A Marywood graphic design class has offered to produce a webpage for Scranton’s farmer’s market.
Marylee Schirg, a local farmer and a member of the Women’s Auxiliary, contacted Marywood University to see if students would be willing to create a website for the farmer’s market.
“My daughter-in-law is a graduate of Marywood and she said that they had a great art/graphic arts department,” said Shirg. “So, I made a few calls that led me to Sue Jenkins. It was important to me to go with local talent. Someone who had a real feel for our market. Someone who shopped at our market and knew what we were all about.”
Sue Jenkins’ advanced design class has taken the opportunity to further their skills and create the webpage, which will then be graded for course credit. The class is doing the work free of charge.
“I love giving real world experience to the students so that when they do go out after graduation, they are not unfamiliar with talking to customers,” said Jenkins.
The class has been working together to create an eye-catching webpage. Each student had to find a template that they thought they could customize. They then had to present their templates to Marylee.
“We all were given deadlines and had to present our designs to an actual client,” said Melissa Foligno, junior graphic design major. “After the design was chosen, we all began working on the website as a team. Working as part of a team and being able to collaborate with others creatively is an extremely important component, and I think it is helping us prepare for what is to come in our futures.”
Some students have been given a page to build, while others will be copy writing information for the website. Students will also be doing illustrations and creating a photo gallery. The gallery will include pictures, arranged by decade, since the farmer’s market first opened. The pictures will range from the 1940s to the present day.
“It has been a great experience creating the farmer’s market’s website,” said Diana D’Achille, junior graphic design major. “We had the opportunity to meet with the owners of this business and do everything from scratch.”
The farmer’s market website will have a calender of events that will be continuously updated. There will also be a list of vendors and their stalls in order. A “contact us” page will inform people about the market’s location and how to become a vendor. The webpage will also have a blurb thanking the Marywood students who helped put the page together.
“I enjoyed this project very much because I find it challenging,” said Ryan McAndrew, junior graphic design major. “It is my first time working for a ‘client’ and I hope to gain some new experiences that will help prepare me for the real world.”
Next year will be the farmer’s market’s 75th anniversary, and Sue Jenkins’ future class will help design the anniversary website as well. The class expected to launch the site on April 25.
