Scholarship Letters

Hello,

I am writing to thank you for choosing me to receive the TLMI Scholarship Award while I was in college. I have graduated this year from Ohio University with a BFA in Graphic Design. During my studies at OU, I was on the Dean's List nine times out of the thirteen quarters I attended, however, my biggest accomplishment came this year with my Senior Degree Project.

As the graphic design department is in the College of Fine Arts, we are required to take a certain number of fine art classes. This gave me the ability to take other areas of art including printmaking and allowed me to understand many different print methods. I took this knowledge and applied it to my Senior Degree Project, or thesis as it could be called. The project is intended to showcase what we have learned while in school and become a tool that will help place us into an area in the field we would like to work. Each of us conceive, design, and implement our own projects and display them in a gallery show. I have attached pictures of my final project so you can see what I created.

My project was intended to be a comment on the possibility for mistake in human perception as well as a comment on the printing processes. I separated the colors of an image and screen printed each layer on to a piece of plexiglass. There was a fifth panel with a viewing hold that the viewer was intended to look through in order to see the entire image as it was intended. Each layer represented a different characteristic of the make-up of a person; emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical. The concept of my project was in regard to human perception and how people do not always see things the way they are intended, especially at first glance. Most often it is necessary to get more involved. To accomplish this aspect of the project, I hand letterpressed ten different words on pieces of paper for each layer and then made them into pads of paper. These pads were displayed on top of a podium. The viewer was invited to write their own idea of a word or phrase they felt would fit with that particular layer. The paper was deposited into the box so that I could see their perception and react to it, bringing the concept full circle. I am in the process of updating my website; www.maggiemackura.com. In the near future, you will be able to see what I have done with the paper as well as pictures of my project including the process.

As mentioned earlier, the project was displayed in an exhibition with my peers of graphic design. We have a visiting critic come to the exhibition to judge our individual pieces as well as our portfolios. The critic is someone who works and has been successful in the field of graphic design. He chose five people to receive the Charles Logan Smith Award and interviewed them to pick one of those five to receive the top award named the Charles Logan Smith Award of Excellence. This year, I was chosen for the top award. Being chosen by the critic as having the best project in the exhibition and portfolio is a great achievement in that I was recognized as having a great eye for design as well as ability to articulate my own work.

I thought you might like to hear that long winded explanation since I wrote about my intentions for this project when I applied for the scholarship. Currently, I am looking for a job in the field of graphic design. I don't have a specific area of the country in mind for where I would like to work, but ultimately I hope to find a job in branding and brand strategy. I have attached my resume for you to understand what my abilities are in case you may come across a job opening.

Thank you again for the scholarship. It definitely was a great help during my college career as it allowed me to focus on my studies and learn as much as possible.

Best Regards,

Maggie Mackura
Graphic Designer