In the dozen years Deb Craven worked for Boulder-based marketing and software companies, she found herself doing a lot of teaching on the job. So when she was looking for a change of scenery, teaching was a natural next step.
“There was a training capacity in all my jobs,” she says. “My jobs were telling me I should teach.”
Passionate about design.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts in multimedia graphic design from Colorado State University, Deb began as a senior designer for a Boulder-based software development company. She followed that with nine years as an art director at a Boulder marketing firm before beginning her teaching career with FRCC in 2005.
Deb started out as a part-time instructor and shifted her focus to become a full-time teacher, and Multimedia Graphic Design program coordinator for the Boulder County Campus in 2006.
“I’m very passionate about design,” she says. “I see it everywhere I look. I like to pass that passion on to my students.”
In 2009, Deb decided to return to school to pursue a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree.
“My students inspire me as much as I try to inspire them,” she says. “I wanted to be sure that I was at the top of my game for my students, and I felt like I needed to pursue an advanced degree to do that.”
Deb completed her MFA degree in December 2013. She has had the opportunity to show her work in galleries, online galleries and publications.
- Recurrence — Solo show, Mini Gallery, Colorado State University Visual Arts Building, Summer 2012
- Social and Political Posters — Graphis, online poster exhibition, Summer 2012
- The World Through My Eyes — Art Scene Today, online competition, Winter 2013, Finalist
- /SPUN/ — Solo show, Downtown Artery Gallery, Fort Collins, Colo., Winter 2013
- Print Magazine — August edition 2014, “MFA in Graphic Design,” title art
Teaching philosophy.
“I really like working one-on-one with students and developing relationships with them,” she says. “I try to give them inspiration, by sharing my own experience.”
Deb is a master of many skills.
“I teach wherever there is a need,” she says. So Deb has taught Graphic Design I and II, Typography, Package Design, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Web Design, Flash, and Creative and Visual Thinking.
