Fifty-two students graduated from Pennsylvania College of Art & Design Saturday afternoon at the Barshinger Center for Musical Arts on the Franklin & Marshall College campus.

Those graphic designers, illustrators, photographers and fine artists face a daunting future.

 The job market is tough.

And as artists, they have the challenge to keep their artistic eye open to new ideas.

"Inspiration is everywhere. Keep an open mind for discovery," advised Thomas Wedell, who along with his wife, Nancy Skolos, gave the commencement speech.

Both teach at the Rhode Island School of Design and run an interdisciplinary graphic design and photography studio near Boston.

Their speech was framed around seven pieces of advice for the graduates and they used a slide presentation to show how they used that advice in their own projects.

"Plan B is often better than plan A," noted Skolos, who told the audience that art school became plan B when she didn't get into music school.

They reminded the audience to maintain a strong sense of history, to experiment and to continue to collaborate. Learn from others where to get things made or how to do things, like melt plastic in your oven, something they needed for a project.

("For Plexiglas, it's 15 minutes at 350 degrees," Skolos wryly noted.)

Their final word of advice was right to the point: "Art is an adventure. Work hard. It's worth it."

For graduates Ryan Baer and Iliana Boianova Alexandrova, both of whom graduated cum laude, hard work got them jobs even before they graduated.

Baer, who majored in graphic design, has a job with Harvey and Daughters, a shopper marketing consultancy in Sparks, Md.

"In today's economy, you always have to be on top of the latest technology and you've got to have a work ethic of 110 percent," Baer said.

He'll be helping to design the packaging for a variety of well-known companies, including Cover Girl cosmetics and McCormick spices.

"I had an internship there and it became fulltime, then it became paid and then they asked me to come back after I graduated," says Baer 21, who is from Northern Baltimore. "It's exactly what I wanted to do."

Alexandrova, 22, who is from Bulgaria, is a fine arts major. She'll be heading to New York to work in the iPad department at Men's Health magazine, helping to design computer interfaces. She too had an internship.

"I was commuting to New York during my senior year and it was crazy," she said. "I had to get up at 4 a.m. to be in New York by 10 a.m. on Sundays and then I'd be home at midnight on Tuesdays and ready for school. It was really intense."

Alyssa Thomas, 23, had her own intensity. The fine arts major had two children while she was in school and her husband, who is in the Navy, was away during much of the time.

"I got a lot of help from family and friends," she said. "For a while, I had to bring my son, Daniel, to school with me. That had to stop when he started walking."

She's thinking about grad school, but right now she wants to take a break and is very specifically not looking for a job.

• Outstanding students in the college's four disciplines received awards during commencement. They included: Eileen Heasley and Kathleen Quinn McNichol, fine arts; Joseph Pietrzak, graphic design; Stephen J. Pala, Jr. and Cassandra Lee Steich, illustration, and Ashley E. Moog, photography.

This marked the 30th anniversary of the school, which was founded in 1982 and began offering Bachelor of Fine Art degrees in 1999.

Members of the Class of 2012 are: Joel Andrew Abler, photography; Iliana Boianova Alexandrova, fine arts, cum laude; Jessica M. Alvarez, graphic design; Ryan Thomas Baer, graphic design, cum laude; John Bibbo, graphic design; Cara Eileen Schares Blatt, photography; Tori Boegli, graphic design; Owen Patrick Bradley, fine arts; Rachel Louise Cecelski, illustration; Abigail DeWitt, illustration; Rachel Distler, illustration; Linette Marie Dueño, graphic design; Deirdre Englander, illustration; Allison F. Farris, illustration, cum laude; Hannah Marie Garling, graphic design, magna cum laude; Kelly Lynn Geiges, illustration; Jessie Gray, fine arts; Kayla M. Guthrie, graphic design; Randy T. Haldeman, illustration; and Eileen M. Heasley, fine arts, cum laude.

Also, Mary Heinrichs, illustration, cum laude; Caitlin Ricci Herrschaft, fine arts, cum laude; Eric J. Hinkley, fine arts; Joanna L. Hornstein, graphic design, cum laude; Jade Hubley, graphic design; Alicia Marie Jagels, illustration; Sabrina Marie Johnson, illustration; Cassandra Kennard, illustration; Hayley Louise Linette, fine arts; Lori M. Long, illustration; Colleen McCauley, fine arts; Brittany Alyese McCurdy, graphic design; Kathleen Quinn McNichol, fine arts, magna cum laude; Ashley E. Moog, Photography, cum laude; Madeline L. Mowery, illustration; Andrew Nowacoski, illustration; and Stephen J. Pala Jr., illustration.

Also, Joseph Pietrzak, graphic design; Joseph M. Riggio Jr., graphic design; Elizabeth Schatz, photography; Adam Nathan Schweitzer, graphic design; Danielle Sheerin, photography; Amy Nicole Shoemaker, photography; Andrea D. Shoultz, illustration; Jessica Slavik, illustration; Kristina Charlotte Spencer, illustration; Christian P. Spilman, fine arts; Bethany R. Stachowiak, photography; Cassandra Lee Steich, illustration, cum laude; Stephen Joseph Surotchak, photography; Stacia Nicole Sweigert, fine arts; and Alyssa D. Thomas, fine arts.

jholahan@lnpnews.com