograph,
motion graphics, web-based design," he said, "and I would love to have an actual major in the
future."
     For additional information on Southeastern's digital design and art programs, contact
Keown at 985-549-2193.
                             -SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu/news/spring02.html