When Joshua Sledge, a junior graphic design major, reached out to a few Serbian diplomats to share his work featuring famous quotes from famous Serbs like Nikola Tesla, Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin and Novak Djokovic, he didn’t necessarily expect a response.
But much to Sledge’s surprise, he received emails of gratitude from the country’s consulate generals in New York and Chicago, both offering the young man a tour of the Tesla Museum should he ever visit the country.
“I am writing to show you my love and adoration of Serbian culture and the many great minds that Serbia has fathered,” wrote Sledge, a student in Campbell’s graphic design program under Assistant Professor Dejan Mraović, a native of Serbia.
In his Typography I class, Sledge and his classmates were given the assignment to create typographic compositions from famous quotes and autobiographies. His work titled “Words of a Winner” features a quote from tennis great Novak Djokovic, who Sledge said has been an inspiration for him. His piece, “Gazing into the Mind of a Genius,” honors Tesla, and “Spark of Knowledge” shows “Mihajlo Idvorski Pupin’s tenacity for learning and his incredible story of self-achievement.”
Sledge received responses from diplomats Damjan Jovic and Olgica Vlacic. “I wish you every success in your career and looking forward to hearing more from you in the future,” Vlacic wrote.
Sledge’s professor called the responses “a great honor.”
“It’s definitely not in a job’s description to reply to emails from a graphic design student,” Mraović said. “They are way too busy with diplomatic affairs and various documents.”