Client Collaboration students Patrick McRee, McNeil Johnston, Amanda Gaspard, Josh Buwick, Jessica Terrell, and Chris Metz (not pictured) meet with Watauga Arts Council Director, Amber Bateman at the King Street Collective in downtown Boone.

The Watauga Arts Council hosted the first ever Buskers Fest event in downtown Boone on Friday, October 1, 2021, with some help from Appalachian State University students in the Graphic Communication Management (GCM) program. The students were enrolled in a GCM class called “Client Collaboration,” which is part of a student-run advertising agency, Second Story Media. Students in Second Story Media are carefully selected from various disciplines. It began in 2019 under the leadership of Laura Brittain, a Senior Lecturer in the Communications department. The agency specializes in public relations, advertising, and graphic design to provide communication needs for local, non-profit clients. The Client Collaboration class is composed of either GCM majors or minors. This was the first semester that the course was offered as a seated class for GCM students.

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Graphic Communication Management students designed a logo and signage, including a banner and artist signs (Photos courtesy of Watauga Arts Council).

Students from the Client Collaboration class met with Watauga Arts Council Director, Amber Bateman before designing an original logo for Busker’s Fest. In addition, they designed and produced promotional materials and signage for the event, including social media promos, fliers, posters, artist signs, directional signs, and banners. The students were able to lend their graphic design skills as well as print and production expertise. The Watauga Arts Council was very pleased with the results.

Bateman said, “Second Story Media students were incredibly helpful. I needed promotional materials for a brand new event. Good branding can make or break a new event so it was important we did this right. I wanted a design package that could be used for the same event in future years. We needed everything, a logo, signs, donor perks, a banner, thank you cards, social media promotion, and more. There is no way I would have gotten all this done without the help of this group of students who could divide and conquer. It was a great experience!”