From podcasts about music therapy and the whitewashing of cultural foods, to a redesign of the Minnesota Vikings and digital paintings of fantasy landscapes, to short films about childhood memory, students of all backgrounds and disciplines shared their work at the inaugural Creators Showcase. 

The Creators Showcase started as a pitch from the Toaster Student Ambassadors to highlight and celebrate student-created digital media on campus, “to capture the idea of creation across all modalities.” 

“We’re always looking at ways to bring greater visibility to student created media, because there’s so much amazing work happening on campus,” said Media Outreach Librarian Scott Spicer. “I wish I could take credit for the showcase, but it actually came from our students.”

After the presentations, the night ended with a small award ceremony. Charlie Polz won first with his presentation, “NFL: The L is for Looks.” Second place went to Courtney Phillippi for her podcast, “Navigating Body Image in the Digital Era.” 

Jay Radke received third place with his video essay, “Rachel Ruins De-Extinction.” And Amy Brewster’s presentation, “Exploration of Other Worlds Digital paintings of fantastical creatures in fantastical environments,” won the audience choice. 

Winners each received a gift card to the U of M Bookstore, $250 for first, $100 for second, $25 for third, and $50 for audience choice, respectively. Originally, they only planned to award gold, silver, and audience choice, Spicer said. But because there were so many amazing submissions they decided to award bronze too. 

It’s for the looks

Charlie Polz, a freshman graphic design major from Golden Valley, Minnesota, heard about the showcase from his WRIT 1301 instructor, who encouraged the class to participate. And he thought, why not? So he submitted “NFL: The L is for Looks,” a research project about why sports teams have rebrands and how the process works.

Polz demonstrated his research with a rebrand of the Minnesota Vikings. He designed four new uniforms that address common criticisms of the current fashion, incorporate homages to classic designs, but add new elements to energize younger fans. 

“They have a new head coach, they have a new quarterback, and it’s the start of a new era. So giving them a new identity is what I was looking to do,” Polz said.

Polz has always been full of hometown pride, but his passion for graphic design took shape in 2019 when the Minnesota Twins had “the sickest” brand campaign.

It was dynamic, exciting, and everywhere: billboards, buses, streetlamps, pre-rolls, and sidebars. And it helped reinvigorate the team following Catcher and First-baseman Joe Mauer’s retirement and Twins Manager Paul Molitor’s departure.

“I’m like, that’s what I want to do. I want to be in graphic design and work with brands and build identities,” he said. 

Polz dreams of helping sports teams find a new face, or strengthen their existing brand identities. So when he made sketches on a Vikings uniform overall for his design class, he was driven to take the rebrand beyond graphite and paper. 

He was nervous about presenting his designs in front of other people on campus, and after seeing the other projects, Polz wasn’t sure he measured up. Winning the showcase was out of the question. 

“I went with one of my friends, and I told her, ‘I don’t think I stand a chance.’ Some of those projects were crazy,” he said. “So when I heard my name, I was like, ‘Whoa!’ It was a big shock.” 

The showcase was judged by Coordinator of Media Services Laura Cervin, Coordinator of the Digital Media Studio Wally Swanson, and Media Outreach Librarian Scott Spicer. 

They evaluated submissions based on: originality, how much of the project did students create themselves?; recency, when was it created?; creativity, how novel was the project?; narrative, how students described their projects?; and engagement, did it catch the judges’ attention?

“We got down to three, and it was really hard. Then finally, we had an hour and half where we debated,” Spicer said. “We just thought Polz’ uniforms were so incredible, just the enormity of his project.” 

Lions and serpents and birds, oh my!

Amy Brewster doesn’t remember when she started drawing, it’s been essentially her entire life. But she started digital art on her school iPad in fifth grade and kept practicing throughout middle and high school. 

Brewster is an officer for the Art and Animation Club, which meets in the Toaster. The club president forwarded information about the showcase to the group, and in a spur of the moment decision, she decided to apply. 

She presented a selection of digital art depicting fantastical creatures in fantastical environments: forests filled with owl-faced deer, birds perched in fields of purple flowers, and large lizards stalking ancient ruins. She also walked the audience through her artistic process and explained the nitty-gritty of digital art. 

“It just seemed like something fun to submit my work to, and I was really glad I did it and went to the presentations,” Brewster said. “I was very happy to see the broad spectrum of work that other people have done, because I didn’t expect so many different mediums.”

Brewster is as passionate about science as she is art. She’s actually a junior chemical engineering major and geology minor. She wants art to stay in the realm of relaxing hobbies, so it doesn’t feel like work. 

“It’s a good way to express yourself and have something to do outside of just equations,” she said. 

Although she does research and has interned in the medical technology field, she decided to submit her artwork instead because it felt more personal. She draws what she’s interested in which, more often than not, results in paintings about nature and animals, like the moths she sometimes raises. 

“Things that bring me joy are basically what I enjoy drawing,” she said. 

She also wanted to make her presentation educational, because not everyone knows what it means to digitally paint and people enjoy seeing the creative process. Still, she didn’t think people would enjoy so much to award her the audience choice.

“I was surprised and very grateful that people enjoyed my presentation,” Brewster said. “I thought everybody else’s presentations were so amazing. I don’t know how anybody could choose to be honest.”

Audience choice was determined not just by the quality of a student’s work, but by how well they presented their project. And Spicer was drawn to the narrative in Brewster’s paintings, how they all seemed to point towards the same idea. 

“If you looked at each image, you could see a story emerging between them. And we thought that it was really compelling,” Spicer said. “I was really blown away by those.” 

Expanding the canvas

Other presentations included discussions about how machine learning and diffusion models are affecting art and artists, the importance of dark short stories, a multi-media adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” and more. 

To qualify, all submissions must have involved digital media and been published online. In total there were 17 projects submitted to the showcase – across a wide range of modes, genres, and backgrounds – all of which are available on the Libraries website.

“All different kinds of students, all levels, all types of digital media projects, all different levels of technical expertise. That’s what we were seeking,” Spicer said. 

The showcase was around nine months in the making. The team behind the showcase included Spicer; Makerspace Lab Manager Steven Bleau; Virtual Reality Program Lead Charlie Heinz; Director of Engagement, Outreach, and Community Partnerships Jade Cabagnot; Outreach and Interdisciplinary Program Specialist Emerson Ironstone; Director of Operations for the Toaster Innovation Hub Kimberlie Moock; Associate University Librarian for Student Success, Dr. Evangela Oates; and Faith Jepson and all the other Toaster Student Ambassadors. 

Next year, they hope to expand the Creators Showcase to include more projects around virtual reality and makerspace projects, expand the categories and criteria, and collaborate with other media partners on campus, like the CLA media specialists who judged this year.

For Spicer, the showcase is an opportunity to create and share media creations. Outside of specific disciplines, like the visual arts or music, academia traditionally values alphanumeric text for communication, learning, and scholarship. 

Especially at research institutions, media creation hasn’t always had the same level of visibility as the written paper, he said. But that isn’t the only way people communicate and learn. An event like the Creators Showcase “expands the canvas by which an individual is able to express themselves.” 

“In today’s information environment, it’s really important that we legitimately recognize that information comes in multiple formats, and that no one type of format is necessarily better, or more scholarly, or more creative, than another,” Spicer said. “And that we work towards developing individual skill sets and understandings.”

Whether it’s media literacies, maker literacies, or immersion literacies with VR, these skill sets are vital in society today. Libraries and institutions writ large need to leverage and elevate student voices to support subject knowledge, acquisition, and critical thinking, he explained. 

“This is an extension of that exhibition ethos that libraries have. We’re well-positioned to provide this kind of visibility for student works, and I hope we can continue to do so,” Spicer said. “We have a platform, we have spaces like the Toaster … We are a hub. We can bring people together.”