Washington State University students are gaining real-world design experience while helping local nonprofit organizations strengthen their visual identities and connect with their communities.
Through the student-run Club Studio Design Agency, students in WSU’s Department of Digital Technology and Culture gain hands-on experience working with real clients while providing free design services to nonprofit organizations. Projects have ranged from a branding overhaul for the Pullman Civic Theatre to visual materials supporting traditional canoe construction and community youth gardens.
Founded nearly two years ago, the agency is staffed and managed by students on the Pullman campus under the guidance of professors Seoryung “Sam” Park and June T Sanders. The goal is to give aspiring designers opportunities to build professional portfolios and navigate the challenges of working with clients before entering the workforce.
Park originally brought the idea up in conversation with Sanders, who immediately recognized the possibilities of an organization focused on generating student experience in creative design and digital communications.
“One reason for the CSDA is that students often wanted more experience and opportunities to study and develop design while still in school,” said Sanders. “Professor Park and I thought that if we had a student-based agency that could manage real client work outside of the classroom, it would be beneficial to our junior and senior students by giving them greater visibility and practical experience.”
In addition to its work with local nonprofits, the CSDA has collaborated with professors in the WSU School of Music on several projects, including event posters, album cover art, and graphics for an upcoming vinyl album archive.
Gael Vergara, a senior majoring in graphic design, became involved with the CSDA after transferring to WSU from Columbia Basin College. He quickly saw how participation not only helped him develop new design skills but also grow his social network while at a new institution.
“The CSDA is such a great opportunity to expand your design work,” said Vergara. “It helps you get an understanding of working in a creative job, but also adds some applied experience while you are still a student. It’s really beneficial and just helped me so much as a professional designer.”
Sanders points out that exposing students to different creative briefs and client requests is imperative for educating the next generation of design professionals. “The classroom can produce certain behaviors in students, but as soon as you can pull a student out of the classroom dynamic and give them a different set of responsibilities and freedoms, they act differently and claim autonomy over their creative work,” she said. “The actual situation of pulling them out of a classroom-based stance and into a professional stance automatically changes how the students show up.”
Beyond building professional skills, both professors emphasize that the agency helps students understand the human side of design and the responsibility that comes with creating visual messages for others.
“Whenever I talk with my students about design, I tell them that design is not just about the visual or aesthetic subject,” said Park. “It’s also about creating a dialogue and a visual language about people, about community, about the human aspect.”
Sanders echoed that sentiment, emphasizing the importance of human connection in an era when more design work is being outsourced to technology.
Having a team of student designers who care about visual culture and visual messaging is really important in our current moment, and through the CSDA our students learn that they have a say and a responsibility as a designer to care for that visual culture,” she said.
To learn more about the Club Studio Design Agency or inquire about collaborative opportunities, visit the CSDA’s Instagram page at @clubstudio.inc.
