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The Indiana Daily Student

Fine arts students designing signs for Hilltop Garden and Nature Center

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Nine fine arts students are giving Hilltop Garden and Nature Center a facelift.

Through a fine arts seminar taught by Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts lecturer Jenny El-Shamy, nine fine arts students are designing 19 signs for the gardening hotbed.

Located near Tulip Tree Apartments, Hilltop Garden and Nature Center encompasses multiple gardens, greenhouses, classes and workshops, according to the IU Landscape Architecture website.

“Hilltop Garden is a diverse space, not just in the variety of plants grown but in the variety of activities that take place there,” said Michelle Winchell, a third-year graduate student pursuing a master of fine arts degree, in an email. “Activities range from academic research to fine arts practice to community ?workshops.”

However, no signs currently depict which activity is which.

Split in two teams, the nine students were given the relevant information and then tasked with designing the signs that included all relevant information, Winchell said.

“It was important to us to reflect the range of activities in the way that we approached the work, to provide information that was accessible enough to appeal to children but substantial enough to accurately represent some of the more complex processes,” she said.

Initially, the two teams focused on the physical attributes of the signs, such as width, height, structure and placement, Winchell said.

After three rounds of presentations with Lea ?Woodard, Hilltop Garden and Nature Center coordinator, and Mia Williams, university landscape architect, the two teams are now focusing on the information graphics on the signs, Winchell said. Several students will continue this focus during the spring semester.

“We researched environmental graphic standards to make sure we were addressing legibility and access concerns like appropriate text size for specific viewing distances,” she said.

Winchell said that to create successful work, an artist or designer must be driven by such curiosity.

“Visual communication often requires you to portray complex ideas with a minimal amount of information,” she said. “To do that with any sort of clarity or integrity, you have to cultivate a depth of understanding of the subject matter.”

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