The Rampage Dec 2019

The Rampage

Faculty Features

30

From Journalism to Teaching

by Clara Blevins Graphic Communication • 2021

Allen Roberts is an assistant professor and chair of graphic communication at Bluefield College. In addition to his teaching, he handles various multi-media duties around campus. He went to Concord University and graduated in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, and he earned his master’s degree in integrated marketing communications online through West Virginia University in 2017. Roberts is married and has two daughters, ages 10 and 3. He is originally from Pikes Fork, which is not far from Bluefield. HIS STORY

“It was very stressful, but I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything,” Roberts said. “Just the pressure of working under deadlines in the news business has been so invaluable to me.” Before Roberts started working for WVVA, Bluefield College was in need of a graphic design instructor. It was a unique opportunity that Roberts believed God was calling him to at least try, so he did. During the four years Roberts worked at WVVA, he also worked part-time at Bluefield College. He started teaching two classes, Photoshop/Illustrator and photography. He was spending his lunch breaks at WVVA teaching the photography class, and he was teaching Photoshop/Illustrator as a night class. “I took a semester off, and I really started to miss it,” he recalled. Now as a full-time professor at Bluefield College, Roberts enjoys being back in the design world again. While working at the newspaper and TV station, Roberts was deep in journalism. Now he gets to live vicariously through students and do creative things around campus.

Roberts said his love for design has always been a part of him. When he was a kid, he was fascinated with logos and packaging. “My favorite part of childhood vacations was getting on an interstate and seeing the exit signs with all the restaurants coming up,” he said, “and they’d have all the different logos

of Burger King and whatever on the signs. I loved that.”

Roberts realized that design was something he was interested in during his junior year of high school. He said he had been cutting pictures out of other magazines to create his own magazine layouts. In high school, he had always been one of the artists. Junior year he entered a contest to create a mascot for East Bay Catalogs, and they chose his drawing out of 3,800 entries. Until he won the contest, he had never stopped to think that design could be a profession. “In the brain of an artist or a designer, I think there is something there,” Roberts explained. “Sometimes you realize it; sometimes you don’t. Sometimes maybe it takes a class to pull it out of you.” After graduating from Concord University with a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design, Roberts worked as an editor at the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. His original plan was to only be there for a year or so to pad his resume, but he ended up working there for seven years. “The Daily Telegraph got me deep into journalism, which is not a field I ever thought I would be in,” he said. At the newspaper, Roberts proof-read, designed the layout, and did some writing. He said that newspaper life is very hard, and there is not much room for a social life. After his eldest daughter was born, Roberts was looking for something more stable, so he went to work at WVVA-TV, which ended up being even more of 24/7 job.