Journalism assistant professor Scott Farrand’s visual communications class (JOUR 364, Graphic Production and Design) has often included a real world project in which students can practice their newly learned skills.
For the past four years, that has meant theopportunity for the class to work on the visual communications needs of area bands that have agreed to stop by Farrand’s classroom unannounced so students could interview them and listen to their music before designing a CD cover.
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Silers Bald
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“This all came about when I was looking for a way the students could prove they got some of the concepts, ideas, and skills taught in the class by working on something in which they were interested and had some knowledge,” Farrand said.
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| The cover of "Real Life," the band's latest CD |
The first three bands to appear before the class—Fling, H.B.O.Y.S, and Hootie and the Blowfish—all are comprised of at least some former USC journalism students. This year’s band, Silers Bald, which came to the class Nov. 10, is an acoustic-pop Christian group that recently signed with a national record label.
Though it has no former journalism students as members, the band’s origins also are on the USC campus. The four —Marcus Myers, Warren Bazemore, Jason Jacobs, and Shane Williams—came together after Bazemore and Williams began playing old rock’n’roll favorites in their dorm room and a crowd assembled outside their balcony to listen. All four members of the group are from Irmo.
They will return to the class Dec. 5, four weeks after their first visit to see the students’ cover designs for a Silers Bald CD.
“One of the nice things about this is that all of these guys think USC is great and were all gung-ho about coming back here and working with the class,” Farrand said.
11/03
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Scott Farrand, right, introduces members of Silers Bald to his visual communications class at the start of another year-end exercise designing a musical group’s CD cover.
