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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, JAN. 18, 2016 | VOLUME 131 ISSUE 1
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if I don't I'm a very big jerk. If I don't my wife can always tell -she's like, 'You haven't worked out in the past day have you?' You need to go do your gym thing."
When Carpenter begins work in the office, he starts by shifting through a stack of emails before designing. An hour later, Carpenter begins working on one of many projects. He said each project is a different level of completion because some may be put on hold while his clients wait for approval or investors. This means Carpenter could be doing a variety of work, from branding a new brewery in St. Louis or a new salon in Kansas City to branding an international freight shipping company in Dallas. Sometimes Carpenter takes on designing and illustrating children's books.
DAY IN THE LIFE
In Carpenter's eyes, the best part of designing is the exploration process. Carpenter explores and creates new designs every day.
Carpenter said there is still room for improvement though.
Deadlines for Carpenter vary. Some projects take months, while others need to be finished in a few hours. Carpenter Collective does a lot of branding projects, which typically last two to four weeks before showing the client a design.
"You're getting to make something out of nothing every single day in some form or fashion, and that's what's awesome about our process and what we get to do," he said.
"We've been doing this for 10 or 11 years, and I still feel like [Carpenter Collective] can always be a little bit better and can do a little bit more, and that's a healthy thing to feel and continue to try to strive for," Carpenter said. "And I think just getting new, exciting work all the time is very motivational."
Illustrating books is a whole new game, Carpenter said. It's normally a six-month, multi-step project from the time he receives the manuscript to when he releases the project to the printer.
Carpenter said the first step is sharing style ideas with the client. Then he sketches the whole book by pencil or concept, gets approval of the client and makes revisions. After revisions, Carpenter adds color to the pages, gets the client's approval, makes revisions and sends it to the printer.
To Carpenter, books are a "labor of love."
"They are such a pain in the ass, and you tell yourself, 'Alright, I can't do
one of these for a while. This one was just too much,'<sup>br</sup> Carpenter said. "But then the book arrives on your doorstep and you get this thing that you made. You did the whole thing, you know, and you're like, 'Oh man, that was fun. I could do another one of those', and you do another one."
"You're getting to make something out of nothing every single day in some form or fashion, and that's what's awesome about our process and what we get to do."
"But, in the end of the day we are lucky to do this," he said. "There's nothing that's really chapping my hide over and over again other things that are just are things that all people collaborating on work have to deal with in any industry."
TAD CARPENTER
Similar to any job, Carpenter experiences frustrations with time restrictions and changing gears'in the middle of a project.
In the midst of a semester, Carpenter typically works late into the night.
"Now that I'm getting older, I try not to pull like the 3 a.m. nonsense anymore. It just ain't helping nobody." Carpenter said. "So I would normally say I do the 8:30 to 11 p.m., a lot of times maybe midnight. Are these nights that I work until 1 in the morning or 2? Yeah, it happens, like you just have to get stuff done, but I'm also one of those people that's very lucky that I don't need a ton of sleep to function."
"It's not ideal by any means, but it's also the only like 45 to 50 minutes [when] I'm forced to not do anything," Carpenter said. "And I think that's probably a healthy thing for me. I'm not good at not doing anything."
"What I took away from my grand-
parents was the importance of hard
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Carpenter teaches, he drives from his office Kansas City, Mo., to Lawrence.
During the drive, Carpenter gets lost in the music of Johnny Cash, Buck Owens and Willie Nelson. The music reminds him of a slower pace and simpler time, bringing him back to memories of driving through small towns in Kansas with his grandpa.
work," he said. "My grandfather Boehme was a state trooper and Grandfather Carpenter worked in the concrete industry — both no-nonsense, roll[-up].your-sleeve, get-shit-done kind of jobs. That work ethic has always stayed with me."
Carpenter began teaching in fall 2009. His class this semester is the first of four classes students take before being accepted into the School of Graphic Design. When the four classes are complete, students turn in all of their work to design professors to be reviewed, he said.
Megan Snelten, a junior from Lake Zurich, Ill., is an intern at Carpenter Collective and was in Carpenter's class last year. Snelten said Carpenter brings a lot of energy and passion to his class. She also said Carpenter gears class projects towards real world applications which helps keep everyone inspired.
Carpenter particularly likes teaching the class because of the youth of his students and their dedication.
"I love this class because everyone's on pins and needles a little bit. Everyone's willing to work hard because it is a big semester and it is a big class, but also like the kids aren't too cool for school yet, like they don't know anything, man," Carpenter said. "So it's cool to kind of introduce them to some things and get them excited about stuff and motivate them."
He loves watching students formulate their own ideas and become passionate about design the way he is.
"I wish so badly that I didn't enjoy teaching because it's one of those things, man. It's really hard when you run your own business and you have a lot of clients and a lot of work and a lot of stuff going on, and then to basically take two days out of the week and come teach — you have to love it, because if not it would be an easy thing to remove," he said. "I always joke a little bit that I'm like this is probably my last semester teaching, but the problem is it's addictive and you enjoy it. Like, you really get a lot out of it and you love it."
Edited by Maddy Mikinski
"Modern-Day Venus," Tad Carpenter's spin on Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus," part of a project he did for Adobe.
CONTRIBUTED h of Venus."
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tion Center.
The center was established in October to centralize the University's sexual assault prevention methods. Previously, education and prevention efforts were coming from several different offices, including Public Safety, Student Affairs, Watkins Health Center and the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access.
Vice Provost of Student Affairs Jane Tuttle said the new center will initiate its own programs as well as help steer other offices to ensure all components are on the same page.
"[Before the center], there [were] no centralized folks, so sometimes our efforts weren't as effective as they could be if
Brockman, who will begin Jan. 20, has a history of tackling sexual assault issues. After getting a bachelor's degree in criminology and sociology with a focus in victimology from Drury University, Brockman went on to get her master's in organizational leadership from Gonzaga University
Tuttle said she believes Brockman is the best person for the director position because of her experience.
She has since gone on to work in several sexual assault prevention coalitions in the Midwest.
Brockman served as a sexual assault prevention educator at the University of Arkansas, and most recently, executive
Brockman said she thinks University students are poised for helping prevent assault.
"I think KU is positioning itself well to really have an intentional approach and effort to curb and eliminate sexual violence on the campus," Brockman said.
"You're high-activist, high-energy, and you've got students who already ready to go," Brockman said.
The first item on her to-do list is to build trust and cooperation within the community by understanding the culture and the components at work, Brockman said.
"I think the first step is to really understand KU's culture and make myself available and
The University currently offers several options for students who have experienced sexual violence, including off-campus advocates, medical and psychological counselors and resources for filing a coma few ideas she's got in mind. The center's main focus will be prevention work, offender accountability and behavior recidivism work, that is, working to curb patterns of repeating sexual violence.
Brockman also said she looks forward to working with the University to make sure its policies are "reflective of the work and the philosophical standing of the center's charter" as well as developing victim resources.
Brockman said the center will hire two more employees sometime in the spring. She said the hires will be two educators, one focused on male engagement and bystander intervention, and the other on dating and healthy relationships.
Although Brockman said she feels nervous about being the first director of the newly-established center, she's said she's excited to get started.
"We need to be able to promise them we have their back," Brockman said.
"There's a lot of unknown, but this is really the opportunity to create something amazing from scratch," Brockman said.
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