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RISD Global Initiative
Global Initiative is a student organization on a mission to build well-rounded local, global and RISD citizens through strategically designed events and cross-campus collaboration with other organizations, offices, and departments. I joined as Graphic Designer in Fall 2016 before serving as Co-Vice President and then President through Spring 2018.
During my time, GI ranged in size from 10-20 members. Our projects were organized and executed as a group in collaboration with other students, clubs, and departments.
HOW DO WE ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO REGISTER TO VOTE?
During the 2016 election, we hosted tabling events to distribute forms and questions questions, debate watches to learn about candidates, and an Inauguration watch. Following our advertising ethos, the goal of these posters was to share and highlight important information, and to get as many students to register and to vote as possible.
24 x 36 in voter registration infographic (2016) listing state and territory deadlines for registration, absentee voting, and early voting.
HOW DO WE DESIGN EVENTS THAT ENGAGE AND EDUCATE OURSELVES AND OUR PEERS ON CURRENT EVENTS?
We collaborated with other organizations and students to host GI Chats on topics relevant to their interests. As graphic designer, my goal was to simultaneously advertise the event and teach the viewer information relevant to the topic. Even if someone did not attend, they had learned something new from the poster.
For our yearly community-wide event Edible Issues, we collaborated with RISD Dining to display large informational posters about a current event, like the ongoing conflicts with Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2016, and to serve food from the country, region, and cultures affected. This event was inspired by the restaurant Conflict Kitchen in Pittsburgh.
Logo designed for annual Eat the World, an annual food festival where Global Initiative invites our peers to cook food from their home countries.
HOW DO WE BUILD OPPORTUNITIES FOR SUPPORTIVE INTERDISCIPLINARY CRITIQUE?
In the Spring of 2016, GI began developing a program to pair a visiting speaker with opportunities for critiques focused on work about identity. Many iterations later, this became a Winter 2017 event series combining the following:
1. A four-gallery exhibition titled -ISMS: Exploring the
Intersectionality of Identities from an open call for work.
2. Collaborating with RISD’s MLK Speaker Series Committee to bring Emory Douglas, the former Minister of Culture for the Black Panthers, to campus as a keynote speaker in January 2017.
3. A public panel critique of ten works selected by Emory Douglas from the -ISMS exhibition.
Poster designed by Nathan Wong.
Section of poster designed by Nathan Wong.
I served as project manager for the series, which involved outreach and collaboration with academic departments, the MLK Committee, and the Dean’s council, supervising the open call and exhibition process, and delegating tasks and priorities to other GI team members.
Photo of one of the -ISMS galleries taken by David O’Connor.
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