Walking through the WSU Shift Space gallery, patrons can see the works of 18 senior graphic design students hanging throughout the space. During their years at WSU, these students have been working toward creating portfolio pieces, as well as work for the “Senior BFA Exhibition: Freak Show, Graphic Design Rarities & Oddities.”  

Since April 20, the students’ pieces have been displayed in the Shift Space gallery located at 416 S. Commerce in downtown Wichita. From 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, the art will be shown for one last night during Final Friday festivities. 

“Our final product [in the show] is years of work,” said Megan Stessman, graphic design senior. “The actual material you see is probably from the last full year and a half, but everything we’ve been doing has been building up to this show — all of the classes, everything underneath and all of the projects that we’ve been brushing up on and spending hours on, in order to put in the show.”

Senior Sahara Small said there are many different aspects to graphic design that the audience does not necessarily notice when walking through the gallery.

“Seeing everything finally put up that I have worked on, and probably will continue to work on, will be a big relief,” Small said. “But like Megan said, no one is going to see all the hours I have stayed up late working, they aren’t going to see my X-Acto knife cuts, they are just going to see the completed project.” 

During the closing reception, the students will discuss their work with the viewers and participate in the freak show aspect of the gallery.

 Although the work shown does not mirror the theme, the class came up with it during a two-week discussion that included intense debates and reasoning about which theme was better, visiting assistant professor of graphic design Jenny Venn said.

“Ultimately we all decided that Freak Show was the best,” Stessman said. “We wanted to augment a side of each designer in the show.”

Each student has taken on a character to be in the show. Each has come up with a reason for their character choice and made a costume to wear to the show.

From a fire breather, the human cannonball, the futura teller and many more, each student created a work dedicated to their character and the graphic design meaning behind it. For example, the futura teller came up with her name based on typography. The students came up with their characters by combining actual ‘freaks’ seen in a show with a graphic design element.  

“One thing that we realized in discussion with the class was that all of us throughout our studies of graphic design have been considered ‘odd,’ or ‘a freak,’ for studying art or what we wear, what we collect, or what we do,” Venn said. “There’s always been moments that we have all encountered for being a freak for studying art, so we found this common thread of finding beauty in the freak, and that it’s actually a positive.”

As the freak show wraps up during the Final Friday celebration, Stessman and Small are excited to show off their work and interact with the patrons that visit the gallery. 

“I think that graphic design exhibitions are really unique in that it is an event,” Venn said. “All of us have designed the evening as the theme is being carried out in the food, the signage and the outfits that everyone will be wearing. That’s why it’s really fun and unique to go to a graphic design show, because it’s not just the work, but an experience.”