VC timeline

LISTING OF VC GRADUATES from 1968 to 2006

If you have something you think warrants inclusion or a correction email Ray Nichols.

Apologies for being so Advertising-centric, but that is where I have the most connections with the industry, grads, and my notes.

Down through the timeline, we’ve tried to list all of the Gold and Silver awards along with acceptances into major national competitions by students or for VC projects. Many certificates do not adequately list the names of the project and the people involved or certificates listing individuals were given out and we are only left with the ones that list the studio name. There are dozens of “awards of merit” that would just make this list too long.

Some things I would like to know.

• What / when were the first posters where we used the “blueprint machine.” Paula Scher, for her talk at Ad Club, was an early one for which I think I might have images. Does anyone have any of the early blueprint posters, especially one with a date that includes the year (I typically didn’t tend to include the dates)?

• When did we visit Helmut Krone in his office (I did this twice), and who was with me (Brad Talley was there once)? Krone showed us his reject drawer, and I would love to have a student opinion of that experience which I list as one of the best in my teaching life.

• When did we visit George Lois in his office, and who was with me? I think Bill Deering might have been at both of them, also.

• When did Franklin Tipton win the Titanium award from the One Club?

• When did Ray Nichols crash the One Club Awards and walk up on stage and pick up a Gold Award (maybe for Mini) won by Crispin, Porter, & Bogusky, much to the amazement of everyone that worked on the account? As I remember, Franklin Tipton was the CD on the job, and he had invited me to the awards night.

• Fallon trip. I loved the discussion as to how close anyone had ever had sex to Ray’s office. Winning answer : 6 inches.

• Howie Ronay riding up Alpe d’Huez.

• List of Steve Boyd’s Olympic contributions following his graduation.

• What was the first year VC was included in the One Club’s student exhibition of the top 20 advertising programs in the country. Middle / late 90’s? If you were included, let me know.

A TIMELINE FOR THE VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS GROUP, University of Delaware

I (Ray Nichols) got to thinking about some timeline of milestones for the program. Look it over. If you can add something of importance, I would love an email. Include any instances when any former student got a major award or other milestones for their creative work. Also, I would like to list any major inclusions in any published articles or books as either a creator, writer or where the article talks about your creative work.

. . . 1 9 6 5

Charles Rowe hired (1965). Charles started the program which I believe was referred to as "Applied Design" in the beginning.

⬆ Photo of Professor Rowe on right by Evan Krape, Both photos are undated.

. . . 1 9 6 6

Originally, the department was "Art & Art History." It split into separate departments in 1966.

. . . 1 9 6 8

The program took on the name of "Graphic & Advertising Design."

The first graduate from the program was in 1968 and there was only one. I believe the next graduates weren’t until 1973, although I have a vague notion that I’ve seen graduates from 1972.

At least at this time, the degree offered was the Bachelor of Science degree. Because it was considered a professional degree (like the BFA is today) there was a lot of flexibility to the curriculum and you could offer a much larger number of course than the standard Bachelor of Arts degree that was offered by Fine Arts.

. . . 1 9 7 0

⬆ Photo by Mark Deshon about 1978.

Woody Ritter was hired in graphic design (1970 - 1978).

Woody passed away on November 19, 2023, at the age of 87. His obituary can be read here.

. . . 1 9 7 4

I'm not sure where it was housed prior to 1974 but in 1974 it was housed in Recitation Annex (and had been for at least a couple of years), the small building to the left of Recitation Hall.

The basement at least by the late 1970s housed the "stat" camera along with photo darkroom equipment. A variety of photographic materials were supplied by DuPont, including sheets of 30" x 40" lithography negative (lithneg) film and Chromalin materials.

⬆ Ray Nichols hired (1974 - 2006), advertising design.

1976 (photo by Mark Deshon) - 2016 (photo by Craig Cutler). That’s what 35 years of teaching in Visual Communications do for you.

Having moved from the high desert of West Texas to Newark, Ray was hot to be part of urban civilization. His first concert, which he went to alone was at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. The headliner was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. “Well hello, Ray. Welcome to the world.”

The program, called "Graphic & Advertising Design" offered the BS (Bachelor of Science) degree, which was the professional degree versus the BA. Students only took G&AD courses during their Junior and Senior years. The BFA was not part of the program at all. I taught 3 classes each semester in ‘74 (4 of them were foundation design and 2 were in the program). The classes I taught as I remember were illustration and typography (which was half typography and half calligraphy). I might have taught a graphic design-related class one semester.

⬆ Woody Ritter was operating a year-end "Breakfast" at the point in time I joined the program. I think he hired the school chef at Widner University (I think), who came on the first morning of the exhibition to make omelets for professional Wilmington designers who came down to see the show. He could make two omelets, made to order, a minute. I wish I remembered his name. He had a chef's hat and a nice setup. Here is a photo and the holiday window decorations which filled every window on the two floors of the Recitation Annex.

In those early years, the SENIOR show was held in December, though the students graduated in May. I’m not sure when we started doing it at the end of the school year, but definitely in the 70s.

. . . 1 9 7 5

In my second year, I taught one introductory design course and two courses in G&AD. Of course; I was starting to dream about what the program could be like. So one of the things I pushed for immediately was to start including the sophomore year into the program; it is strange that as of 2017, it was back to where students only took the VC classes junior and senior, I believe.

. . . 1 9 7 6

So starting in 1976, we went to a 3-year program. From then on, I taught full-time in G&AD. This splintered the junior class in '76 as some moved into the 3-year program (probably costing them an extra year in college) while others stayed with the 2-year program to graduate in the standard 4 years.

I applied for a Unidel Grant for about $75,000, which got us all new metal desks that filled Recitation Annex, and the Stat Camera housed in the basement. At the time, we were on the cutting edge of technology with our connections to DuPont.

We developed a close technology relationship with DuPont, who supplied us with 30” x 40” lithography negative (lith negs) film that we could expose on the stat camera and develop in the darkroom to make photographic silkscreen films which we used to print posters for a variety of events and causes.

I was one of about 6 university faculty who were granted access to PLATO. The proposal was to answer the question, “What will you do with PLATO?” My answer was, “I have no idea, but it will help me do things that I’m not even considering right now.” I believe I received the most support that was offered. I had my pick of the best programmers. I remember a few programmers: Charlie Wickham, Ben Williams, and Jim Trueblood. They were all fantastic.

PLATO’s "Optical Letterspacing" and "Logo Design" were two significant programs I developed here. I think the students hated the optical letterspacing, but it substantially i “attention to detail," which spilled over into many other areas. Print Magazine did a major article on Optical Letterspacing. I had a relatively constant flow of design faculty who traveled from as far as Finland to see what we were up to.

. . . 1 9 7 8

Silver Award to StudioUs for the American Life Insurance Company brochure

. . . 1 9 7 9

⬆ Year-end show poster for the class 1978. This was the first piece we got Cowan Printing to print for us for free because we were doing all of our Cypher + Nichols + Design work with them.

Terry Casey hired (1979 - 1980)

"Don't let another art director beat you to the punch" poster for 1979 year-end show got into the Art Directors Club of New York competition. The poster was hung on the same wall as the Barbecue Picnic Poster from Herman Miller, starting a life-long connection between the program (and Ray) to Stephen Frykholm, the designer of the picnic poster, that carried all the way into 2018.

. . . 1 9 8 0

⬆ Year-end show poster for the class of ‘79. I designed it on the bus to New York for one of our field trips.

Employment goals for our graduates switched from getting jobs in Wilmington / Philadelphia to New York with the class of 1980.

"The cut" was instituted to limit enrollment in the program to a maximum of 17 - 20 graduating seniors. The class of '80 had 26 graduating seniors and we were buried in students in the lower classes. We were expecting interest in the program to get greater. The workload and creative expectations of the faculty increased significantly. To help justify the intensity within the program we intensified opportunities outside the classroom.

We started the practice of taking 2 field trips to New York each semester and participating in the Art Directors Club of New York portfolio review (first year was with the class of 1980). Brad Tillinghast's interest in working as an art director in advertising had a major impact on my starting to "push" students toward New York careers. Around the time Brad told me about his New York interest I noticed in the back of one of the Art Directors Club of New York annuals that they had a page showing the portfolio reviews. One phone call got us involved and we were seriously off and running.

At the ADCNY portfolio reviews, we started crossing paths with a bunch of important art directors, with the important one being Lee Epstein. Lee taught at Pratt and had worked at Doyle Dane Bernbach with all of the biggies from back in the 1960s. Both of those places where high on my list of things to aspire to. Doing the portfolio reviews was a major turning point in the life and expectations of VC and therefore, the students who went through the program.

Print Magazine publishes a major article on Ray's work with Plato and the Optical Letterspacing software.

Bill Deering hired (1980 - 1986), applied photography

⬆ Bill Deering at his 2007 Vietnam exhibition opening. Photo by Ray Nichols.

Jim Storey hired (1980 - 1981), graphic design

Silver award for Anthropology Project (no names mentioned) from University & College Designers to StudioUs (early name for VC as a design studio).

⬆ Visual Communications had an intramural softball team named “Ray’s Hell,” complete with silkscreened shirts. Anyone have one? I believe the logo was drawn by Ed Macsimowicz (VC’80).

. . . 1 9 8 1

⬆ Eric Michelson (art director / photographer) came to speak. Rode down in Andrew Unangst’s (photographer) limo. Had said he wanted to sit in the back because he didn’t want people watching him. Everyone at the talk wore sunglasses. Eric sat in the back on the aisle floor, leaning against the door, drinking Hennessy Cognac. Better part of a 1/5th. Then we walked up to the Annex to show him the banner we had for the talk. He wanted it. We gave it to him. He drove back in the limo. About 3 years later we went to his apartment for a talk. The banner was stapled to the ceiling of his bedroom. He left the TV going with MTV on it. He had everyone sit still when Adam Ant came on. Just weird events all the way around.

⬆ Year-end show poster for the class of 1981. The poster was included in the Art Directors Club annual exhibition, the University and College Designers Association yearly competition, and a silver award in the Art Directors Club of Delaware.

⬆ Martha Carothers hired (1981 - present), graphic design

Photo by Bill Deering, 2006.

The portfolio review for entry into the program started in 1981 and first impacted the graduating class of 1983.

⬆ I believe the design credit for this Department of Art exhibition poster goes to Chris Aliotta (VC’81). Cowan Printing printed it; it was the first split fountain (shadows under the letters) piece they had ever done. See the award below.

Gold Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for “Department of Art Exhibition Poster” to Designers. See the image above.

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for “Don’t Let Another Art Director Beat You to the Punch Poster” to Designers.

. . . 1 9 8 2

The name of the program changed to Visual Communications.

⬆ Our 9’ silkscreened year-end show poster for the class of 1982. We have had the enormous poster for the smallest class since the middle ‘70s until today—a dozen good stories to tell about this project.

The 8-foot x 4.5” silkscreened year-end show poster (printed 3 up), "The whole world is talking," was included in the One Club's annual competition. That poster was also included in the CASE (Council for Advancement & Support of Education) competition and voted "Best of the Decade" 1975 - 1985.

Other notoriety for "The whole world is talking" included The One Club for Art and Copy New York, Silver Medals for the 3 posters from the University and College Designers Association, and Silver Medals for the 3 posters from the Advertising Club of Delaware.

⬆ On a field trip to New York we passed out several hundred of the Year-End Show invitations to a lot of our design idols. We got this note back from New York Art Directors Club of New York Hall of Fame member, Ivan Chermayeff.

. . . 1 9 8 3

Interest in the program exploded with "the cut" significantly reducing non-majors in our courses, along with students that were "kind of" interested. The call to action became "get on or get off."

Barbra Colquitt (VC’79) served as President of the Advertising Club of Delaware from 1983 - 1984.

⬆ You can see the banner large on our Facebook site.

Award from University & College Designers Association for UD Development program to Jill Cypher, Ray Nichols & Bill Deering.

. . . 1 9 8 4

The introduction of the Macintosh with its "1984" commercial on the Superbowl. Ray received a grant that got us 4 of the first 128K Macintosh Computers. That seems like a long time ago.

Award of Merit from The One Club for Art & Copy for “The Whole World is Talking”, to Visual Communications Group. and 3 Awards of Merit from the Advertising Club of Delaware for Presenting Paula Scher, “Massimo Vignelli” talk poster (does anybody have one), and the “AIGA Thank You” poster (does anybody have one).

. . . 1 9 8 5

Program name changed to "Visual Communications" around 1985?

⬆ Year-end show poster for class of ‘85.

The Year-End Show poster this year was “Think Small. Again.” paying homage to the 25th anniversary of the Volkswagen “Think Small.” campaign. The poster was highlighted in a later exhibition honoring VW advertising at The One Club in New York City.

Around 1985 we began offering a concentration in Applied Photography. In trade for support in separating our APPLIED Photography away from FINE ARTS Photography, we traded ILLUSTRATION to PAINTING which resulted in us hiring Peter Croydon as tenure-track faculty.

“Think Small. Again.” won a Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware and was included in Graphis Posters.

Silver Award from Art Directors Club of New York to Visual Communications Group for “Christmas Card,” no names listed.

. . . 1 9 8 6

Peter Croydon hired (1986 - 1995), applied photography

Awards from the Art Directors Club of New York, Print Magazine, Gold Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for the “Donald Lipski Peacemaker” photo to Martha Carothers, Ray Nichols & Bill Deering

. . . 1 9 8 7

⬆ The front & back of our Year-End Show poster for the class of 1987.

⬆ Gold Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware to Jerry Pinkney / Designers for the Alan Cober Invitation. See above.

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for the ‘76 / ‘86 Decades Exhibition poster to Martha Carothers, Ray Nichols, Sara Hughes, Jeff Kopay, Kevin Kruger, Pam Meierding, Bill Starkey, and Jill Twardowski. I cannot remember what this piece was. Anybody?

. . . 1 9 8 8

MacLab instituted as part of the Visual Communications program.

Fine Arts changed their major from the BA to the BFA. The BS still offered our program more flexibility so we stuck with it for several more years.

Steve Boyd (VC’88) professed his interest in design openings and closings for Olympic events. Ray Nichols probably said something like, “Yeah, sure.” He has currently contributed to 13 consecutive Summer and Winter Olympics games spanning Barcelona ’92 to Tokyo ’20.  What the hell do teachers know anyway?

. . . 1 9 8 9

⬆ The class of ‘89 at the year end party.

The University of Delaware Magazine (with then-Senator Joe Biden on the cover) did a major article on Visual Communications stating, "Delaware's Visual Communications program is turning out top young talent in advertising, photography, and design."

Graphis Magazine 263, September October 1989, had as its cover, an ad for Steuben Glass. The art director was Ann Lemon (VC’84) and the photographer was Craig Cutler (VC’83)

⬆ In 1989 Ad Age Magazine voted this Steuben Glass ad campaign as magazine campaign of the year. Art Director : Ann Lemon (VC’84) and Photographer : Craig Cutler (VC’83).

Sometime around this time, we started a student exchange with Wolverhampton University in the U.K. I think it lasted about 4 years. More students wanted to come here than wanted to go there which eventually killed the project. Wolverhampton was a bit too far from London for our students.

Rose DiSanto started her volunteer work with the "Hole in the Wall Gang Camp," Paul Newman's effort for children with blood disorders. She has done it every year except for the first one.

. . . 1 9 9 0

Beginning of the VC Macintosh lab 1992? One of Ray's favorite classes, Video Editing, came into existence during many Wintersessions over the next couple of decades, 

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for the “Ad Club of Delaware Letterhead” to Ray Nichols and DEsigners.

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for “Lanny Sommese” to Martha Carothers and DEsigners.

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for the “BFA Deadlines” to Martha Carothers, Ray Nichols and DEsigners

. . . 1 9 9 1

Ingrid Hansen-Lunch (VC’84) served as President of the Advertising Club of Delaware from 1991 - 1992.

Advertising Club of Delaware Gold (6) and Silver (6) awards listing graduates. Gold: Raymond Nichols, Martha Carothers, Hendrik-Jan Francke, VC junior class, Ed Abbott, Robert Kuzepski, Sean McCormick, & Ann Lemon. Silver: Raymond Nichols, Martha Carothers, Hendrik-Jan Francke, Marco Kaye, Tom Newsom, Min Chung, Serrin Bodmer, Mike Sullivan, Jen Denis, Mary Allen, Leslie Kedash, Lori Gray, & Kelly Carter

. . . 1 9 9 2

Martha Carothers becomes chair of the Department of Art & Visual Communications (1992 - 2001)

Patrick Warner was an essential assistant in the Mac Lab (1992-1996). He would later go on to be the president of the Advertising Club of Delaware. He graduated in Illustration, which wasn’t part of VC then.

⬆ This was the first year of the Not Yet Famous poster series promoting the annual Department of Art student exhibition. Amy Giordano, Peter Kaplan, and Robin Shapiro worked with Ray Nichols and Martha Carothers on the piece..

. . . 1 9 9 3

Delaware Today magazine had the cover story "How Good is U of D?" In a callout entitled "Highest rated" they said,

"Although not well-known outside designer circles, UD's Visual Communications (commercial art) program is considered by 'those who need to know' one of the best in the country. Graduates win awards and land jobs with big-name advertising agencies in New York City.”

Brad Tillinghast (VC'80) was awarded the University of Delaware Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement. This was the first of 7 of our graduates that ended up winning the award over the next decade.

⬆ Gold Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for the “Not Yet Famous Artists Revealed” (see image above) to Hendrik-Jan Francke, Peter Caplan, Amy Giordano, Ray Nichols, and Martha Carothers.

⬆ Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for the CISM logo to Ray Nichols, Jill Cypher and Andy Shemeta (see image above). Critical Incident Stress Management is a group that moves into an area after some kind of devastating event, such as floods, hurricanes, terriorist attack, etc. The receding waves (done with a photoshop filter) symbolize the steady reduction in stress by the affected group over time.

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for “Visual Communications Year-End Show Poster” to Ray Nichols, Martha Carothers, Amy Giordano, Peter Kaplan, Robin Shapiro, Senior Class, and Designers

. . . 1 9 9 4

⬆ Kirk Souder (VC'85) with his writing partner, Court Crandall won the Grand Clio for the best commercial of the year for Pioneer stereos for the ad "Sorry." Agency was BBDO / West, Los Angeles.

Advertising Design seniors want to do a cool portfolio review so 8 of us get in a van and drive to Fallon McElligott in Minneapolis. We leave on a Friday and return on Monday night. 24 hours each way. Total distance was 2,450. I doubt anyone at any school could do this kind of things in today’s world.

Degree offered in Visual Communications changes to the Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree.

Paul Miles hired (1994 - 1995), graphic design.

⬆ Paul Miles and Ray Nichols were in Wilmington at 8th & Tatnall investigating “The Trophy Shop.” Just looking. Nothing in mind. The Shop trophies for every sport you ever heard of. They also had football jackets like you got in high school. Ray asked some questions and discovered you could mix and match all kinds of things. Ok! I want black felt for the body. Black leather for the sleeves. Picked out the perfect cuffs and neck. Oh, you can get letters.? Can they have 2 letters? Then “VC.”

Jill took the letters shown above off his pretty ragged jacket, worn ever winter for 25 years. All winter. Every winter. Ray always described the jacket as the warmest he has ever owned. But ust a bit too short. He went back to the same shop in the winter of 2020. Ordered a new jacket with new letters. This time with an LG. If you know Ray you’ll know what that means. It is October 2021 as I write this. I’m ready for winter.

Kirk Souder (VC'84) co-founds Ground Zero, a highly creative, award-winning agency in Los Angeles, CA.

From 1994 -1996 (not sure of the dates) Visual Communications is housed in the small brick houses at the beginning of Delaware Avenue while Recitation Hall and Recitation Annex are renovated.

Gold Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for HYPE 3 newsletter to Jill Cypher, Ray Nichols, and Designers

. . . 1 9 9 5

Bill Deering rehired (1995 - present), applied photography, advertising design

Ray Nichols served as President of the Advertising Club of Delaware from 1995 - 1996.

⬆ In October we took a field trip to NYC mainly to see the Saul Bass Masters of Design exhibition at SVA. When we got there it wasn’t there. Bass hadn’t had time to hang the how. We came back an produced this 30” x 24” poster (with fishing licenses for everyone in VC) to send him to see if when he finally did hang the show, that he would spend an hour walking us through the show. About 5 days later he called us and agreed. Saul Bass passed away about 6 months later and we never got that tour. That would have been a good tour.

⬆ Patrick Bosak (VC’95) and a friend were looking for a way to maybe make a few bucks and to use the skills I had been learning in VC. We saw all the calendars around campus showing girls around the college to raise money for the Greeks. So, they thought let’s do one with men. A calendar opened up a fun design challenge because everyone knows how a calendar works so you had some freedom to play with the design. We asked Ashton Worthington (VC’95) to be a part of it because we knew he would take amazing photos and it would give him the opportunity to shoot 13 people each with a unique theme. Each month had a theme based on the month. For example October was Joe Mikulas (VC’95) was the model for that one shown in the middle above, was Halloween-themed. Both the photo and the design matched that theme and worked together visually. For modeling, we donated a portion of the proceeds to each model’s campus organization of choice. We entered it into the DE Addys with your help. We won a silver award. It later got us published in Graphis and Ashton did a photography exhibition of the images at a coffee house in Philadelphia. I designed the shows invites and other promo materials.

Kirk Souder (VC'85) was awarded the University of Delaware Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement.

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for the “Black Maria Festival Poster” to Martha Carothers, Ray Nichols, Paul Miles, Joe Mikulas, Fred Schuster, Sandy Wortham, Jill Ruckelshaus, Ashton Worthington, and Runie Tatnall.

. . . 1 9 9 6

Charles Rowe, agrees to give up his roll in illustration to move to painting. A part of that agreement, Illustration is merged into Visual Communications and a new faculty position is approved.

Robyn Phillips-Pendleton hired (1996 - present), illustration.

Sometime between 1996 and 1998 we merged with Illustration and began the concentration in Illustration as part of Visual Communications.

Visual Communications relocates to the newly renovated Recitation Hall with proper workspaces, critique rooms, a departmental gallery, lecture hall, and Macintosh Site.

Jill Cypher served as President of the Advertising Club of Delaware from 1996 - 1997.

Libby Brockhoff (VC'92) was one of 4 founding partners of Mother, an innovative and highly creative advertising agency in London. Libby was responsible for the name. The New York office followed in 2003. Mother has pioneered a creative culture where all employees work directly with clients, including the creative teams. Her now husband, Franklin Tipton (VC'91,) was Mother's first hire. In 2014 they form "Odysseus Arms," a highly awarded advertising agency in San Francisco and winner of Advertising Age’s “Small Agency of the Year.”.

. . . 1 9 9 7

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for “DEadLines Mastheads” to Ray Nichols, Jill Cypher, and Becky Herman.

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for “Designers Website” from the Advertising Club of Delaware to Ray Nichols, Martha Carothers, Kevin Kruger, Ashley Pigford, and Joe DelPesco.

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for “Education Objects” to Ray Nichols, Martha Carothers, Rich McGuigan, and the entire senior class of 1997.

Great set of blueprint posters to get the first-year students excepted about a talk about VC in one of the Colloquium sessions. Posters by Tesia Farquhar (VC’97) pulled from clip art.

. . . 1 9 9 8

Hendrik-Jan Francke hired (1998 - 2006), graphic design.

Bill Oberlander (VC'81) becomes president of the Art Directors Club of New York (1998 - 2001).

Visual Communications started hosting the "Black Maria Film Festival." Also did a couple nice letterpress posters to promote the occasion.

Silver Award for “Truth vs. Rumor” from the Advertising Club of Delaware to Raymond Nichols, Martha Carothers, and Tesia Farquhar

. . .1 9 9 9

Eight advertising design seniors invaded the office of CD Peter Woods at Ogilvy / NY. The object was to take over his floor while he was in London and work on The One Club’s student competition (to make Viet Nam a vacation destination). Fortunately, or unfortunately, Peter didn’t go to London. We had a killer time. Below see 2 of the 7 posters we posted around Ogilvy announcing the sit-in.

Bill Oberlander (VC'81) was awarded the University of Delaware Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement.

Craig Cutler photographed a Gutenberg Bible for the millennium issue of Life Magazine celebrating the 100 most important of the last 1000 years. The Gutenberg Bible was moment #1.

. . . 2 0 0 0

Around 2000 Visual Communications began a concentration in Interactive Media.

Around 2000 the advertising design program was first included in the One Club student exhibition honoring the top 20 advertising design programs in the U.S. putting us on the map with every program that mattered to us.

Jill and I were eating at the truck stop out by the Interstate one evening. We had just quit Cypher + Nichols + Design. Jill said, “What are you going to do with all that time?” I said I had no idea. She said, “How about starting that Study Abroad program you are always talking about. So…

VCUK study abroad to London in 2001 was established. During the summer of 2000, Ray Nichols, Bill Deering and Jill Cypher make an exploratory trip to Europe. We spent a week in Berlin where we talked with the first Volkswagen advertising agency. Then we spent a week in Paris, mostly eating hotdogs which incredibly hot mustard as I remember. Then we spent a week in London with Bill talking to some important prospects for visiting to see if we brought students from the U.S., would they let us in with us. Vince Frost, The Partners, the V&A Museum, Pentagram, and Michael Johnson all categorically agreed that, "If we came, we could visit." So we did. The coronavirus just stopped Bill from doing the 20th trip. I did them for the first 5 from 2001 - 2005.

Mylene Turek Pollock (VC'83) was awarded the University of Delaware Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement.

. . . 2 0 0 1

VCUK'01 was the first year of the Visual Communications-sponsored study abroad trip to London. The program was designed to make 35 visit to various advertising agencies, design studios, photographers, illustrators. We even took over the WHOLE of Stonehenge for an hour when we watched the sun come up at 5:02am (see photo at top of page).

We would like to put the agenda for each VCUK trip, so I’ll start with the first one.

Bartle Bogle Hagerty / advertising agency
HHCL (2 student groups, 2 speakers) / advertising agency
Leagas-Delaney (2 speakers) / advertising agency
Partners (3 speakers) / advertising agency
St.Lukes (3 speakers) / advertising agency
Mother / advertising agency (continued thru 2023)
Lowe-Lintas Advertising / advertising agency
TBWA / advertising agency
Alan Fletcher / graphic designer
Frost Design / graphic design studio
Johnson Banks / graphic design studio (continued thru 2023)
Pentagram / graphic design studio
Tequila (3 speakers) / graphic design studio
London College of Printing (2 student visits) / design school
London College of Printing (faculty only) / design school
Central St. Martins / design school
Royal College of Art (2 visits) / design school
Head New Media / interactive design studio
John Brown Publishing (3 speakers) / magazine publisher
Charlotte Berans / illustrator’s agent
David Harriman / photographer
Alan Kitching Typography Workshop / typographer
David Farey / HouseStyle Graphics / typographer
Satwinder Sehmi / calligrapher (continued thru 2023)
Margaret Timmers / V&A Museum / Poster curator at the V & A Museum
Victoria & Albert Museum
Design Museum
Tate Modern

We had scheduled the fall semester’s first VC New York field trip for September 26th. We thought hard about canceling it after the events of September 11th. We decided that putting off the journey might be something we might live to regret, so we decided to go ahead. Initially, everyone was encouraged to avoid the site, but the pull was too much.

Ray Nichols had assigned his junior advertising design class a poster project for the trip. After the terrorist incident, he had the students rework the assignment, adding the events into the project sensitively. His favorite by Anthony DiPaula was the one shown on the front page of the 2nd section of the University of Delaware’s “Review.” They also include a photo Ray took as close to the Towers as the police would allow. A number of VC students were quoted in the Review’s story.

Craig Cutler (VC'83) was awarded the University of Delaware Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement.

Gold Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for “Material Culture Recruitment” to Raymond Nichols, Martha Carothers, Hendrik-Jan Francke, and DEsigners. See above.

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for Black Maria Poster” to Raymond Nichols, Martha Carothers, Hendrik-Jan Francke, Serrin Bomer, Mike Sullivan, Jen Denis, and Designers

Silver Award from the Advertising Club of Delaware for “Field Trip Poster” to Raymond Nichols, Martha Carothers, Hendrik-Jan Francke, Marco Kaye, Tom Newsom, and Min Chung

. . . 2 0 0 2

Raven Press at the University of Delaware established.

Ann Lemon (VC'84) was awarded the University of Delaware Presidential Citation for Outstanding Achievement.

Department of Art “Not Yet Famous Artists Revealed” poster designed and photographed by Hendrik-Jan Francke, Steve Mierding, Michele Rangsiyakul, & Chris Mears. Below is the call for entries for the exhibition.

Somewhere in here I need to explain VC Family Album pages, a project that was initiated by Rose Disanto (VC’83). Ari Garber (VC’05) produced this one using the subtitles from the movie, A Beautiful Mind, to provide the text. The movie was shown at one of our Friday Sessions. This is probably my favorite VCFA page of the several hundred we designed. It was interesting that using the subtitles even removed the effort required to explain the piece.

ABOVE : Madeline Pachter-Vail (VC’03) was a winner in AIGA’s TOLERANCE POSTER competition. Still true that what we see is only the tip of the iceberg.

I was really taken by the movie “A Beautiful Mind” which I showed in class. John Nash’s economic strategy matched almost exactly with what I had been doing in/with/for VC for years. “Do what is best for you AND best for the group.” I never thought of it as a strategy until I saw the movie. We brought Lynne Butler, who had studied under Nash at Princeton, to explain how the math worked. I’m not sure the students got it, but I was in love

Ray Nichols considers this poster as one of the best visual ideas he came up with. The photoshoot was fun.

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Looks like an interesting class with the Class of ‘03 hanging out with Georg Lois. I don’t remember exactly what was going on. Anyone? Email Ray.

During VCUK’03 the Raven Press logo designed by British graphic designer, Alan Fletcher. Ben Thoma & Karla Burger Cushman instigated the project.

Above shows 3 of 7 posters produced by Bill Deering’s photo students for the Global Agenda speaker series.

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Concentration in Illustration approved.

Above shows 3 of 7 posters produced by Robin Phillips Pendleton’s students for the Global Agenda speaker series.

In 2004 VC’s intramural softball team was named the “Ligatures.” I believe the impetus for it all was Ben Thoma (VC’04). I’m not sure if we won any games, but we had the best shirts and had the most fun.

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During VCUK'05 Ray & Jill's flat was 200 yards from the bus that was bombed by terrorists London. Four students were coming over to do a bookmaking workshop and were coming up in the elevator when the bomb went off.

Working with Bernie Herman, Director of the Center for American Material Culture Studies, Ray Nichols, and a dozen VC students produce the book entitled, "People Were Close." The 108-page book tells the story of the African-American community in Newark bounded by New London Road from the train tracks north to Clayton Hall, including Rose, Ray, Corbit and Mill streets. The visual highlight of the book is a 2" x 80' (as in feet) photographic panorama of multiple-angle views of every building along the included streets that runs along the bottoms of the pages. (see 2006 for the 2nd book in the series). This area as home to the African-American community is essentially gone at this point (2018) and many of the houses have been torn down and rebuilt as student apartments.

The 7-poster series shown above, produced via letterpress, was a major leap forward for Raven Press at the University of Delaware. Produced for the Global Agenda speaker series, the one for John Bolton was the major tipping point.

This year Franklin Tipton (Advertising Design / '91) of Crispin Porter + Bogusky was one of the big creative winners on the planet. He won the Cannes Titanium Lion for "Counterfeit MINI," the Cyber Grand Prix - Method "comeclean.com," the Cannes Gold Film Lion for "Counterfeit MINI," and the Cannes Cyber Gold Lion for "Counterfeit MINI."

During the spring semester ‘05, author Steven Heller spoke to our students and we produced a poster for his talk through Raven Press. As it turns out he was working on a new book called "Old Type / New Type" and asked us to submit some of our letter work for consideration for the book. Well, ten pieces were chosen to be included.

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Paul Wachter (VC Advertising Design / '06) had his work selected in the prestigious College Competition sponsored by The One Club for Art & Copy in New York. His campaign was one of 20 chosen from around the world for the advertising component of the competition. His work has also been awarded a 'pencil' (a first for VC in this competition) signifying it was one of the three best.

Steve Boyd (VC Graphic Design / '88) is continuing his streak in Torino, Italy of working for every Olympic games presentation since he graduated. Need to double check and see how long this streak lasted.

The second of two books designed by VC students through the Center for American Material Culture Studies is designed and printed. This full color, 120-page book entitled "Food, Poems, and Stories," is a combination of recipes and history based on interviews with residents recorded through a project by Bernie Herman’s seniors. (see 2005 for the 1st book in the series).

Raven Press brought Matthew Carter, internationally renowned for his typography design. to be the inaugural lecturer for the Press. This was to start a lecture series called "LetterWordLineBook."

Tesia Farquhar Barone (VC'97) directed the movie short, "Rent Control." The movie was an official selection in the DC Independent Film Festival and the FirstGlance Film Festival. It won for best screenplay in the HypeFest Film Festival.

Ray Nichols retires and starts Lead Graffiti, a letterpress laboratory of sorts, in Newark, DE.

Ashley Pigford hired (2006 - present), graphic design.

Colette Gaiter hired (2006 - present), interactive media

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6 pieces produced through Raven Press included in Steven Heller and Gail Anderson's book, New Vintage Type.

Peter Kaplan (VC'93) awarded the title of Young Guns by the Art Directors Club of New York.

Ray Nichols & Jill Cypher design and supply photography for "Histories of Newark: 1758 - 2008," a 288-page hardback book on the history of Newark, Delaware.

Time Magazine listed the top 10 TV ads of the year. Two connected with us. #4. Dove: "Onslaught", Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto, NANCY MILLER VONK. #8. Dos Equis: "Most Interesting Man in the World", Euro RSCG Worldwide / New York, KARL LIEBERMAN and Brandon Henderson.

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Art Directors Club of New York awards Ray Nichols the title of "Grandmasters" which resulted in an exhibition of work by 26 of his graduates. Ray was asked to print the certificates. The certificate was designed by Lizzy Ferraro (VC’05). The image was photographed at Craig Cutler Photography, NYC. Calligraphy by Satwinder Sehmi, London. The complete certificate is printed via letterpress.

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Laurie Churchman (VC'85), principal of Designlore, elected as an AIGA / Fellow by AIGA / Philadelphia.

Speaking of AIGA / Philadelphia, Rose DiSanto pitched and then started, a mentoring program, pairing professional with students and recent grads. The first year had 10 pairs and 2015 had 98. No way that isn't a great thing. If you, students or professionals, are in or around Philadelphia consider getting yourself involved.

GrandArmy was founded by Eric Collins (VC'08), Joey Ellis (VC'08), and Larry Pepitone (VC'08),  on April Fools Day

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David Brinley hired (2010? - present), foundations & illustration

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Eric Collins (VC'08, Joey Ellis (VC'08), & Larry Pipitone (VC'08) of GrandArmy awarded the title of Young Guns by the Art Directors Club of New York.

Howie Ronay (VC'92), Creative Director for DraftFCB, was the recipient of multiple Lion Awards at Cannes for his work on KMart's "Ship my pants" campaign.

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Odysseus Arms, an advertising and storytelling agency in San Francisco for just 3 yeaars, founded by Franklin Tipton (VC'91) and Libby Brockhoff (VC'92) in 2011, was named Small Agency of the Year by Advertising Age.

Eric Collins (VC'08, Joey Ellis (VC'08), & Larry Pipitone (VC'08) of GrandArmy complete the visual rebranding of the U.S. Postal System.

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About this time AdAge came out with the 15 best campaigns of the century so far. Four of them were represented by grads from the Visual Communications Group. Nancy Miller Vonk (VC'79) was ranked #1 for her work for Dove: Campaign for Real Beauty, DJ Pierce (VC'93) #7 for American Express: Small Business Saturday, #9 to Karl Lieberman (VC'99) for Thank You, Mom, P&G/Olympics, Karl Lieberman (VC'99) and Brandon Henderson (VC'99) were #11 for Dos Equis: Most Interesting Man in the World. Four out of 15 is a pretty damn good ratio.

Graphic Design in the Visual Communications program is ranked 14th of U.S. degree programs. I think this has been true for a couple of years, but the current online article in "Graphic Design Degree Hub" is copyrighted 2015.

Eric Collins (VC'08, Joey Ellis (VC'08), & Larry Pipitone (VC'08) of GrandArmy complete the visual rebranding of KFC.

. . . 2016

. . . 2017

. . . 2018

Oberland, a social advocacy-focused firm, co-founded by Bill Oberlander (VC'80), creating top-notch work for clients including the Nature Conservancy, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, was awarded AdAge's Small Agency of the Year.

CampaignUS does a nice article on “The Unsung Women of Advertising” and opens with Libby Brockhoff (VC’92}

. . . 2019

. . . 2020

Ahhh. The year of the great sequester.

Steve Boyd (VC’88) said back in ‘88, “I want to work on the Olympics.” As a creative director currently based in London, Steve has built his career specializing in Olympic ceremonies and large-scale events that meld mass spectacle and volunteer mass casts. He has contributed—in a spectrum of roles—to 15 consecutive Summer and Winter Olympics spanning Barcelona ’92 to Tokyo 2020. He recently served as Show Director for the opening of Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture and advisor on ceremonies for Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games. Currently Steve is continuing his role as advisor to the International Olympic Committee for the next three Olympics in Tokyo ’20 (summer), Beijing ‘22 (winter) and Paris ‘24 (summer).

. . . 2021

. . . 2022

Visual Communications Awards
Beaux La Fontaine - The Robert Geuder Prize
Jessica Underwood - The Robert Geuder Prize
Dia Horan - The Grand Army Prize for Creative Excellence in Graphic Design
Roslyn Rose - Creative Excellence in Interactive Media / UX
Beaux La Fontaine - Creative Excellence in Illustration
Beaux La Fontaine - Creative Excellence in Letterpress & Typography
Elizabeth Kukulich - Creative Excellence in Photography
Ivan Avilla - Creative Excellence in Photography
Sam Vandennekom - Creative Excellence in Film / Motion
Nick Oteri - Creative Excellence in Animation / 3D Modeling
Julia Harman - Creative Excellence in Animation / 3D Modeling
Bella Niola - Creative Excellence in Copywriting

. . . 2023

Elena Nerhood - The Robert Geuder Prize
Colette Burda - The Robert Geuder Prize
Justin O’Toole - The Karl & Amy Lieberman Prize for advertising design
Lauren Weiss - The Grand Army Prize for Graphic Design
Kayla Plunkett - The Marco Kaye Prize for Copywriting
Colette Burda - Laurie Frankel Prize for Photography & Film
Kaylin Atkinson - Creative Excellence in Illustration
Sarah Delpercio - Distinction in Design
Hannah Schaffer - Distinction in Design
Justin O’Toole - Raven Press Letterpress Award
Sarah Delpercio - Raven Press Letterpress Award
Elena Nerhood - Creative Excellence in Interactive Design
Emma Liss - Creative Excellence in Interactive Design
Melanie Gasmen - Award of Merit for Design
Sam Cosmillo - Award of Merit for Design
Haley Raiford - Award of Merit for Design

VCUK resumed for its 20th edition this year after a 2-year Covid Hiatus.

I just keep pushing this stuff down the list and figuring out how to ram it in to the already long list.

Other notable dates might be (1) merger with Illustration (2) Interactive Media Minor (3) Computer Lab

Jackie Dreja McTear So cool. We were the first to have a beginning design on the Mac class in '88 or '89. We had the super small little ones I think. I have fond memories of the dark Annex basement and drafty top floor where we had our desks. Everything became so high tech after us and now you have swank digs. But I wouldn't trade it for the way it was for us. Hands on, gritty, all about concept. Also, I graduated in '89 with a BS.

Laurie Frankel I think program name change was in 1982 not 85

Laurie Frankel When were the Plato computers installed? I feel like it was in 80 or 81

Bill Deering and I are going to start recording our memories about various events and experiences. I would love for students to start doing the same thing. I know that on my iPhone I have “Voice Memos.” You could find something POSITIVE to talk about from your VC experiences. Good project, good speaker, good field trip, great moment from VCUK, etc. Record it. Email it to Ray Nichols. If it needs some editing I can give that a try to take out most of the “ahhh”s and the like. I’d love for someone to give this a try.

Below is a list of things Bill and I are considering talking about.

Helmut Krone
2 lunches, elevator, Marty Cook, broken leg
George Lois
2 office visits, walking around Langley’s
Amil Gargano
Mike Tesch / Sarah Moon (fuck Fresh)
Jimmy Moore
Alexey Brodovitch critique story
David Langley / Talks
Woody Pirtle
Find Rudolph poster
Peter Wood
Carl Fisher
Art Directors Club / Portfolio reviews
Wingate Paine
Harvey Lloyd
Alexey Brodovitch talk 
CBS / Louis Dorfsman
Horn and Grinder
Herb Lubalin
studio visit
Roy Grace
James Helms project
Art Kane
workshop / critique
Aaron Burns
ITC visits
Steve Frickholm
Blueprint machine
AIGA / Philly
Seymour Chwast
William Taubin
Henry Wolf
Interview for Helmut Krone book
Marty Cook
Milton Glaser
Steve Boyd thank you
Ed McCabe
Paul Rand
“Am I overdressed.”
Fred Woodward
Critique, laying on floor of Rolling Stone
Jay Maisel
Bob Gill
7 hour critique
monthly meetings about curriculum
Bob Giraldi
Lee Clow
Bert Stern
Jay Chiat
Ann Lemon doing CD ad for WSJ
Louise Fili
B. Martin Pederson
Helmut Krone lunch
Steven Heller
talk, poster, book
Janet Froelich
Matthew Carter
Talk for Raven Press
Jim Johnson
Emilo Paccione 
Gordan Parks

Can we figure out at least one good story for each of the 5 years I did the trips

Eric Gill gravesite with students
Stonehenge at sunrise
Alan Kitching
Satwinder Sehmi
Italy on 6-day break
Tour de France in Belgium / Gutenberg
St. Bride Printing Library aha moment
Claire Bolton meander book / workshop
Bombing
CoinCraft
Michael Johnson

London 2000-2006 / See the London Study abroad schedules