THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606040096
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: S04 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Seawall Festival 1996
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 111 lines
CAROL HARDER still believes she can't draw.
A lot of folks, however, believe otherwise.
Harder's entry, which appears on the cover of today's Currents, won the design competition for this year's Seawall Festival. Her work will be on 500 posters and 1,000 T-shirts, according to Sandy Craig, promotions manager for Ports Events, and on 5,000 programs to be distributed during the waterfront festival that begins today and lasts through Sunday. With attendance expected to be in six figures, Craig estimates more than 100,000 people will see Harder's design.
Even a $300 prize awarded for her winning entry hasn't changed Harder's opinion. Hers was chosen over some 20 other entries submitted by her 17 classmates in the advanced computer graphics class at Tidewater Community College's Visual Arts Center.
Unlike some of her classmates, Harder, a Chesapeake resident, submitted only one entry. But she submitted the winning one.
``I started with a photograph,'' she recalls, ``because I can't draw. That's what's really different between me and the other students. They're art students. I'm a computer student taking an art course.''
For Harder, an eight-year computer veteran, the course was her fourth at TCC.
``I originally took an introduction to microcomputers course because of the business I run with my husband,'' she explains. ``I took a data base course to learn how to change our invoices. I started on graphics last fall, with the idea of running national ads in the back of my mind. I've taken two courses: computer graphics I and II.''
Harder, from Kansas, and her husband, Ken, have owned and operated Team Bodybuilding, a distributor of sports supplements, since 1986, shipping to customers all over the world. The Navy brought them to Virginia Beach in 1972.
They moved to Deep Creek in 1976 and into their present home, in Hickory, in 1990, when Ken retired as a senior chief. They have four adult children and eight grandchildren.
``He's my emotional support,'' says Harder, glancing over at her husband. ``He's my best friend. He's always encouraging me.''
Participation in the contest was a course requirement of art professor Craig Nilsen. Harder, a self-described perfectionist, completed his course last month.
``It was an assignment,'' Harder said. ``We went on a field trip to see where the festival would be held and went to the main office of Ports Events to see past years' winners. We were told we could use any (software) program we wanted to. They wanted the design to include `Portsmouth, Virginia,' the date, and `Seawall Festival.' And they wanted something that emphasized that it's a family festival.''
Harder used ``Photoshop,'' a bitmap editing program, to design the winning entry.
The program comes in versions that run on MacIntoshes or personal computers. That enabled her to start her design at home on her PC and finish it on a Mac at the center.
``I was totally surprised that they chose mine,'' she said. ``There are a lot of talented people in that class. They were all supportive. We all help each other. But it was a nice surprise. They gave me $300, which is a very nice award. I can use it to buy more software, more computer programs.''
Harder has high praise for Nilsen.
``He helps everybody,'' she says. ``He guides everybody along. I had no confidence at all. He walks you through each step.''
Harder and Nilsen had one anxious moment as the contest deadline approached.
``We had a problem at first,'' Harder recalled. ``The file was so big, I had saved it to my hard drive. When I went back for it, it wasn't there. But I had saved a compressed version on a floppy disk.''
She was able to retrieve the file from the floppy, although she couldn't go into it and work on the various ``layers'' like she wanted to.
``We gave it to them on a floppy,'' she said.
This is the second year that Nilsen's students have been in the competition.
``Last year, we had advanced computer graphics and advanced graphic design students,'' Nilsen said. ``This year we limited it to advanced computer graphics people.''
Linda Lamm, executive director at Ports Events, and Craig organized the event and contacted Nilsen. Lamm and Craig visited the center and picked the top three entries, Nilsen said. Those were presented to Dan Swanson, chairman of this year's Seawall Festival, who had the difficult job of picking the winner.
``I was real pleased with what the class did,'' Nilsen said. ``Last year was good, but this year they're getting better at it.''
TCC's Visual Arts Center opened in the old Famous building, at the corner of Court and High streets, in January 1995 after a $2.6 million renovation.
The exterior architecture, featuring banners on the street sides of the building, blends into the ambience of historic Olde Towne. Its 33,330 square feet, spread over three stories, houses state-of-the-art facilities for photography, painting, drawing, design, print-making, graphic design, sculpture and ceramics. There are classroom areas for art history courses, poetry readings and lectures.
The only one of its kind in Virginia, the center's 600-plus students come from 12 neighboring communities and seven states, making it TCC's first regional program.
Last year's winner of the Seawall Festival design competition was Heather Proctor of Virginia Beach, another of Nilsen's students.
``I try to arrange real world experiences,'' Nilsen said. ``There was really a trick to this one. What works on a T-shirt won't necessarily work on a poster. They had to find something that would work on both.
``And they've got to learn to meet deadlines. I gave them two weeks, which turned out to be just about right. Carol worked on that thing over and over and over again. She's a perfectionist. She put in a lot of time on it, working at home plus in the classroom.''
Using state-of-the-art computers and software, it's as thorough an education as can be found anywhere, he says.
``I can tell them that if they don't learn this, they won't get a job.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by DAWSON MILL
Carol Harder produced her winning poster design on a computer in her
graphic arts class at Tidewater Community College's Visual Arts
Center. by CNB