Grace College art student, Mitchell Bowen, is featured today on the website, Input Fort Wayne. He’s following his dream of creating postcards and posters that capture the essence of small town living. In fact, his first set has sold out in Winona Lake, Ind., where the college is located. A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete article.
Meet a Warsaw-based art student creating a business to capture the essence of small towns
Mitchell Bowen’s post-graduate plans include traveling the nation as an independent artist, creating a niche style of posters and postcards, and selling them to local shops. As a Grace College senior, his launch is already making a big splash in Winona Lake, Indiana, where his designs have sold out at several local shops.
So how did he go from art student to creative entrepreneur? Bowen’s love for art began at the age of four when he discovered the problem solving that comes with building legos. He channeled this passion into various art forms throughout the years and even attended a technical communication design program in high school, but it was one night in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, that his career dream was conceived.
During his studies toward a bachelor of visual communication design at Grace, he had fallen in love with a specific postcard style inspired by the posters made during the Great Depression by the WPA (Works Project Administration), featuring Modernist typography, bold graphics, and a limited color palette.
“I’ve always been really interested in this style,” Bowen says. “It’s a niche style of art that I really appreciate.”
Bowen always kept his eyes peeled for this style as he traveled, and his family trip to Pagosa Springs, Colorado last summer was no exception. After a long day searching for just the right postcard as a memento of his vacation, Bowen came back to the cabin empty-handed. That night in bed, his mind started to run; What if I traveled around the country, made these posters for small towns, and gave them to shops to sell? he thought. The idea immediately excited him.
“Growing up in Colorado, I’ve always had an itch to do exciting and new things, and I really love visiting new areas,” Bowen explains.
His career idea remained an idea until he returned to Grace College for his final year of his bachelor of visual communication design. When his professor for Illustration, Kim Reiff, announced that the final project for the course was to create some sort of publication, Bowen knew exactly what his project would be.
The next several weeks, Bowen worked to create and refine a set of postcards that captured the unique college town he knew and loved — Winona Lake, Indiana — while embracing the style he had come to appreciate. Highlighting the charm of the town’s dining options, biking trails, and lake access, Bowen crafted a set of images that quickly evoked excitement from his friends at Grace.
“After the reactions I received at Grace, I knew that these were something that people would really appreciate and enjoy,” Bowen says. “Whenever I place the prints in someone’s hands, I can tell that they really treasure them.”
Click here to read the complete article.