Oliva House: The Art of Activism The Augsburg Podcast

Olivia House, intern at Wingnut Advertising (via Brand Lab), uses design to advance the causes of justice and activism. Through her work, she strives to elevate underrepresented voices, share stories that aren’t told, and promote history that has been erased. Mentors in Augsburg arts and athletics as well as key players in Twin Cities advertising and design have supported her on her journey and helped her crystalize her ambitions to build a brighter future through the power of activist art.
Transcript

Olivia House: I really want to use graphic design to impact the world around me in a positive way. Especially uplifting people's voices that have been taken away or haven't been heard.
Paul Pribbenow: Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the president of Augsburg University, and it's my great privilege to present the Augsburg podcast.
Catherine Day: I'm Catherine Reid Day, host of the Augsburg podcast. Today we speak with Olivia House, graphic design major, class of 2020, as well as some of her academic and professional mentors. She tells us about her path to discovering her calling in design.
Olivia House: I was actually homeschooled for high school, so my path to college was very interesting. I didn't have any guidance counselors there to push me to that. So it was really me just like looking around and wanting to figure out what kind of school I wanted to be at. I knew I wanted to play soccer in college, so that was a big part of it. So I was looking at schools that I was being recruited from and there were a lot of them in the MIAC here in Minnesota. And Augsburg, Mike reached out to me. And I didn't know if I wanted to come here, mainly because it was very, very close to home. I reached back out to him and I was like, "I don't really know, but I'll come and visit." And when I got on campus, and I met Mike, and I met the team, I instantly knew that I would be a great fit here.
Olivia House: Being on campus and meeting professors, especially in the graphic design department, I knew I'd find a second home at Augsburg, so that really made my decision.
Olivia House: When I was a sophomore in high school, my home school, my home city school, was Richfield High School and so I just wanted to maybe take a couple of classes there to get some potential college credit and experience in a classroom setting like that. So I saw a marketing class and I was like, "Oh, that would be interesting. I'm really interested in business." So I took that class and that happened to be the class that was paired with the BrandLab.
Catherine Day: BrandLab is a nonprofit organization that works to diversify the marketing and advertising industries by introducing high school students to these industries, and connecting them to internships in relevant fields. More than a pairing program, it's also a mentorship program.
Olivia House: They came in for like half of our class and talked about the marketing and advertising industry. And we visited some agencies which was really cool. And then you had the opportunity to apply to their internship at the end of the semester. And so I decided to apply for it and I got accepted. In the beginning they introduce you to different roles in advertising, and one of them was graphic design. I knew that I wanted to do something artistic because I've always been artistic,