By Design

“Design” is a word with a multitude of meanings. As both a noun and a verb, it can be descriptive and active. It can refer to plans, drawings, renderings and spaces, as well as processes, movements and performances. Design can be visual or intellectual— or both. Design can be big like a building or little like a logo. It can be light or dark, quiet or loud, public or private. And Dickinsonians design through a multitude of mediums. They are writers, developers, costumers, choreographers and stylists. They are illustrators, architects, artisans and engineers. They are infusing their aesthetic in an array of professional arenas, and they are often behind the scenes. We’d like to introduce you to six of these inventive alumni and show you the impact of their designs. —Lauren Davidson, Editor

Vincent Paterson '72.

Seth Affoumado.

Designing a Pop-Culture Moment

How do you design a pop-culture moment? For VINCENT PATERSON ’72, a globally renowned choreographer-director who orchestrated some of the most iconic pop-music moves in the 1980s and ’90s, it’s a blend of alchemy, skill and empathy—often, with a sprinkle of research.

Paterson begins by playing the music over and over again. The rhythm is secondary to the melodic lines and tonality—rather than simply counting out beats, he might tap into the linear sigh of a cello or the angular squeal of an electric guitar.

Usually, he feeds his imagination with research, leafing through collected clippings or clicking through websites. Once, choreographing the 1996 movie Evita, he took six months of Argentinean tango instruction before creating a step.

But there’s not always time: With less than three weeks to choreograph Madonna’s Blonde Ambition tour, Paterson accelerated his process by playing a song repeatedly each night before bed. The next morning, he woke up with a completed work in mind. For the 1996 movie The Birdcage, Paterson created on the fly, remaining on set throughout filming in case director Mike Nichols needed a bit of choreography to make a scene work. When actor Robin Williams asked Paterson to develop a funny bit for an upcoming scene, Paterson emerged 15 minutes later with the now-famous “Fosse! Fosse! Fosse!” routine.

Throughout the creative process, Paterson keeps the dancers’ unique physicality and special abilities top of mind, standing and moving as they would while he figures out their steps. Michael Jackson’s fluidity, Madonna’s bold sensuality, Williams’ overbubbling energy and Bjork’s flamboyant animalism call for radically different approaches, and Paterson adjusts accordingly. “I always want to make everyone look like themselves, but the most incredible version of themselves they can be,” he explains.

When the routine’s set, it’s time to teach. Paterson is meticulous, and because he prepares more material than he’ll need, he’s also flexible, cutting and adding as he goes. The process is completed with the performance. “As artists, we create in a semi-vacuum, but we don’t want the work to stay there,” he says. “To create something the world has never seen before and know that it is being appreciated, you can’t ask for anything more, as an artist. There’s so much joy in that.” —MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson

Rebecca Frederick '84.

Matt Zugale.

Painting with Light

Imagine painting a series of moving canvases. Imagine repeating your exact brushstrokes several times for a live audience. Imagine how long planning this might take. Now imagine you have about half the time you need.

Such is the task of a lighting designer, and it’s a task REBECCA FREDERICK ’84 knows well. Having spent nearly three decades lighting shows ranging from comedic and gothic plays to Shakespeare and dance concerts, Frederick can distill the work into one deceptively simple statement.

“The job is a matter of using light to serve the telling of the story,” she says.

But dig into that, and you’ll find a complex process of painting with light. After reading the script, she meets with the director and the costume and set designers to understand their visions. Then, after studying the theatre’s dimensions and technical limitations, she assembles her light plot.

“That’s basically a plan of the theatre with overlays of where every light goes, what kind of light it is, what the gel color is, how it’s controlled and where it will be focused,” explains the former dramatic arts major who first caught the lighting design bug at Dickinson when former theatre professors Jim Drake ’70 and David Brubaker tapped her to light a Dance Theatre Group performance.

Once the light plot is set, Frederick gets a run-through or two to make any adjustments in how her light paints all those canvases moving about the stage. Then she still needs to focus the lights with the electrics crew, set lighting cues and refine other technical aspects all before the dress rehearsals and previews that precede a show’s opening. “There’s never enough time,” she says with a laugh. And if she has done the job right, her biggest reward is having her work go unnoticed. Even in a production like Dracula, where her design makes a bold statement, using light and shadow to evoke a sense of dread, the goal is for Frederick’s artistry to disappear.

“If it’s done well, it blends in so seamlessly that nobody thinks about the lighting,” she says. “It’s just there.”

Of course, it’s all worth it when she sees the show do exactly what it’s designed to do.

“There are times when you can see the audience falling into the performance, you can feel the energy, the way they’re engaged,” she explains. “You just know everything’s working, and that’s it. That’s why you do it. That’s why there’s nothing like live theatre.” —Matt Getty

Anthony Bush '11.

Matt Zugale.

Designing the Classroom Curriculum

At an institution where 70 percent of the faculty/ staff is white and all students are of color, it became apparent that a KIPP College Preparatory school in the Bronx needed to make some adjustments. ANTHONY BUSH ’11 took advantage of the opportunity, designing a 15-page proposal arguing for a school curriculum rooted in social-justice education. After his proposal was approved by the school board, Bush took on the role of diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator.

“I’ve always had a passion for social justice, but having the opportunity to explore these issues at Dickinson was eye-opening,” says Bush, a Posse Foundation scholar who graduated with a major in American studies. “I was driven by exploring issues related to race, gender and sexuality, so this interest was certainly a catalyst for proposing and designing my current position [at KIPP].”

For his courses, Bush determines the class objectives by having his students “think through a lens of fluency.” This means figuring out where they are in their understanding of things like heteronormativity, gender pronouns, misogyny, etc., and then designing lesson plans to explore these topics. The aim is to challenge students to think about how power, privilege and oppression impact their own identity, while also breaking down cultural stereotypes.

To measure course success and student learning, Bush employs traditional assessments, but he also uses more creative approaches, such as experimentbased projects, professional development seminars and social-justice activism (where students are tasked with designing their own project pertaining to issues explored in the class).

Bush is committed to making a difference through social-justice programming around the country. “In the future, I might open up a nonprofit and serve as a consultant for schools to determine effective equity and engagement programming,” Bush says. “But at this point, the world is my oyster.” —David Blosser ’19

Kristin Achtmeyer '06.

Seth Affoumado.

Beyond the Big Screen

Massachusetts native KRISTIN ACHTMEYER ’06 didn’t realize where her true passions lay until her junior year. Always having had an interest in film, TV and production, she traveled to London for a study-abroad experience and came back with a plan.

“I went abroad and took a bunch of film classes that intrigued me. I took a few classes in costume design when I returned,” says Achtmeyer, a former Red Devil women’s lacrosse player. After careful consideration, knowing that the entertainment industry is often a male-dominated industry, she embarked to Los Angeles and set her sights on producing and assisting on student films.

Achtmeyer began working as a costume designer on TV shows and short films in 2007. Under titles like key costumer, assistant costume designer and set costumer, she is credited among dozens of network TV shows and TV movies, including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and American Crime Story. On the big screen, her work includes The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Parts 1 and 2 and Rock of Ages. She was also part of the costume team that took home the Emmy for Outstanding Costumes for a Series for American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. As a key costumer, she is responsible for taking the designer’s vision and creating that same tone throughout the cast. When she’s on set, she’s checking the actors’ clothing and keeping continuity between often out-of-order scenes.

Of the many projects she’s worked on, being part of the costume team for Amazon’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon is a point of pride for Achtmeyer. “It was set in 1930s Hollywood, and it was pure glamour and fashion of that era, which was amazing to work with and see come to life again,” she says, noting that she accompanied Janie Bryant, the costume designer from Mad Men, on that project. “I was able to dig deep into research and learn how people dressed back then. It becomes a research experience, which is what inspires me the most.”

Reflecting on her varied career, Achtmeyer says Dickinson’s liberal-arts education helped her explore many facets of subjects both within and outside of her major. “I was fortunate to go to a school where I could explore all areas—political science, history of film and TV—before finding my focus.” —Kandace Kohr

Chris Sharples '87.

SHoP Architects.

A Sense of Substance

CHRIS SHARPLES ’87 graduated with degrees in history and fine arts, and he went on to found SHoP Architects, a New York–based international firm, with his twin brother and two other partners. And if you take a minute to Google the structures Sharples’ firm has been designing over the past 23 years, your jaw just may hit the floor. Start in New York City, with 111 57th St., Barclays Center, American Copper Buildings and the LaGuardia Airport Master Plan. Now jump over to Google’s Mountain View offices in California, The Q in Cleveland and Uber’s new San Francisco HQ. Jawdroppers, right? And that’s just a taste.

Sharples, a SHoP principal, graduated from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and no matter what he’s accomplished personally, he’s quick to deflect any credit directed toward him, diverting it to the team—made up of 177 SHoPpers—working in SHoP’s Broadway studio. And there’s a lot for which the team can take credit.

Looking at SHoP’s designs and the resulting structures, it feels a little like looking at the future of architecture, which is probably why the Museum of Modern Art has staged exhibitions of SHoP’s designs and they’ve been referred to as

“NYC’s go-to megaproject architects.” And every building you’ll see by SHoP feels like a signature piece, but if you’re not sensing a theme in the designs—as you might with, say, Frank Gehry or Frank Lloyd Wright—that’s no accident. Sharples will be the first to tell you that SHoP isn’t a style-based practice, that it isn’t shooting to impose a branded look on its works. And it could be because something more vital is at stake.

“There are a lot of things in our industry that are broken, and we need to innovate to address some of the challenges in our world, especially with global warming,” Sharples says, pointing out that 48 percent of carbon emissions come from the building industry. “So in terms of SHoP’s legacy, we’re going to continue to make beautiful projects, but the thing that’s going to become incredibly important is how we manifest our built environment in a way that really starts to address some of the challenges that we’re facing on this planet.” —Tony Moore

Gabrielle Joffie '07.

Rome Shaw.

Fashioning the Future

Growing up in NYC, GABRIELLE JOFFIE ’07 often found herself venturing to the nearby hair salon with her mother. And more often than not, she wasn’t actually there to get her hair done but to experience the culture—from hearing the latest neighborhood gossip to seeing a customer’s smile after a successful styling.

“It was during these moments that I fell in love with beauty and health,” she says.

When Joffie attended Dickinson, she played lacrosse and was often complimented by her peers as “always looking fabulous.” So it comes as no surprise that today Joffie serves as director of brand management at Indique Hair LLC, a hair-extension company based in Atlanta that helps women feel fabulous daily. The company sells premium hair extensions for venues as diverse as movie production sets, theatres and everyday beauty boutiques.

In her role, Joffie maintains the company’s brand and analyzes how it is perceived in the market. Whether she’s designing the most recent marketing campaign or writing the copy for the latest product, Joffie wears many hats during the day. But to her, this variety is one of the most exciting parts of the job.

According to Joffie, a branding strategy is successful when it touches the consumer emotionally and makes a meaningful difference. “There’s a stereotype that the beauty industry is vain,” Joffie explains. “But for many women, the extensions give them the confidence to get through what they’re battling—whether they’re struggling with their self-image or fighting cancer. And that’s a powerful thing.”

When she’s not working her 9-to-5, Joffie runs a digital consulting agency, The Digital Mavens, alongside her co-founder, where she continues to design and manage brands. She also writes her own blog, “Around the Way Girl,” where she highlights her travels and shares her journey of working in the beauty industry.

“Although I’m not sure what’s next, I see myself evolving with the brand at Indique,” Joffie says. “But who knows, before or after then, I might just end up releasing a fashion line. Stay tuned.” —David Blosser ’19