Annie Tomsche
BA, Visual Communication
Statement
Change is inevitable, and change is one of my biggest fears.
2020 has been nothing but change for myself and the entire world — some good, but mostly bad. At the beginning of the semester, I wanted to write and illustrate a book that documented the period of growth and change that graduating from college brings, but COVID-19 created a different path for me. As I was writing my book, everything lacked substance and meaning. I found myself writing about the state of our world that the pandemic brought, and how it was affecting myself and my classmates as our senior year came to an abrupt end.
I decided to change my project from a book about general change to a video about how the COVID-19 pandemic was changing our year. It grew into a beautiful way of grieving the end of our senior year as I reached out to countless classmates to ask them to be in my video, instigating conversations and discussions I never would have had.
My final video reached thousands of people and received an outstanding response. I found great comfort in the fact that others found great comfort in my video that was meant to be a beacon of hope for graduating seniors and beyond. I realized that while the world is changing, we are in this together, and we need to be here for each other.
Change is one of my biggest fears, but change is inevitable, and change can be beautiful.
Bio
Annie Tomsche is a Minnesota-born, Chicago-based graphic designer and illustrator. She believes good design is simple design, and her work throughout the years support that. While studying design in school, she did freelance projects and also ran an Instagram account where she created her own work and was commissioned for customized illustrations. These two self-ran positions taught her the basics of running an independent business, communicating with customers, and understanding the finances and logistics behind it.
Besides design, her biggest passions are photography and writing, and she enjoys incorporating both of them into her design work. She has been interested in art and other creative aspects since she was a child, but she never knew where they would lead her until she reached college and found her own path. Whether it is continuing freelance or finding a full-time design job after graduation, she hopes she never stops loving design work as she believes she has truly found what she is supposed to do. She loves creating and designing beautiful things that everyone can enjoy and appreciate.
Outside of her creative work, she enjoys spending Monday nights watching The Bachelor, traveling the world with her friends, nights on the town dancing, trying new restaurants with her family and finding the best looking French Bulldogs the streets of Chicago offer. Although she loves doing all these things independently of her creative work, they often all find her creative ideas sneaking their way in in some way or another (ex. judging menu designs...).