Less than a year after graduating, Gabrielle Haring ’24 returns to York College of Pennsylvania to paint a mural of her own design for the GCCI’s student workspace in the Humanities Center.
Recently, the Graham Center of Collaborative Innovation (GCCI) had a mural painted in their satellite office, located in the Humanities Center Room 145, thanks to alumna Gabrielle Haring ’24 and her artistic skills.
The mural contains various items and symbols representing the different social components and academic areas students will find at York College of Pennsylvania. From food to gaming, technology to athletics, science to literature, and much more, the artwork captures the many different opportunities students can use to discover their future careers and engage with their communities.
“At the GCCI, we support and celebrate collaborations in which varied perspectives and expertise come together to spark innovation,” said Dr. Tamara Sniad, Executive Director of the GCCI. “This mural illustrates that mission, with representation of all the unique aspects of the College that come together to create the YCP experience.”
Capturing the Spirit of York College
Originally from Allentown, PA, Haring graduated from York College of Pennsylvania in May 2024 as a Graphic Design major with a double minor in Fine Art and Art History. She was also a member of the Women’s Swimming team and the Eisenhart Community Scholars, a service-based scholarship group part of the Honors Program.
Haring was originally approached about the mural as a student. She was asked to create a design that would capture the essence of the honors college, college life, and the endless possibilities that members of the York College student body could discover during their time on campus.
“College is a lot of different things to a lot of different people,” Haring said, “so the overwhelming design kind of lends itself to that idea that your path in college, at York [College], can take you wherever it may be. It may be bumpy, it may be straight and narrow, but hopefully, you’ll get to your destination at the end of the day, wherever that may be.”
Haring began designing the mural in her senior year of college, finishing the original design in May 2024, a little before graduation. In the Fall of 2024, Dr. Sniad approached Haring about painting the mural in the Humanities space, and together, they collaborated on edits and how the final design would best use the space and room.
A Look into the Process
This is the first mural that Haring has done all on her own. After graduating from York College, from May to August 2024, she worked at Tetra Creative Studio. There, she was taught how to do murals and worked on a number of projects with the studio's staff. Seeing their process gave her insight into what to do, what steps to take, and why.
Haring was able to share the process of how she created her mural:
First, the items for the mural were sketched on paper and pencil. Haring was given the measurements for the wall they would be painted on, which would begin the process of editing and fitting the different “pieces” into the shape and dimensions. She redrew them on an iPad in Procreate and found the proper balance/edits needed for the items to fit, like a puzzle.
Then, when mostly everything had been drawn, and she liked the way the drawings and lines looked, Haring took the design into Adobe Illustrator and vectorized it, a process that added small points that could be adjusted and scaled to any size. This allowed her to tweak it further to produce her final design. Once the design was approved, Haring was given dates for when she could come to campus.
For the actual application, Haring took the file containing her design and projected it onto the wall on which it would be painted. She then traced the images with pencil and went over them with paint. Finally, she would return later to do touch-ups and add more details while cleaning up unwanted marks.
Finding Joy and Passion in Artwork
Haring expressed how much she loved the mural process. She said that she found the painting to be very “therapeutic” and “calming,” especially when she really started getting to work with her hands and got a break from having to work on a screen.
Overall, Haring loved being able to do something like this for the school, especially using her art skills and showing the versatility of her graphic design skills. Promoting mural painting as something she could do made her very happy.
“I think there’s a common misconception that graphic designers work only digitally [and] only on the computer,” Haring said, “I think this is a good example that shows there are very tactile and hands-on approaches and ways that designers can work. And I’m very grateful to have that opportunity to experience it for myself, but also show that.”
There had even been a time when Haring hadn’t considered pursuing art as a profession. When she was a high school senior, Haring had been seeking a potential career path in STEM, most likely in biology or nursing. However, Haring had never really explored other options and believed it to be the safest route.
During college tours, Haring kept feeling uninspired by the programs. Her parents sensed that perhaps STEM wasn’t for her, so they encouraged her to explore other options she might be passionate about.
After some reflection, Haring gravitated toward graphic design and discovered the program that York College offered. Despite having never used Adobe products and having no knowledge of important terminology, she decided to pursue it and has never looked back since that day.
“It’s probably not the easiest route, but it’s very rewarding,” Haring said. “If you have the slightest bit of confidence and belief that it’s what you want to do and you can be good at it, that’ll carry you far in addition to work ethic. I think you put in what you get out of anything that you do, and if you’re willing to put in 200% at the end of the day, you’re going to find success in what you’re doing.”
As of late March, Haring has started a new full-time position as a graphic designer at Wallquest, a wallpaper company in Wayne, PA. She is grateful for the opportunity to work with York College and for the GCCI commissioning her. This experience has not only allowed her to showcase more of her artistic abilities but also allowed the GCCI to bring its mission to life with a beautiful design.
“What a privilege to work with Gabi and watch her design concept come to life!” Dr. Sniad said. “It's an honor to support our talented YCP graduates as they venture into their professional careers.”
