By Lorrain Ogan
Published on October 24, 2007
An exciting opportunity awaits graphic design students in the spring. Lamar Outdoor Advertising will be offering a few fortunate students an internship that will equip them with real-world experience and possibly a future career. With about 110,000 billboards around the nation, Lamar is starting to buy more digital billboards, resulting in the need of more graphic designers. This “pilot program” will most likely be offered to only the students of PJC’s very own Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts.
Based out of Pensacola, thousands of Lamar’s billboards can be seen in every state. Starting out as a small family company in the early 1900s, they eventually blossomed when they started buying out all the small Mid-America advertising companies.
“It’s a big company, but it still has that family-run company feel to it,” Krist Lien, Art Department Head, said.
Bobby Switzer, Pensacola local and Vice President of Operations, contributed to the idea of interning PJC art students because his grandmother is named after the department. Lamar has always supported the arts and PJC students, and this is just another way by beginning internships. If, after the internship, a student is hired but seeking a bachelors degree, they may even offer a scholarship.
“It’s a very generous offer because it benefits everyone,” Lien said.
Lamar has roughly 125 artist finishing projects within an hour, but because of increased advertisement through digital billboards, more graphic designers will be needed. And with such an incredible opportunity to work in a nationally respected company, students will gain real-world experience outside of the classroom. Working in a company with high demands, deadlines, and pressures can be similar to working in a classroom, but it is different.
“It’s not like you can say ‘I didn’t get it done.’ That just doesn’t cut it in the real world,” Lien said. Through the internship, students will be able to determine if they really love doing this and if it’s what they want to do since the working environment is structured differently than a classroom setting.
To apply, graphic design students will be taking a two-part test taken online-question and answer, and indubitably, a timed, creative exercise. Students will be given criteria for two different billboards to layout, demonstrating what they can do, their skills, and if the it’s something Lamar can work with. Afterwards, the biggest criteria will be a personal interview to see how they feel about the individual.
Switzer, already well-acquainted with the art department, brought his coworkers from Baton Rouge to learn more about what the department and to see if this what they wanted and it was.
“Everything worked out perfectly,” Lien said. In return, Lien along with others, went to their facility in Baton Rouge to learn more about what they do. He is confident with what the students will learn while interning with such a respectable company.
“Our main concern here at the department is we want to make sure anytime we send a student out for an internship or help them with a job, especially while they’re going to school, that it’s a reciprocal thing… that they are actually learning what it is in the field they want to be in-whether is photography, graphic design, or multimedia.”
