Local retirement community challenges PCA&D illustrators
Thursday, March 28th, 2019
In September, Garden Spot Village, a not-for-profit continuing care retirement community in New Holland PA, reached out to the Illustration department in hopes of working with the students in a magazine, Destination Garden Spot , published twice a year.
PCA&D Illustration Chair Christina Hess and fellow instructor Bill Dussinger brought their senior Illustration students to Garden Spot Village to experience the community and learn about the project. Scott Miller, chief marketing officer, and Brandon Adams, graphic designer, presented the vision for the Spring 2019 issue as a recap of the Garden Spot Village Envisioned Future. They shared the five goals for the envisioned future, fielded questions and provided feedback on thumbnail concepts the students prepared for the day.
Twenty students each tackled the project with their own unique voices and in October, submitted covers for consideration. After a careful review of the submissions, the Garden Spot Village Creative Team selected the illustration to grace the cover of the magazine’s spring/summer edition.
Senior Antoinette “Annie” Troller’s digital painting, “Through a Child’s Eyes,” was chosen as the winning illustration. Troller says, “This piece is a representation of all the key elements that were meant to symbolize this issue. Children represent our future, they are innovative, plan out their future, make friends regardless of economic status and constantly consult others.”
Antoinette “Annie” Troller’s winning Garden Spot Village illustration, “Through a Child’s Eyes.”
According to Hess, “We are excited about PCA&D’s new relationship with Garden Spot Village and hope to work with them again in the future. This project enhanced our student’s understanding of a client relationship and challenged the students to rely on visual problem solving skills, as there were not many visual clues in the Envisioned Future theme.”
Scott Miller, Garden Spot Village chief marketing officer, said, “At Garden Spot Village we look for ways to engage and involve our local community. When it was suggested we partner with PCAD for a cover of Destination, I was fully on board because it allowed us to connect multiple generations in a meaningful way.”
Michael Molla, President of PCA&D said, “The College recognizes the merit of hands-on, experiential learning. Which is why forging partnerships to develop creative, problem-solving opportunities for students is crucial. The world is changing and artists and designers are working side by side with people in the healthcare, science, technology, agriculture, and entertainment fields.”
Steve Lindsey, CEO of Garden Spot Village, said, “This project challenged you to give a representation of who we are in a visual format. I am amazed at the way you have captured our story.”
Troller, a senior illustration major from Effort, Pa., also was this year’s recipient of the Cynthia E Price Memorial Scholarship, named in memory of the wife of J. Richard “Rick” Price and mother of sons Jacob and Jordan, as well as an artist and craftswoman who worked, lived, and loved in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Troller said about her experience with the project, “The partnership for me, was a glimpse into the life we are going to have after college and I think it really got a lot of us excited to go out in the real world to finally put what we learned to good use. It was a very different experience for a lot of us and Garden Spot made the transition very enjoyable during the whole competition. To win means a lot to me, especially when I was going up against some really fantastic illustrators. To have tried something very different than my peers was risky but I knew there was only one way to stand out among the beautiful artwork and that was to go big, bold, and unique.”
The Spring/Summer 2019 Destination Garden Spot Village was released in March 2019. Destination Garden Spot Village reaches approximately 12,000 households. In addition to Troller’s work, the magazine also printed the second- and third-place works by Georgie Rider and Amber Benner.