April 22nd, 2015, by Shantinique Cowans

Everyone looks forward to the amazing, innovative spectacle that is Imagine RIT. Everyone sees the poster that is designed each year to hand out to the public and be displayed all over campus for this huge event. Well, the School of Media Science’s very own Meagan Daymont took over the competition when it came to designing this year’s Imagine RIT poster.

Meagan was very excited to have achieved this great honor. I was just as excited to sit down with her and ask her some questions regarding her workflow, role here as an SMS student, and plans for life after graduation. She was eager to talk with me and even had some advice to offer students who are anticipating graduation.

Meagan is a fourth year student from Lowville, NY who came in as a transfer student three years ago from Mohawk Valley Community College. While at MVCC, she earned an Associate in Applied Science (AAS) in Graphic Design as well as an AAS in Arts Technology. Here at RIT she is a Media Arts and Technology major with a concentration in Communication.

While here at RIT, she is currently doing a co-op in the SMS office Whatever they need in the office, she’s their girl! Whether they need posters printed, websites updated or just some errands to be taken care of, she gets it done. She also did a co-op with Cunard Cruise Line, aboard the Queen Mary II ship. She was able to see a lot of the world in her 6 months at sea from December to June. “I think everyone should try that. It’s a good experience and you get to see the world,” she told me. She worked as the printer’s assistant and helped co-manage the print shop. Her duties included preparing menus, newspapers, brochures, daily programs, invitations, etc.

She went into some detail with me on her workflow for creating the design for the Imagine poster everyone loves so much. She started working on the design back in August of 2014. She started by looking through Pinterest at some Disney poster designs that were displayed on the site. She then began looking through Illustrator tutorials to help guide in making her vision a reality. Once she started searching for ideas and developing an overall plan, everything just fell together. “The background was the most difficult. Originally, the background was going to be orange and blue,” she told me. She decided to instead go with more neutral tones. And as you all can see, it came out great!

Meagan was very humble about this great achievement. When asked if she had a great chance at winning she told me, “When it was uploaded and it was shown what everyone had done, I thought, ‘Aww man! I have an awesome chance! There was a lot of stiff competition.’ There were some things where I was like these are amazing, they should definitely win!” Her hard work and dedication she put into her design was definitely well deserved and has paid off. She is going to use the prize money she won to go to Disney World with her mom.

After graduation, Meagan told me she is hoping to “look for a full-time job. I am looking both locally, here…and all over the map. I don’t exactly know where I want to go, but I do know I am more printer than I am multimedia.” She’s considering going into the workforce for a few years, then applying for grad school to continue her education and her professional growth. Meagan’s advice is, “you have to find something you love.” Meagan sure has an awesome future ahead of her and we wish her all the best!