Feb. 12 10K race benefits Rape Crisis Center

As publicity kicks in for the annual Together with Love 10K race, cheerful images focusing on a bright red heart are popping up around the local area.

The artwork was done by CSU Monterey Bay student Mark Johnson as part of a project in Professor Bobbi Long’s digital art and design class.

This is the second year the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center, sponsor of the annual race that is held near Valentine’s Day, has worked with CSUMB to develop the art that is used in marketing materials and on the T-shirt that goes to race participants.

Students in Professor Long’s foundation-level design class get experience working on a “real” project and the MCRCC gets high-caliber art that helps define its theme.

Nina Alcaraz, MCRCC’s associate director, made several visits to the class to introduce the project and work with the students. As the designs took final form, Clare Mounteer, the agency’s director, and Gwen Maria, a graphic artist who has done work for the agency, joined in to select six designs (from the class of 30) to be presented to the MCRCC’s board of directors.

The board chose Johnson’s work for this year’s logo.

For more than 25 years, the race has been the biggest annual fundraising event for the Rape Crisis Center, a nonprofit agency that serves adults and children who have been sexually abused. It also provides prevention education programs throughout Monterey County.??

The MCRCC isn’t the only community organization to benefit from the talents of Professor Long’s students.

??Members of her Publications Design course have been designing the poster and marketing materials for First Night Monterey since 2003.??

“These projects give students real-world experience of working with a client and progressing through various stages of the design process,” said Professor Long, who has an undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and a master's degree in fine arts from the Basel College of Design in Switzerland.??

Publication Design is not an art class "where students just have a muse. We teach them the actual design process. In design, you have to listen to your client, who tells you their needs and their ideas, and you interpret that," she told the Monterey Herald newspaper in an interview several years ago.??

"This program gives students a chance to show their talents, skills, and creativity, but it also teaches them how to listen and respond to what they hear, as well as how to manage a project."??

To learn more about the design program at CSUMB, click here.?