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BYU-Hawaii graphic design Professor Brandon Truscott's poster for his class's ART 333 Type Face Cards exhibit was one of 25 winners of Print Celebrates Design, a national design competition hosted by PRINT magazine. Truscott said he hopes beginners in the graphic design field will see his win as an example of opportunities available in the graphic design community. Print Celebrates Design is "a design competition for your cards, gifts & invitations," according to Amanda Aszman, who posted the winners on PRINT magazine's website. The judge for the competition was the creative director at Etsy, Randy J Hunt. Etsy is a peer-to-peer online market for hand-made goods. "Hunt founded design studio Citizen Scholar and wrote Product Design for the Web and designs prints. Prior to becoming creative director at Etsy, he was recognized as Print New Visual Artist in 2009," wrote Aszman. The winners’ work was revealed January 9th, 2015.Truscott said he hopes his recognition this will help not only students, but also those getting certificates or those who are interested in design "realize that they can be competitive at a national level even if they feel they are from a small place. Even though things we do in class start as small, simple projects, they can be a gateway, if you approach it correctly, to national recognition. Anyone, student or otherwise, can use something like this as an opportunity to open doors." "We often think, 'This is a tough world with all this competition,' but when I've met people, peers at conferences, they are just like you. They do the same things you do when they create stuff and are generally pretty friendly in sharing techniques," said Truscott. Every semester that Truscott teaches an ART 333 class, he said one of the topics is about script and hand letterings. His class designed typography chalk signs with a playing card theme and exhibited them in late October 2014. He designed the advertising poster for the exhibit as the ace of spades, which ultimately won in Print Celebrates Design. "I was looking at the backs of cards, and the fronts, through several different decks. I based the letter forms on two typefaces: Rand Holub's Gillot 291 became the basis of Intertype's Monterey. I modified every little thing as I drew it out," said Truscott. He said "I encourage my students to be active online. Opportunities are rapidly increasing in design." Many of those opportunities come because of digitization and the Internet. "You can get more exposure and connect with a greater audience. So, I submitted mine to be an example." There are 3 million visits annually to the public gallery on printmag.com. For a student that is just starting their career, an award like this can be very advantageous. "It is something you can put on your resume or be a talking point in an interview. Someone might see some of your work they like, click on it, and contact you. It's all about gaining exposure, which can lead to other things," said Truscott, who has personal experience with getting work through such exposure. "People regularly contact me through my website, and ask me to design things" such as book covers, retail display, logos, and T-shirts. uploaded 1/15/15

Fine Arts Professor Jay Merryweather, a graphic designer and educator, firmly believes that nothing will help someone more than putting themselves in a position to serve and learn. “If you put yourself out there and are open to volunteer your time and get involved, then you’ll be more successful,” said Merryweather. “You have to get out of your own way and go.”Merryweather lives his own advice, having earned multiple degrees in studies that he is passionate about. Merryweather has a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree in painting and drawing, and one in graphic design to go along with his Master’s of Fine Arts degree in painting and installation design. His detailed résumé is the result of his belief in developing personal talents–especially ones that he is passionate about. Merryweather also encourages people to have more than one area to fall back on and said having a contingency plan is very important. “I’ve always had a contingency plan. When I was working as a designer, I was still showing my paintings in galleries and selling my work. When I was in graduate school, I was trying to cultivate my graphic design business,” he said. Merryweather was born and raised in the high desert of Southern California. He studied for five years at California State University–San Bernardino before working as a full-time graphic designer for two years. He then went back to school to receive his master’s at Claremont Graduate University. After graduating from Claremont, Merryweather started working as a graphic design professor at the University of Southern California. “I knew if I started teaching graphic design as my first job after my master’s then I’d probably be teaching for the rest of my life,” said Merryweather, but the two-hour commute each way from work to home became burdensome. It was then, Merryweather said, he decided to make a change and relocate to Cedar City, Utah. There, he was able to teach full-time at Southern Utah University and reduce his daily four-hour commute down to a quick four-minute trip. Teaching at SUU, Merryweather said, was the best decision he has made in his career. “There, Jeff Hansen taught me about how designers should run, and he gave me a lot of autonomy,” said Merryweather. “He created a situation where I could learn how to be a good designer and a good teacher and find a good balance in my life.” In 2012, Merryweather came to BYU-Hawaii after what he said was a spiritual decision. He now teaches his graphic design students to be “tastemakers” meaning that they have the ability to create tastes and influence trends.Merryweather spends his spare time being with his family and composing music but still tries to be adventurous. “I tried kite surfing but I’m not as coordinated as I’d like to be, but that’s probably because I sit on my butt all day.” He frequently will remix popular songs for children but edits them to be appropriate for their age. “My daughter Brenna is 8 and her favorite song is ‘California Girls.’” There are sketchy parts of that song so I remixed the whole thing, so all those parts are out of the song and now it’s Brenna’s version.”

After 10 hours, Dr. Ronald Miller, associate professor of psychology, said he and his wife, Patricia, knew they wanted to be married. After 20 years and nine children, Miller said they still feel the same way.Raised as a devout atheist, Miller said he avoided the concept of religion until he met the missionaries in Washington, D.C. He had an experience with the Book of Mormon where he said he gained his own witness of God, Christ and the truthfulness of the LDS Church. He was baptized one week after the experience on Dec. 16, 1990. In December of 1991, in Washington, D.C., Miller accompanied his friend to a renaissance society party where he met Patricia. “When I first saw her, I thought she was married. She was in a silver ball gown, and I was dressed as a prince with a black cape.” After exchanging information, she agreed to go on a date starting at the D.C. Temple. Being a nonmember, she referred to the Temple as “Camelot.” Ronald was 21 and Patricia was 20.They met at 2 p.m., but Miller said, “It was such a great date, we kept on extending it.” They went to the Lincoln Memorial, a fancy restaurant, and danced in the National Gallery of Art. Said Miller, “If you take off your shoes, and you’re just in your socks, you can slide 30 feet. As long as you didn’t come near any of the paintings, the police wouldn’t do anything.”After a full day, they went to the temple and watched temple marriage videos. Patricia told Ronald as a teenager, she prayed asking Heavenly Father if she would ever meet her husband. After her prayer, she realized she would be able to know what she would feel like around her husband. To Miller on that first date she said, “I feel around you like I felt in that dream. I feel as if you’re my husband.” Miller asked, “So what does that mean?” She responded that it meant they should get married. The Millers were engaged on their first date. Miller explained, “When I sat in the car with her going down to D.C., within 15 minutes I started to feel the same Spirit that I felt that converted me to the church. I didn’t know who this woman was, or her last name, but I knew she was going to be my wife.”Miller recounted, “I didn’t tell her I was a member of the church. She went back to Northwestern University in Chicago, took the discussions, and called me saying she was going to get baptized. I told her ‘I’m a member of that church.’ She said it’s so good that you didn’t tell me because I probably would have been baptized because of you, but now I know it’s my own conversion.” Instead of getting married right away, the Millers each decided to serve missions. “As converts, we felt we wanted to be sealed, but also serve missions. My patriarchal blessing, particularly, indicated that I would serve a mission before marriage, while my wife’s said it was her choice to serve.”Ronald was called to serve a mission in Puerto Rico. He said he would write Patricia on preparation day and give recommendations on things to do in D.C. Patricia was called to Rome, Italy.After Ronald and Patricia returned from their missions, they both had a prompting to get married sooner, rather than later. Two weeks after Patricia came home, on Feb. 4, 1995, they eloped to the Dallas Texas Temple. They married jobless, homeless, and with the threat of their families disowning them. After changing the opinion of his angry grandmother (by explaining that she would be a great grandmother), she helped them find a place to live in Texas. They lived there until heading to BYU. Ronald was 24 and Patricia was 23.After recently celebrating their 20-year anniversary on Feb. 4, Ronald shared his insights about marriage. He said, “The most important thing you can do is marry your best friend. When you get married, what you really want is someone who will listen to you, someone who will love to hear your opinions, and spend time with you, and with whom you want to do the same.” He discussed why some people marry for looks and the consequences of such a reason. “If you marry for beauty, you’re buying into something that with every year you will be more disappointed with. If you latch onto things that don’t last, you’re happiness won’t last. If you latch onto things that are eternal, and that person has a testimony, then you have latched onto something that improves every year and you will feel as though your choice to marry him or her is so much better as time goes by.”Uploaded Feb. 19, 2015.