Department of Art, Art History, and Design alumna Ellen Bruss was back on campus today talking to students, meeting with Graphic Design faculty, and touring the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. 

Bruss, Creative Director and Owner of Ellen Bruss Design in Denver, Colorado, met with Assistant Professor Ben Van Dyke’s STA 460 class, Graphic Design II: Visual Communication, and shared advice with the students who will soon be looking for jobs.

“Go into that interview and have questions and ask them,” Bruss said. “Be honest and be real. Don’t try to be what you are not, and learn to explain your work.”

The 400-level graphic design course is focusing on the annual “One Book One Community” project. This year’s book is “Enrique’s Journey” by Sonia Nazario, which is about a 17-year-old boy from Honduras who makes the difficult journey from his hometown of Tegucigalpa to the United States to be reunited with his mother.

Be honest and be real. Don’t try to be what you are not, and learn to explain your work.

The class is divided into five groups who are creating work related to the book and the refugee crises in general. This work will be placed on display at the East Lansing Public Library in October. Bruss heard from each group and talked with them about the project, sharing advice.

Bruss’ campus visit just happens to take place the same week as the release of the 2016 issue of the College of Arts & Letters magazine, MUSES, which features on its cover work created by Ellen Bruss Design (EBD).

The MUSES cover shows a portion of the logo EBD designed for the Biennial of the Americas, work that earned them a Graphis Silver Award.

To read more about Bruss, see the full article on her in MUSES.