Valora Renicker

My passions are teaching and problem-solving in design. I look at teaching as an opportunity to constantly challenge myself to communicate well with my students, much as a designer must communicate with an audience. My goal is to make the learning process challenging yet comprehensible, while encouraging students to really utilize the exploration process. It is important for students to grasp the reasons behind the projects and to create unique solutions beyond what they think they can do at the outset. I love to watch the learning process, to be able to help enlighten and advance students’ understanding. It is amazing and gratifying to see what students in the VCD program can produce in upper level classes, with our strong core program as the foundation for their education in design.

Valora is currently a full-time Assistant Professor in the School of Visual Communication Design and the Creative Director of the student-staffed Glyphix studio. She has taught most levels of design classes in the School of VCD. Her work in the design field has consisted of web site design and print materials produced for her own clients as well as design firms. She is a member of AIGA.

Valora holds an MFA from Kent State, where her thesis project won the Graduate Student Senate Thesis Award for Academic Excellence for the School of Art. Under her guidance as Creative Director of Glyphix, students on the staff won Addy Awards at the local and district levels in 2007, including two out of three Judges Choice Awards. Other awards for her personal design work have included a Gold Medal and Merit Award from Admissions Advertising Awards and a Silver Medal from CASE Circle of Excellence Awards Program for admissions material produced through her former employer for Oberlin College. Valora enjoyed a varied design experience at SCK Design, where individual account responsibilities included work for Weatherhead School of Management, Cleveland Clinic, Great Lakes Theater Festival, DANCECleveland, Oberlin College, Federal Reserve Bank/Cleveland, and Allen Tellecom Corporation, among others.