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SALISBURY, MD---One of the tenets of a ºÚÁÏÍø education is not just what is learned in the classroom, but real-world experience.

That combination often leads to real-world applications, as it did recently for those in assistant professor Allison Seth’s Graphic Design 3 course.

Students in the Graphic Design Program comprise the SU Design Agency, working with companies throughout the Mid-Atlantic to develop creative and effective visual communications.

The team recently worked with Tall Tales Brewing Company of Parsonsburg, MD, to design cans and tap handles for two new beers on the company’s Liquid Denial line: Jamm’d and I’m Not Cryo, You’re Cryo.

“A priority for SU’s Graphic Design Program is to prepare our students for life after college by providing them opportunities for hands-on experience with real-world projects.” Seth said. “We regularly integrate client projects into our upper-level graphic design classes, and these experiences tend to be the most valuable to our students."

Students Maddie Noonan of Elkridge, MD; Bri Purnell of Waldorf, MD; Allie Mitrovich of Westminster, MD; Emily Wilson of Delmar, MD; Hailey Rector of Mechanicsville, MD; Michael Cotterino of Hereford, MD; Jillian Swaim of Ellicott City, MD; Justin Torrelli of Annapolis; and Liliana Caceres of Kensington, MD, met with Tall Tales brewer Eric Camper and graphic designer Mandee Margherita in November for a tour of the facility and to learn about the beers they would be designing.

Over the following two weeks, they researched, gathered inspiration and went through rounds of designs which were critiqued by their classmates, before presenting the final ideas to Tall Tales.

“The class prepared me for what it is like working with clients and what the process is all about,” said Margherita, an SU graphic design alumna. “It also was the class that helped answer all the technical questions about the field like how to get started, the best way to communicate with clients, and how to solve any issues that you could run into in a real project. It's great that we could help the students through this opportunity because it will only benefit them more the more experience they can get.”

Noonan’s design was chosen for Jamm’d, a kettle sour combining strawberry, apricots and peaches. Purnell’s design was selected for I’m Not Cryo, You’re Cryo, a hazy and hoppy IPA with orange, mandarin and peach flavors, made with cryogenic frozen hops.

For more information, call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU website.