Some projects are meant to be seen. Elizabeth Keppler wanted hers to be felt.

At PennWest Edinboro, Liz is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Arts – Illustration. She is drawn to the kind of creative work that asks people to pause, reflect and look deeper. 

“I like to explore research a lot because I tend to gravitate toward the whys and hows behind certain things, especially from a design perspective,” she said.

That curiosity led her into research and eventually into a project centered on addiction, a difficult subject she approached with care, creativity and intention.

Rather than create something people would simply glance at and move past, Liz built a project with a physical presence. She designed a cigarette-style box containing 20 cards, each one focused on a different addiction and paired with short written context. The format was deliberate.

By echoing the familiar shape of a cigarette pack, she created an object that felt immediate, recognizable and unsettling exactly in the way she’d hoped. She wanted viewers to hold it in their hands and think not just about addiction itself, but about the emotional, mental and physical weight it can carry. As she developed the project, she kept returning to a question that grounded the work in empathy.

“I was asking myself a lot of the time, 'What would someone who has been in these shoes be feeling?’” she said.

That perspective helped her create something designed not only to inform, but also to connect on a more human level. She also wanted the project to invite critical thinking, asking viewers to consider not just the subject itself, but the human experience behind it.

That approach reflects the way Liz sees design as more than aesthetics.

“I’m always wondering what the deeper meaning is,” she said.

For Liz, that mindset reaches far beyond one assignment or one medium.

“Research is everywhere. You can research any topic, any genre,” she said, a belief that helps explain why she approaches creative work with such curiosity and intention.

At PennWest, she has found room to explore that instinct through research, critique and collaboration. She spoke about learning from professor Angela Glass, whose own continued graduate study gave Liz a close-up look at what it means to be both a teacher and a learner. She also values the group critiques and collaborative environment that help ideas grow stronger through conversation.

Liz’s ambitions reach beyond one project. Whether she is creating in the studio or playing trombone in the marching band, she is drawn to experiences that leave a lasting impression. After graduation, she hopes to work at a design firm where she can build brands, shape visual identities, and create work people remember. What drives her most is the process behind it: researching a subject deeply, understanding its meaning, and translating that knowledge into something tangible and lasting.

“I really enjoy making things that people can tangibly hold or visually see and remember,” she said.

Liz’s work is a reminder that research is not limited to a lab. Sometimes it looks like design. Sometimes it looks like storytelling. And sometimes it looks like a student brave enough to tackle a difficult subject and turn it into something others can hold, study and never quite forget.