Digital & Dangerous
Tools Change. Fundamentals Remain.
Story: Allison Duda
Mask mandates, online courses, and Pandemic regulations developed a unique resilience within the 2021 freshmen. Now seniors, their adaptability is paying off, particularly for digital art and media majors like Sarah Hartner, C’25. Recognizing early on that this field demands experts who can modify visions, pivot strategies, and embrace challenges, Sarah approached diverse courses like photography, graphic design, and videography with an open mind. The versatility in Saint Vincent College’s digital art and media curriculum produces impressive graduates who become highly sought after job candidates that graphic design instructor George Fetkovich, C’80, calls “dangerous” to other job candidates who might have a narrower field of expertise. It helped Sarah land a job at the Diocese of Greensburg upon graduation in May. After running social media accounts for SVC’s Career and Professional Development Center as a work study, she quickly earned an internship at the Diocese of Greensburg. When a full-time position opened in the office for a content coordinator for multimedia platforms of The Catholic Accent, chief communications officer Jennifer Miele, C’00, was excited to offer her the job because she believed “the most qualified candidate for our growing needs was already working in our office.”
Thanks to the evolution of the digital art and media program, students like Sarah are gaining the skills needed to confidently tackle a variety of tasks and excel in various media careers. Fifteen years ago, Ben Schachter, professor of fine arts, saw a need for a graphic design program at Saint Vincent College due to the ever-changing digital landscape. Under the direction of the late Brother Nathan Cochran, S’85, head of the Fine Arts Department at the time, Schachter began teaching classes that integrated art with technology, but he needed a dedicated space for his students to create. Enter the Mac Lab: a room brimming with Macintosh computers equipped with Adobe software, essential for bringing art into the digital realm. At the time, David Safin, C’00, associate professor of communication, was using the lab to teach classes in media and film, so naturally his and Schachter’s students crossed paths, and their courses started to blend, too. Soon, it was evident there was a need to adapt the program to encompass a new category of art that was evolving. The digital tools used in graphic design, videography, and web animation made these programs distinctly different and gave birth to the digital art and media major.
Things steadily progressed, and with a new identity came a new vision. Safin and Schachter collaborate and discuss what their classes have in common, why they need to teach versatility, and what that means for student success. The Mac Lab and digital tools were one shared trait, but digital tools continuously change. When Safin talks to prospective students, he reminds them, “What I show you now in the software is going to be obsolete next year, so imagine what it’s going to be like in five years. My job is to teach you how to be ready for the five-year change.” A key component to the major is being able to adjust to the evolution of technology. To achieve this, the department employs adjunct professors who are active professionals.
Everything we’ve done has been really organic, which I like, because it happens in response to actual needs.
— David Safin
Fetkovich, the College’s art director, teaches layout, branding, and logo design; Kate Luchini, C’17, a marketing expert in the Fred Rogers Institute, teaches animation and digital compositing; and Alex Byers, C’08, a professional photographer, instructs photography. These experts provide cutting-edge knowledge and keep students current with the latest Adobe programs.
As Safin and Schachter refined their vision for the program, they identified storytelling as a fundamental commonality. Students master the art of visual narrative, with many courses serving as steppingstones to various digital mediums. “They get more practice with the overlap of various visual ways of telling stories,” said Schachter, who teaches a storyboarding class that illustrates the pipeline for sophisticated storytelling. “Storyboarding can turn into graphic novels, or it can transition into filmmaking and further technical development,” Schachter explained. “The evolution of the story depends on the visual method chosen.” Safin’s Documentary Production class works much the same way. Safin notes that the rise of streaming services has expanded the creative possibilities in documentaries, in turn inspiring students’ decisions to mix media to tell their stories. It’s these choices that require students to keep an open mind, which is exactly what Kieran Rapp, C’24, and Brennan Valladares, C’23, did when producing their final project for Safin’s class. “Don’t Count Us Out,” written and directed by Rapp and Valladares, follows the Saint Vincent women’s basketball team during their 2022-23 season. It has a unique “scrapbook” effect, created through the use of different kinds of screenshots, like full-screen and cinematic, as well as archived game footage. The two received an A for their efforts—and a Gold Viddy Award as well as inclusion in the College Filmmakers Festival.
But projects might not be a win the first time every time, especially when the work you create isn’t for you: constant critiquing requires flexibility. Ellie Powell, C’22, understands this first-hand. As a graphic designer, she understands that “what you design isn’t your own—it really comes down to meeting your client’s needs.” This means you “can't get too attached to your ideas and have to be willing to build on feedback.” Powell cites Safin’s required reading, Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, as the reason she’s able to look at the wall in her office covered in work that was rejected or reimagined and say, “I trust it’s still good design; it just wasn’t what the client was looking for, and that’s normal and okay.”
The program itself is a metaphor for the kind of natural shifts students have to make in the field. About the changes in the program, Safin noted, “Everything we’ve done has been really organic, which I like, because it happens in response to actual needs.” For example, to address the expanding industry, Schachter introduced new classes like 3D Modeling, in which students learn to create and texture 3D forms and build characters, advancing their technical design. Reilly McKay, C’25, digital art and media major, saw a need for a student filmmakers' support group. After proposing the idea to Safin and Schachter, Reilly got approval to create an AV club that now provides resources for projects students work on outside of the classroom as well as a supportive community.
Schachter and Safin are not only excited about the changes in their program but also about the transformations in their students. At Saint Vincent, students discover the best version of themselves, and their experiences here often direct them to their calling.
Anastasiia Umrysh, C’25, a digital art and media major from Ukraine, showed remarkable resilience when war broke out in her country. “My life changed overnight. I had to leave behind everything familiar, moving between countries, learning new languages, and starting over again and again,” she recalled. In Ukraine, she took courses in international economics and technology, but she decided she’d try something different at Saint Vincent: digital art and media. Initially, she doubted her artistic abilities, but after taking an art class, she discovered her unique talent. Now a standout student, Umrysh is building her portfolio and is excited about her future. Reflecting on her academic journey, she wrote in her artist statement, “I never thought I would connect my life with art. It wasn’t something I planned, but in the process of rebuilding, art found me.”
As digital art and media students continue to design logos, produce documentaries, or create animations, the landscape of digital art and media will undoubtedly evolve. But for the students who graduate from Saint Vincent’s program, one thing is for sure: armed with technical skills, storytelling fundamentals, and, most importantly, resilience, they will remain “dangerous.”
