H
e loved drawing as a child and by the age of 10, Nick Mrozowski was shadowing his father, an architect. He had a notebook filled with drawings and developed his d ra f ting sk ills. He thought he knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. In middle school, he joined yearbook, but a scrapbook style and club format didn’t inspire him. So he continued exploring his interest in architecture, until he met Lynn Strause, CJE. Strause, his freshman English teacher, was also the yearbook adviser at East Lansing High School in Michigan, and while yearbook journalism was technically open only to juniors and seniors, she invited him to join the award-winning staff as a sophomore. To begin, he was an ads guy, and his affinity for process paid off. Literally. Inspired by the autonomy of his role and the potential to make a difference, he created an ad sales packet he has referred back to more than once since he lef t college. With systems and tracking for accountability, the staff found greater success than ever before. But Mrozowski didn’t want to be the ads guy long-term.
N EW PA SSION “Graphic design had the technical aspects of architecture that appealed to me, but was more creative. And more immediate,” he said. He found he loved type and space and solving problems visually. He served as a co-editor both his junior and senior years, and those two volumes were East Lansing’s only books ever to win both a Gold Crown from CSPA and a Pacemaker from NSPA — and East Lansing was the only school in the nation to achieve that distinction in both 2001 and 2002. Under the guidance of Strause, the 2001 National Yearbook Adviser of the Year, Mrozowski developed a respect for design foundations, understood the role of organization and learned about conceptual development. »
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success stories
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