Sister Mary Kay Neff said hands-on experience dealing with clients was paramount to successfully navigating the creative process as a graphic designer, but that's a difficult thing to re-create in a classroom or studio.

An associate professor of art and graphic design at Seton Hill University, she said that's one of the reasons she includes a practical experience project in her classes each semester.

And while her students have worked to create brochures or pamphlets for local nonprofits in years past, a partnership with a local civic group helped raise that practical experience to a higher level.

Greensburg Community Development Corp. coordinated a project between three downtown business owners and her graphic design students, who worked in teams to create new signage for the establishments.

Sister Mary Kay said the experience was invaluable to the students, who had to take the creative process a step further by considering details such as materials -- something that didn't present itself with nonprofit literature projects.

She said pairs of students met with a client to learn his or her needs, such as if the business had corporate colors or any existing business logos that needed to be incorporated into the design.

After determining the components the business owner wanted to include, the students then created three or four preliminary designs to present for consideration.

"I call it visual brainstorming," Sister Mary Kay said.

After that, the refining process began -- one that ended with some of the students' concepts being implemented into the downtown city streetscape.

"I think it went very well," she said.

And GCDC executive director Steve Gifford said the partnership was a natural fit at a time when the city was already looking at ways to help improve business signage.

"[Local businesses] know how to sell clothes or create sandwiches, but how to represent the business in a creative manner was a challenge," he said. "The signs the students helped create are very creative and will integrate well into downtown."

One of the businesses, he said, The Chocolate Shoppe, has received city approval for its projecting sign and sidewalk sign the students helped to design.

Oliver's Pour House owner Roy Monsour decided to wait until later this fall to renovate his business signage, while Sandra Lynn's Dance Academy may incorporate some of the students' designs into building accent banners.

Mr. Gifford added that the GCDC also worked with two students to create window artwork that will fill a vacant storefront, an idea he said was inspired by a similar Downtown Pittsburgh Partnership improvement project.

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