Professor Stephen Fischer is on his 14th year teaching graphic design at Lasell and has brought many positive aspects to campus. Not only did he complete his own collection of artwork after a sabbatical, he also started the Graphic Design League (GDL). This opened many opportunities for graphic design students to get some real world experience under their belts.
“When I started full time, it occurred to me that freshman weren’t really mixing it up or did much with upperclassmen,” said Fischer. “I wanted students to have an easier way to contact other graphic design students, but then we were doing projects and it became more of an in-house design firm.” Fischer quickly realized that GDL was more than a meeting place for graphic design students and had potential to do great things.
GDL’s biggest project every year is designing Lasell’s Polished Magazine. They also work with many different departments and organizations on campus to provide help ranging from promotional aspects to designing logos.
“GDL is the umbrella organization and Polished is just one project that GDL has. They have all kinds of different student activities and events that they’re working on. We service the whole campus,” said Fischer.
Even though Fischer is a highly experienced graphic design professional, he finds that Lasell students still manage to teach him new things.
“The technical world is always evolving, and so from time to time students will show me things that are happening with new developments, with new features to applications and it’s very hard to keep up with all of the programs. There’s times where students find out things and share it and I can learn from them,” said Fischer.
Just recently, Fischer completed a sabbatical where he immersed himself in his work, that was later displayed in the Wedeman Art Gallery in early October. While he developed new pieces of art, he began to see this task through a student’s perspective.
I think what’s interesting [about my sabbatical] is that I ended up having an artist talk that went with the show,” said Fischer. “I [also created] an assignment I gave seniors to do last year to explain themselves in terms of art and design. I realized how hard that assignment was, and how deep you have to dig to come up with the right answer.”
The way Fischer approached his sabbatical was certainly unconventional, but it did lead to many creative pieces of artwork.
“I just showed up and I was ready to work, and whenever I felt something really move me I would work on it,” said Fischer. “That can be a little terrifying for people not to have a script, not to have a plan, but I intentionally went that way to make it fresh, to make it interesting, to make sure it was what I wanted to do.”
Professor Fischer has made a an exceptional mark on the Lasell community through not only his courses, but through his involvement outside of the classroom, too.