Capital City Arts Initiative

Exhibition Dates: August 21 – December 13, 2023
Exhibition Venue: Community Development Building (the Brick),
108 E Proctor Street, Carson City, Nevada

Graphics Extraordinaire 2023
Exhibition in CCAI’s Student Gallery

Creativity and talent abound in the Capital City Arts Initiative’s Graphics Extraordinaire 2023 exhibition that presents graphic design work by seven Western Nevada College students.

The free exhibit is open to the public from August 21 — December 13, 2023 in the Community Development Building (the Brick), 108 E Proctor Street, Carson City. The Brick is open to the public, M-F, 8am – noon, 1-4pm. You can watch the exhibition video tour and artist interviews here https://youtu.be/YNxOqYGmct4?si=MzKGDgVHUm5sDHaX

Graphics Extraordinaire 2023 shows posters by graphics students from WNC’s Carson City campus. Participating students include Maria Aguayo, Shiloh Cyphers, Jaynie Heusser, Carina Olsen, Elise Richey, Amy Rivinius, and Demitria Tekelidis.

Their professor, Jayna Conkey, said, “It’s rewarding to be a teacher when the students respond with mature and exciting work. The students’ creativity was exceptional and each hit a high mark.”

Conkey described her assignments: “The Bodoni, Futura and Baskerville posters are from a typography assignment given in an intermediate graphic design class. The purpose of this project is to expand ideas of creative typography and design approaches while showcasing the history of a typeface. Every font (typeface) on any given computer was designed by someone – probably hundreds of years ago. For this assignment, students are required to choose a typeface, research its history and showcase it in a poster design. Students are restricted to black and white only – no images or other graphics are allowed. By having these limitations, students have to create a dynamic composition using the typeface’s elements (uppercase, lowercase, numerals, glyphs and punctuation). Giving students limitations forces them to push their design abilities.

“The Massimo Vignelli poster is assigned in an advanced graphic design class. The student created it to showcase Vignelli’s design style. The two infographics on color theory were created by students in an intermediate graphic design class.  Students are required to come with their own ideas on how to convey graphic design color theory concepts. Then, using Adobe Illustrator’s vector tools, they have to draw their own graphics – no clip art or found graphics are allowed.”

Sharon Rosse, CCAI Executive Director, said “The Initiative is delighted to present this excellent work — these were demanding assignments. Jayna Conkey’s lessons challenged the students and they definitely rose to the occasion.”

The Initiative presents an additional component to the exhibition, Designer Extraordinaire, that features ten years of design work by WNC alumna and CCAI graphic designer, Christel Passink. 

This show is another in CCAI’s ongoing series of student exhibitions in the Brick.

The Capital City Arts Initiative is an artist-centered nonprofit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, arts education programs, illustrated talks, artist residencies, and online activities.

The Initiative is funded by the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, Steele & Associates LLC, and CCAI sponsors and members.

right image: Demitria Tekelidis, Infographic, 36″x24″, 2023
left image: Jaynie Heusser, Baskerville, 36″x24″, 2023
right image: Christel Passink, Designer Extraordinaire, CCAI fliers 2013 – present
bottom: exhibition flier