Students' Reviews

Ariella Greenberg

Professor Li Gardiner was my teacher at Touro College in NYC, in the Computer Design department. I have never had a professor more experienced, creative, and knowledgeable about her subject. Her advice has been invaluable to me, both as a student and a fledgling graphic designer. 

Her class in the Business of Graphic Design was, especially, a class that every graphic and web designer should take before embarking on their career journey. In addition, Professor Gardiner is extremely talented in her own right and gave exceptional creative advice to help my classmates and I put together portfolios we are proud to show prospective employers.

 I would highly recommend Li Gardiner as a teacher and a designer.

Ariella Greenberg

Creative Director, Priority Healthcare Group

Deborah Kaufman

Li Gardiner is a terrific, animated professor. She gave me the tools I needed to really build up my portfolio, and the confidence necessary to impress employers on interviews. She is very professional, very devoted, and very talented. I am thankful I had her as my teacher and mentor for many vital classes at Touro College.

Deborah Kaufman

Graphic Design Professional, CAD/Fashion

Kriss Sulka

It is with great pleasure that I write this letter of recommendation for Li Gardiner. I was a student of hers at the Center for Electronic Art from 2000 to 2001. In addition, Li served as art director and editor, offering expert supervision to a team of designers, myself included, as we created two catalogs together. 

In both instances, Li was highly professional, informative, and enthusiastic. As Dean of Faculty and Chair of the Print Design Program, she was very approachable, supportive, and attentive. She was a valuable resource to me as a working professional interested in getting an efficient, comprehensive education. When meeting individually, Li provided a level of attention that is rare at most schools. 

As a teacher and advisor her critique of student’s artwork is both fair and realistic. She has a gift for recognizing a student’s potential and providing feedback that leads to growth. She is particularly talented at harnessing the energy of a classroom and directing it toward our creative work. She is very good at handling difficult students, at keeping on task, and motivating students to produce work they are proud of. Under her direction, students requiring a slower pace could thrive and more experienced students still felt challenged. I enjoyed each of the classes I took with Li and sought out her name in the course catalog when signing up for classes.

Li is extremely knowledgeable about print and Web-related applications. She always helped identify the source of problems, helped me find a solution, and taught me strategies to avoid its reoccurrence. Her knowledge about the multimedia design industry is also evident, and I have felt grateful to have her guidance at this time in my life as I switch careers. 

Li is a woman with great talent as an artist, teacher, mentor, and leader. She brings her positive energy wholeheartedly into each of her endeavors. As executive director of a not-for-profit organization for nine years I have had a great deal of experience hiring and managing employees. I have come to understand what skills make a person a good leader and exemplary employee. I can say with certainty that Li will thrive in whatever she seeks to do next and will surely be an asset to whomever she chooses to work with. I recommend her highly for any position that requires artistic creativity, the ability to multi-task, to teach, and/or to provide leadership. 

Sincerely,

Kriss Sulka

Freelance Designer/Illustrator

Oakland, California

Jane Lewis

Li Gardiner was my instructor at the Center for Electronic Art when I was a Web design certificate student. The classes I took with Li were Illustrator, Portfolio and Resume Planning, and Web Portfolio Critique, all required classes toward my certificate. I also took her Color Prepress class. In addition to teaching, Li was instrumental in acting as my advisor in helping me determine which electives would best meet my needs as a small business Web designer. 

Li is easily one of the top instructors I have ever had. Aside from being extremely well prepared for her classes with comprehensive handouts and a clear and logical class curriculum, she had an endless enthusiasm for teaching that never grew stale. I have had too many classes where an instructor was a technical whiz in the particular software they were teaching but did not have a clue as to how to teach it to students. Li would start with basics and build a logical and understandable "pyramid" of the software so that her students were able to follow along and at the same time incorporate their own unique design sense into the project they would be doing. 

Li did not come to class with a prescribed vision of what looks good and what doesn't; instead she would teach basic design principles such as balance of space and color and, when applicable, how they relate to typography. What amazed me was that she was able to embrace each student's particular aesthetic, and encourage that individual in applying  that aesthetic toward the particular end they were seeking, be it a simple logo design, a complete web site, or a digital collage.  In addition, Li always made time for student conferences or reviews, making herself available for one on one meetings. Going this extra mile allowed me to fine-tune my class projects and ultimately perfect my online and print portfolios.

Li's move to New York was a great loss to San Francisco, and most especially to the students at the Center for Electronic Art, where her vision, patience, and tremendous love of teaching truly made the school an exceptional place to learn digital media.

Jane Lewis

Designer, San Francisco

(Dear Jane — I miss you so, so much.)