Belinda Ivey Speaks at the N.C. College Media Association Conference at UNC Charlotte

Helping students find their inspiration

On Feb. 25, I was invited to speak at the 2023 North Carolina College Media Association convention at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte’s campus. I was asked to speak about print and digital media, but with the focus on helping students find inspiration for their next project.

My approach was simple: Find student and professional examples that were unique but utilized elements that anyone could do. I stressed my professional motto that content drives design and tied in my favorite quote: “A good artist borrows, but a great artist steals.” This means that the story should always dictate the design, and that both of my 50-minute speeches were full of examples meant to inspire the students, who hopefully will remember some cool element that they’ll want to use in a future project (where appropriate). As I told a teacher, the idea was to open their minds to new possibilities and judging by the oohs and ahhs, I think both talks were pretty successful.

Sharing my experiences

It had been a while since I last spoke at a convention, but even longer since I had spoken to students. I tried to tie in stories from my own experiences as a student. And I sprinkled in some stories about the methods and advice I teach my students.

The best part was when one young man approached me at the end to discuss his latest project. He is an illustrator, and creates comics for his school’s newsletter. When he showed me an example, I was surprised to find he wasn’t utilizing the entire space dedicated to his comic book. So with a short conversation, and some simple sketches, he seemed to get more excited and animated as he began to brainstorm his next project. Once his friend came, he got more animated and I was happy to simply agree and told them they were heading in a good direction. It was nice to help motivate these students. I can’t wait until the next opportunity.