Meet the May 2019 Technical Communication Cover Artists

Meet the May 2019 TC Cover Artists

The topic of content strategy inspired the winning artists in Technical Communication’s May 2019 cover competition.

 

Elias C. Escobedo Degollado (cover illustration)

Elias C. Escobedo Degollado recently graduated from Kennesaw State University with a Bachelor of Science in Technical Communication and a minor in Spanish. In the field of technical communication, he specializes in user experience design, where he applies his knowledge of usability testing, journey mapping, persona building, and user interviewing to improve a user's experience with a product. He plans to put this knowledge to use at The Home Depot, where he has been working full time since January. With the help of users, he works to make products user-centered, helpful, and efficient in their function.

The inspiration for the illustration came from a drive to the university campus. After passing a construction site, Elias found there were similarities between the construction of a building and the creation of a website. There were components being put together to make something that would represent a company and be used by clients and employees. Most importantly, the creation of both were coordinated by leaders who had data guiding them. In the case of the website, this job would fall to the content strategist, who would determine what would go on it to represent the company.

The greatest challenge in creating this illustration was laying out the elements within the proper dimensions to make the idea translate to the audience. It was challenging, but with the help of his instructor, Leslie Hankey, and supportive friends, Elias was able to finish the piece to his (and the jury’s) satisfaction.

Katherine Turnipseed (honorable mention)

 

Katherine Turnipseed is a senior at Kennesaw State University, where she is studying interaction design. She is passionate about creating designs that are minimalistic and striking, as well as descriptive and informative. She hopes to spend her career creating designs that resonate with all people. As a resident of the Atlanta area, she loves seeing the art and design that are prevalent in her hometown and excited about all the opportunities in design that await her when she graduates in May. She also loves traveling and learning new things, as well as crafting and spending time with her kitten.

Her inspiration for this design came from minimalism. She loves creating straightforward designs that are as striking as they are informative. A simple color palette and icon of a lightbulb helps describe the ideation involved in content strategy. She used Adobe Illustrator to create her artwork.

Brianna McBride (honorable mention)

Brianna McBride is a sophomore student at Kennesaw State University, where she is pursuing a major in Interactive Design and a minor in Technical Communication. She also serves as an Honors Ambassador and Writing Tutor for the university. In her spare time, Brianna runs a photography business, Endeavor Artistry, and enjoys reading and furthering her front-end development skills. She has been given the opportunity to study in Ireland this summer and looks forward to the experience. After finishing her undergraduate studies, Brianna plans to work as a User Experience/User Interface designer to further meaningful media communication between people and technology.

Brianna considers herself fortunate to have been enrolled in a Visual Design course taught by Professor Leslie Hankey at Kennesaw State University in the Fall of 2018. Brianna discovered Technical Communication’s cover competition through a course assignment to enter the competition. While looking for inspiration by researching content strategy, she came across a quotation by Michael Brenner that struck her: “A content strategy flips the tables on traditional, linear marketing by defining the process and then securing the right resources for producing a consistent stream of content mapped to buyer needs across all phases of the buying cycle.” The image of content strategy flipping the table on traditional marketing stuck with her as she continued her research, and it became the focus of her illustration.

Using a mixture of Procreate, Photoshop, and Illustrator, she began with the table and branched out from there. She experimented with several versions of the design – with words, without words, without a room around the table, etc – and decided to exhibit the main message of the quotation within the image so it would be readily understandable to the audience. Rather than writing it simply across the top, she took a more unique approach by integrating the message into the image itself – chalked into the floor, painted onto the table, etc. Brianna is immensely grateful for Professor Hankey’s feedback and support throughout the creation process.

To view the May 2019 issue, please visit  www.stc.org/techcomm.

And, as a reminder, the deadline for upcoming submissions to the cover competition is 1 June.

For the August 2019 issue, (a special issue on transmedia), we invite cover illustrations on the subject of transmedia, participatory culture, and digital creation.

For the November 2019 issue, we invite cover illustrations on the subject of collaboration in technical communication across cultures.

Cover illustrations might be diagrams, drawings, photographs, collages, infographics, cartoons, comic strips, or brief graphic narratives.

For either issue, please submit your cover illustration (approximately 20×20 cm or 8×8 inches) as a high-resolution (300 dpi or better) jpg file by 1 June 2019 to tceditor@stc.org with a brief explanation (100-200 words) of how your illustration addresses the cover subject.  A five-member international jury of specialists will organize anonymous review of the submissions and choose each issue’s cover illustration.  Honorable mentions will be published inside the journal.

To view previous winning cover illustrations, please visit  www.stc.org/techcomm/propose-a-cover-illustration/.

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