Kyle Herges, MFA
Associate Professor, Chairman Digital Media & Design
For review towards promotion to Professor.
Submission Date: January 2022
Teaching Service Scholarship
Teaching Service Scholarship
Teaching philosophy: I believe everyone is born with creativity. My goal is to push students to creatively test themselves and take risks that prepare them to function effectively and efficiently in a competitive, ever-changing, discipline. I strive to challenge students within an open atmosphere that promotes communication, teamwork, curiosity and creative criticism.
I promote thinking differently and I fully understand that everyone learns differently. My role is to educate students and act as another resource in their quest for more information. Project based classes not only get students engaged but they also prepare them for life after college. Individual projects allow for self-expression while putting communication and troubleshooting solely on one person. Team projects promote internal communication and teamwork, while offering inspiration for both process and design.
Teaching allows me to not only use all the different technologies and disciplines I am passionate about, but it also allows me to stay informed of industry trends and best practices that are ever-changing. While education is a shift from industry work, I am no stranger to learning. Children learn from parents. Parents learn from children. Students learn from teachers and teachers learn from students. Learning new strategies, philosophies, technologies and lessons are all part of life and I don’t believe we ever stop learning.
Below are student evaluations from all courses as well as a syllabus from each. Feel free to browse.
Feedback: The following are quotes from students (majors and non majors), peers, and supervisors. Hover over or tap the icon to read quote.
The mission Dakota Wesleyan University strives for perfectly coincides with my aspirations in design and innovation. In order to succeed in this field, one has to be on a 'lifelong intellectual adventure.' Within this section, you will find numerous examples of scholarship and artistic expression within the last five years via presentations, creative work, field studies, consulting, and curricular strategies.
Use the buttons below to filter the content or just scroll through them all. Click the information icon to read a short description. Click the image to enlarge.
The work provided is just a sampling of the larger projects completed.
Big Head series featuring Dakota Wesleyan athletics. Women's Soccer Alyssa Weilder. I designed and edited this graphic with DWU Athletics providing the photography. Animated Version— 2020
Justena Amiotte painted a series of tigers on campus. We collaborated and I advised her on how to improve the overall design and make them more marketable.— 2019
Experimenting with new and emmerging technologies, I designed and edited this Badlands South Dakota NFT. I also use this as a Photoshop learning tutorial video in class. Watch Video— 2020
A famous Banksy painting was auctioned off for millions. Little did the owner know that the frame had a built in shredder. This is my version. Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art based on current events.— 2018
Certified in, "Affordances: Designing Intuitive User Interfaces" from the Interaction Design Foundation. Affordance helps build products that are intuitive and easy to use, by fully understanding the relationship between human mind and technology. — 2021
This course is based on tried and tested psychological techniques that bring together content and design so as to deliver hands-on advice for how to improve your web design and increase your customer engagement. — 2019
Certified in, "Gestalt Psychology and Web Design" from the Interaction Design Foundation. Gestalt theorists and researchers attempt to understand visual perception in terms of the way in which underlying processes are organized and how they help us make sense of the world. — 2019
Designed and produced in consultation with social media marketing strategists and practitioners, Social Marketing Certification Course give marketers practical skills they can implement and start seeing results right away. Students are also certified each year in COM 205. — 2019
Design mobile interfaces based on mobile usability best practices, use personas and task modelling to plan a mobile user experience, understand how the UI choices will differ between operating platforms (e.g. iOS vs Android), evaluate a mobile design and avoid bad mobile user experiences, and implement a mobile UX design strategy. — 2019
Why usability matters, what the key user interface design principles, and usability considerations are, how to best position yourself as the user in order to spot usability problems, how to test the usability of a design through usability evaluations and cognitive walk-throughs, best practices for conducting user testing, how to practically apply usability into your daily design work. — 2018
Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art based on current events. I designed and edited this piece as a social media commission. Watch Video — 2021
Minnesota Vikings series. Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art based on current events. I designed and edited this piece that was a social media commission. Watch Video — 2020
Big Head series featuring Dakota Wesleyan athletics. Women's Basketball Kynedi Cheesman. I designed and edited this graphic with DWU Athletics providing the photography.— 2019
Principles of user-centered design and how they improve usability, evaluate the effectiveness and usability of alternative designs, appreciation for clear, conceptual models and early design, stress the importance of users in the design process, and basic usability and accessibility guidelines. — 2018
Minnesota Vikings series. Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art based on current events. I designed and edited this piece as a social media commission. Watch Video— 2020
Minnesota Vikings series. Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art based on current events. I designed and edited this piece as a social media commission. Watch Video — 2020
Minnesota Vikings series. Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art based on current events. I designed and edited this piece as a social media commission. View Animation — 2020
Big Head series featuring Palace City CB Karsten Herges. I photographed, designed, and edited this piece. Watch Video— 2020
Big Head series featuring Dakota Wesleyan athletics. Men's football Kiel Nelson. I designed and edited this graphic with DWU Athletics providing the photography. Watch Video — 2020
Big Head series featuring Dakota Wesleyan athletics. Women's Track Mckenna Rogers. I designed and edited this graphic with DWU Athletics providing the photography.— 2020
Minnesota Twins series. Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art based on current events. I designed and edited this piece as a social media commission.— 2020
Big Head series featuring Dakota Wesleyan athletics. Men's Football Tate Larson. I designed and edited this graphic with DWU Athletics providing the photography. View Animation— 2020
Big Head series featuring Dakota Wesleyan athletics. Men's Basketball Ty Hoglund. I designed and edited this graphic with DWU Athletics providing the photography. — 2019
Minnesota Vikings Recruiting series. Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art based on current events. I designed and edited this piece as a social media commission. View Animation — 2021
Big SMB is for small businesses that want to be big by setting up a solid social media marketing stratgey. Site was designed, developed, and launched to promote the Social Marketing Handbook, which I also wrote as an eBook. — 2020 - Present
Extreme Caddy is a tournament management system for golf courses. Site was designed, developed, and launched as my MFA thesis project and is still active today.— 2008 - Present
John Paul II website redesign was to focus on prospective students as the primary audience as well as parents of existing students as a secondary audience. I designed, developed, and launched the site in three months from start to finish. — 2020
First of two different themes that was designed for the sales team at Innovative Systems with the goal to update the overall look and feel of the product presentations to clients. I designed, developed, and edited the user interface and user experience as part of assigned work at Innovative Systems.— 2019
Second of two different themes that was designed for the sales team at Innovative Systems with the goal to update the overall look and feel of the product presentations to clients. I designed, developed, and edited the user interface and user experience as part of assigned work at Innovative Systems.— 2019
The Memory Thief is a keepsake book meant to help children both comprehend Alzheimer's Disease as well as remember loved ones they have lost from the disease. Site was designed, developed, and launched to promote the Memory Thief book, which I also wrote.— 2015 - Present
Designed the user experience and user interface of a mobile application for users to consume information, view data, add payment methods, and pay their bill from their phone. I designed and edited the user experience and user interface as part of assigned work at Innovative Systems.— 2020
"I Can Do That" is the name of assignments that I give to students in many classes. The idea is to give students the confidence to say, "I can do that," instead of "how'd they do that?" This is my version of an "I Can Do That," printed on canvas as a social media commission. — 2020
Big Head series featuring Dakota Wesleyan athletics. Men's Golf Cade Carpenter. I designed and edited this graphic with DWU Athletics providing the photography.— 2020
Artwork by gradute Lydia Gerber promoting the Digital Media and Design program. Designed for digital display in the McGovern Library. Lydia designed the slide with my feedback and collaboration. — 2019
Drone photography from homecoming 2018. I designed and edited the field/end zones to include Dakota Wesleyan branding. — 2018
Social Strategy for Small Business handout. In collaboration with the Mitchell Chamber of Commerce, I conducted a presentation for local small business owners on Social Marketing Strategy. This handout that I designed and edited was used as a visual aid. — 2020
Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art. I also use this as a Photoshop learning tutorial video in class. Printed on canvas. — 2019
Logo design project for Groen-Rokusek Insurance agency. These were the client mock ups. The green circle with white lettering was the finished product. Commissioned in: — 2019
Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art. I also use this as a Photoshop learning tutorial video in class. Printed on canvas. — 2019
Big Head series featuring Mitchell Titan Baseball. I designed and edited this piece with another team parent being the photographer. Printed on canvas.— 2021
Dedicated to my professionalism, I stay on top of my field by creating art. I also use this as a Photoshop learning tutorial video in class. Printed on canvas. — 2019
Big Head series featuring Dakota Wesleyan athletics. Men's Basketball Nick Harden. I designed and edited this graphic with DWU Athletics providing the photography. View Animation— 2020
Big Head series featuring Mitchell Titan Baseball. I designed and edited this piece with another team parent being the photographer. Printed on canvas.— 2021
Corn Palace lit for the holidays featuring Dakota Wesleyan University designs. South Dakota: Stay and Play was the theme. — 2020
Big Head series featuring Mitchell Titan Baseball. I designed and edited this piece with another team parent being the photographer. Printed on canvas.— 2021
Big Head series featuring Dakota Wesleyan University Women's Softball catcher Reagan Grossi. I designed and edited this graphic with DWU Athletics providing the photography. Watch Video— 2020
Logo and branding for YouTube channel Sound Slush. Sound slush provides audio tracks for relaxation, sleep, meditation, and more. My kids started a YouTube channel and I couldn't resist making them a logo. — 2020
Photo collage edit of my son dressed as spiderman. Practicing new Photoshpo features. I photographed, designed, and edited this piece. Printed on cavas.— 2018
Series of new Photoshop effects used for class. Also used as recorded video tutorials for class. — 2021
Series of new Photoshop effects used for class. Also used as recorded video tutorials for class. — 2021
Series of new Photoshop effects used for class. Also used as recorded video tutorials for class. — 2021
Proposal written in support of hiring another Digital Media & Design faculty. Presentation of documents matters. View Proposal — 2018
The Social Media Incubator is an eight week, experimental social media project involving two asymmetrical groups of people, Creators and Supporters. View Proposal — 2019
Proposal written in support of hiring another Digital Media & Design faculty splitting time with Communication. Trying to get creative now. View Proposal — 2021
User experience design document for Innovative Systems software. Due to confidentiality, no link to document is available. The document is 24 pages long and includes, a project plan, personas, heauristic evaluation, competitive analysis, scenarios, wireframes, and prototypes. — 2021
Future Tiger Flyer for Admissions. This is what happens when they tell a designer to, 'just have fun with it.' This was not the final design used but I had fun with it. — 2019
An infographic that Dr. Novak used in one of her presentations. I believe it was also used within advertising as well. — 2018
Design created in class and also used as a tutorial. Watch Video— 2020