Third Floor Design is a TU student-operated graphic design agency. It produces pro bono promotional materials for non-profit arts and social service agencies—logos, posters, fliers, brochures, invitations, letterhead and other collateral material. Graphic Design Professor M. Teresa Valero co-created the agency in 1992. It matches TU art students to Tulsa’s non-profit organizations where students learn the rewards of volunteerism. Working in the agency, they earn credit, and thus Third Floor Design serves as part of the curriculum.
Educationally it exposes students to the competitive world of graphic design by gaining experience in client service, developing budgets, participating in creative meetings, bidding jobs to printers, meeting deadlines, mastering knowledge of typeface and design and the toughest task of all—making the client happy.
More than 120 students have gone through the Third Floor Design program with 100 percent placement in successful jobs.
Over the years, Third Floor Design has produced promotional/advertising materials for such art organizations as Philbrook Museum of Art, Theatre North, Tulsa Ballet, Tulsa Opera, Tulsa Performing Arts Center and Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust, Tulsa Philharmonic, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Sustainable Tulsa, Nimrod international poetry and literature journal, TU’s music and theatre departments, Art Directors Club of Tulsa. It has also produced materials for some 87 social service agencies and schools such as American Diabetes Association, American Red Cross, Booker T. Washington, Call Rape, DVIS (Domestic Violence Intervention Services) Hospice of Green Country Oklahoma, and the Nature Conservancy.
If you are interested in learning more about Third Floor Design, contact Michelle Martin: michelle-martin@utulsa.edu and 918-631-2736.