Quad City Times
08-21-07
Q-C native creates floor design at Iowa State
By Katie Vaughn | Saturday, August 18, 2007
A new design is underfoot at Iowa State University thanks to a graphic design
student from Bettendorf.
Greg Wohlwend, a 2002 graduate of Pleasant Valley High School, created a floor
design representing the eight colleges that comprise the university. Eight
separate patterns were cast in bronze and inlaid as part of the floor in an addition
to the Memorial Union.
“There are eight inserts,” Wohlwend said. “They all represent the learning tools
within each college.”
The floor will get a larger audience beginning this week as students and faculty
return to the Ames campus for the start of the academic year.
The 23-year-old found out about the floor project last summer while working in
the graphic design department at the Union. While his primary duties included
creating posters and brochures, his supervisor told him and his co-workers about
the building’s need for a floor design.
Kathy Svec, who serves as marketing coordinator and oversees the graphic
design department at the Union, said the building has undergone 11 additions
since it opened in 1928. The latest brought an improved entrance to the south
side.
Svec told her student employees that, within the addition, the Union had chosen
a large floor design in a star shape along with a quote by English Department
faculty member Debra Marquart. The quote is: “It is possible to create a life,
doors opening to other doors, the fresh breeze of tomorrow rushing in to make
the world new each day.”
What the plan lacked were designs for eight 3- by 6-inch panels representing the
tools of learning utilized in agriculture, business, design, engineering, graduate
studies, human sciences, liberal arts and sciences, and veterinary schools.
Svec anticipated a group of students would create the designs. But having seen
Wohlwend’s portfolio when she hired him, she had confidence he could handle
the work when the rest were diverted to other projects.
Wohlwend said the greatest challenge of creating the eight designs was
choosing which learning tools to depict.
“A large part of the work was just brainstorming,” he said. “There was a lot to say
about each college.”
He received feedback from leaders of the various schools and took a thoughtful
approach to designing the panels. He placed a compass, stylus, paintbrushes
and mouse pointers in the design school section, for example, while wires, a
bridge, atoms and a plug signify the various disciplines in the engineering school.
For the liberal arts and sciences panel, Wohlwend included a skull to represent
literature — a reference to drama, tragedy and Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” — as
well as anthropology and fossil study.
“It took a lot of rethinking and rethinking and rethinking,” Svec said. “The final
solution is very strong.”
Svec also was impressed by Wohlwend’s dedication to the project. The design
phase exceeded the duration of his summer job at the Union, but he continued to
come in on nights and weekends to finish the work, she said.
Wohlwend hopes to apply his design skills in the video game industry after
graduating in 2008. Svec said the floor project will give him a professional
advantage. While many graphic design students are lucky to have a published
advertisement in their portfolios, Wohlwend has an enduring work sample.
Katie Vaughn can be contacted at (563) 383-2282 or kvaughn@qctimes.com.
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