MFA in Graphic Design

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VERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS Low-Residency

MFA in Graphic Design

graphic esign

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Vermont College of Fine Arts occupies a distinct place in higher education.

Renowned for our celebrated and prestigious low-residency graduate programs, we seek to shape the future of the arts by fostering the excellence of emerging and established artists to create a more humane world.

to merge their practice with design theory and research, deepen their design knowledge, incorporate emerging technologies into their work, and advance their careers.

graphic design

Our MFA in Graphic Design program is uniquely suited to design professionals seeking

MFA

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Graphic design these days should be less about designing individual objects, and more about designing tools and systems for affecting change.

A simple designed object like a book or a website should be seen less as a self-contained, closed system, and more as a part of a large and complex network.

The better we understand the intricate functions of the larger systems, the more effectively we can design the smaller parts. – Matthew Monk, Program Chair

contents The Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Create Professional Work . . . . . . . 11

Our Faculty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Build Career Credentials . . . . . . . . 11

The Residency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Admission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

The Semester . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Student-Designed Curriculum . . . . 11

Faculty Biographies . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

the program Students and faculty meet twice a year for one week of intensive study on our Montpelier, Vermont campus. During the semesters that follow, students study and work from their homes and practices, closely mentored by a faculty advisor. Throughout the two-year experience, students participate in a community of working designers and artists, allowing them to expand their fluency in visual culture and enhance their performance while remaining active in their own lives.

Whether face-to-face during residencies or via file sharing during semesters, students engage in collegial exchanges with distinguished designers and master teachers concerned with the relationship between form and content as well as the role of design in a rapidly evolving world. The close tutorial relationships that emerge from these pairings focus on addressing particular needs and realizing individual goals.

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our faculty Our faculty is a distinguished team of professional designers whose work is shown internationally, appearing regularly in leading graphic design publications and forums.

They are also award-winning teachers, critics, writers, and consultants. Socially active and environmentally engaged, they approach design through the lenses of ethnography, narrative, identity, new multi-media arts, and many other perspectives. They are equally versed in critical theory and professional practice. In particular, they enjoy the creative synergy that flows from their combined academic and professional careers. Drawn to VCFA by its history of excellence in lowresidency graduate education, they see a unique value in this model for students of graphic design. To them, it offers practical training in the kind of collaboration that characterizes the contemporary world of design and allows them to engage students as professional partners.

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work

the residency Students come to campus for just one week of residence each semester. They study closely with faculty and visiting designers, exploring their particular interests and making connections that help position their work within broader social, historical, and intellectual contexts. The learning is intensive, from hands-on workshops and critiques to lectures, presentations, and exhibitions. Students, faculty, and guests interact outside of the classroom as well, adding informal conversations to the multiple exchanges that animate the residency.

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During residencies, each student

is paired with a faculty advisor for the semester ahead. Together, they plan a course of study tailored to the student’s

individual goals. This collaboration continues as students return home to pursue their studies and creative work.

the semester As students pursue their studies independently, they remain in close consultation with their faculty advisor. Each month, students send images, projects, and other relevant work to their advisor, who responds with detailed feedback and instruction. In addition to ongoing visual and creative work, students submit written pieces that outline their personal process and growth while integrating critical theory and acquired knowledge of visual culture. u

Each six-month semester balances professional work and applied study. Students continue their regular jobs

and lives, maintaining relationships or creating new opportunities with clients and continuing to develop their practice. Simultaneously, they integrate new research methods and ideas into their work, creating design that is relevant, dynamic, and inventive.

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student-designed curriculum Students work closely with faculty to build their own curriculum guided by the program’s mission to broaden and deepen design practice.

Our student-centered model invites exploration in a variety of media and methods, as students and faculty work together to create reading lists, define research goals, and outline projects. Choosing to study with a different faculty advisor each semester increases opportunities to experiment with diverse approaches and expand creative potential.

create professional work Our MFA in Graphic Design focuses on helping designers clarify their vision and voice. While students learn theory, history, and criticism appropriate to their study plans, their primary goal is to develop a body of work. Over the course of four semesters, they build a portfolio of new design work, honing their process to create both a final design project and a written thesis which synthesize research and practice.

build career credentials As students and faculty immerse themselves in residencies or work one-on-one during semesters, they also forge lasting relationships, creating a professional network of designers. The collaborative work students experience during their studies provides them with colleagues and contacts that extend from our campus to the international fields of design and design education. The MFA in Graphic Design is a terminal degree, allowing graduates to teach at the university level. It is also a compelling credential for graphic design hiring and career advancement.

Graphic design provokes technology while technology forces graphic design to re-think itself, but the heart of graphic design is to fulfill the human need to see, feel, express, and gather together around what we care about. – Yoon Soo Lee, Faculty

admission Applicants should have the following: • Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.

• Working knowledge of Macintosh platforms and basic proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite.

• Current awareness of contemporary visual culture, as the program requires significant emphasis on critical and conceptual content in creative work.

• A portfolio of visual work to demonstrate artistic aptitude.

Please contact the Admissions office or visit the website for more information including application deadlines, current tuition and fees.

Admissions MFA in Graphic Design Vermont College of Fine Arts 36 College Street Montpelier, VT 05602 866.934.8232 www.vermontcollege.edu

location Residencies take place on VCFA’s campus overlooking the lively town of Montpelier, Vermont’s capital city.

With several bookstores, many restaurants and shops, and an array of cultural events, all surrounded by year-round outdoor opportunities in the Green Mountain State, Montpelier becomes a second home to VCFA students. They live in dormitories or choose a local B&B if they prefer. Food services are offered by the New England Culinary Institute.

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Design for social profit is concerned with linking visual designers with organizations that benefit our society. It advocates a model of shared responsibility in developing visual communication projects informed by the voice and concerns of the intended audience.

The division between us and them is replaced with we. – Ziddi Msangi, Faculty

Faculty members (from left to right); Matthew Monk, Rafael Attias, Nicole Juen, Ziddi Msangi, Silas Munro, Yoon Soo Lee. Missing: Natalia Ilyin, Bethany Koby.

faculty biographies Matthew Monk Providence, Rhode Island Program Chair Matthew Monk is an acclaimed graphic designer and distinguished professor. He is both a book designer and painter who explores systems, typography, and narrative through experimental collage and mixedmedia projects. He produces award-winning books and catalogues for clients from the National Gallery of Art and Metropolis Books to Yale University Press and Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His book design for Irving Penn: Platinum Prints, for the National Gallery of Art, was included in the prestigious AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers and the AIGA Biennial Juried Exhibition, as well as the Book, Jacket and Journal Show of the American Association of University Presses. Similarly, his book design for William G. Congdon: My life has been a painting, for the

RISD Museum, was awarded by the American Association of Museums. While a senior designer at Plus Design Inc., he earned awards for the identity system design for the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, MA, from Gilbert Graphics, the American Association of Museums, and AIGA’s Best of New England Show as well as the International Annual Merit Award from HOW Magazine and the Certificate of Typographic Excellence from the Type Directors Club in New York for brochure design for the Getty Center. He holds an MFA in graphic design from Rhode Island School of Design where he has taught since 1993. In his work and teaching he synthesizes a strong commitment to experimentation and exploration with a deep respect for the history and traditions of art and design.

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Rafael Attias Providence, Rhode Island Caracas, Venezuala A native of Venezuela, Rafael Attias is a professional designer, artist, curator, and educator whose work has been shown internationally. Having worked as a graphic designer at several prominent firms, he currently directs his own studio, Matter Design, with Nicole Juen, and teaches at Rhode Island School of Design where he has been a candidate for the Award for Excellence in Teaching. He teaches graduate level courses in Typography, Illustration, Digital Media, and Web Design, ranging from integration of word and image to motion graphics. He both uses and teaches Final Cut, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver, After Effects, and several audio recording and editing programs. Active in the arts as well as design, he creates mixed-media abstract paintings, merges audio with visuals for installations, and performs and records music. Recently, he served as the Program Director for Pixilerations, a yearly new media showcase that investigates the state of new media arts through installations, concert performances, and film/video screenings. Recent multi-media exhibitions include Wildly Different Things 2010, Blueleaf Gallery in Dublin, Ireland, Aureus Contemporary 2009, SCOPE Miami, and London vs New York 2006, New York.

Natalia Ilyin Seattle, Washington Along with a distinguished career practicing and teaching semiotics, graphic design theory, and criticism, Natalia Ilyin also co-directs a refugee-relief program on the Thai-Burmese border. She has served as National Director of Programs for the American Institute of Graphic Arts,

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and has taught design history, theory, criticism, and semiotics as well as design for social change at universities from Yale to Rhode Island School of Design. As both a teacher and a graphic designer, she founded “DesignLab,” an innovative communications partnership between Cornish College of the Arts’ Design department and the Seattlebased genetics firm, Amgen. Profiled in Steven Heller’s The Education of a Design Entrepreneur, she was elected to the Mayor’s Advisory Commission for Art and Design for the New York City Public Schools. A featured writer for Metropolis, Communication Arts, and STEP Magazines, her articles have appeared in international newspapers, design journals, and several design writing anthologies. Her most recent book, Chasing the Perfect: Thoughts on Modernist Design In Our Time, is a personal look at the philosophy of modernism and its effect on life in our era.

Nicole Juen Providence, Rhode Island Design and art both inspire the work and teaching of Nicole Juen. As a practicing designer and a professor of graphic design at her alma mater, Rhode Island School of Design, she finds that her personal work as a visual artist filters through her work in design, just as elements of design inform her drawings and paintings. A recipient of a Faculty Award Grant from RISD, she has also received design competition recognitions from Bookbuilders of Boston and the American Association of Museums for All Things Connected: Native American Creations. Clients of the award-winning professional practice she directs with Rafael Attias include Keen Footwear, Mayo Surfboards, Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University, and Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Bethany Koby London, United Kingdom Bethany Koby balances her life in design between working as Design Director and Creative Strategist at Wolff Olins in London and collaborating on participative projects with art institutions, start ups, and communities. She is a Medallion winner and speaker for AIGA Voice, and was selected as a part of the UK judging panel for the Green Awards. Through KaosPilot in Aarhus, Denmark, she has served as Lecturer and Advisor for the “Better City, Better Life” project for social entrepreneurs in Shanghai, China. She has also created White Diamond Film titles and poster design for Werner Herzog and Marco Polo productions. She is co-founder of Technology Will Save Us, a haberdashery for technology and alternative education space based in East London. Other international work includes projects dealing with social space and design as a catalyst for positive change at Benetton’s creative research and development hub, Fabrica, in Treviso, Italy, as well as workshops on design-thinking from the Victoria and Albert Museum to the Swiss Embassy. To her degree from Rhode Island School of Design, she recently added a Masters in Responsibility and Business Practice to inform and expand her design practice.

Yoon Soo Lee Seekonk, Massachusetts Seoul, South Korea To Yoon Soo Lee, the study of identity yields productive direction for her designs, paintings, and her teaching. Her own international identity inspires her creative scholarship as well as the identity systems she designs for national and international events, organizations, and publications. She has received numerous juror’s awards for her paintings from jurors like Linda

Norden, Curator of Contemporary Art, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. She was also invited to design the brochure for the opening ceremonies of the commemorative sculpture inauguration for Ahn Eak-tai, composer of the Korean National Anthem. She has written for an international design journal, taught “Writing About Art” for Ohio University’s Study Aboard Program in London, and designed the website for the Ghetto Biennale held in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. A professor of graphic design at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth as well as an exhibiting artist and visiting critic at Rhode Island School of Design, she holds two Master of Fine Arts degrees in design, one earned in the United States and one in Seoul, South Korea.

Silas Munro Brooklyn, New York Silas Munro oversees graphic design and branding for varied audiences, including but not limited to marginalized individuals, homeless people, and retail activists. He serves as Design Director at Housing Works, a community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. His professional work has been recognized in publications by the AIGA, AR100, ID, and Print magazine and included in US exhibitions coast-to-coast, from Young Guns 5, Art Directors Club New York to AIGA Emerge Biennial, Los Angeles. He has crafted design/writing for GOOD, Novum, Otis, CalArts Pub, SpeakUp, and the Walker Design blog, as well as collaborated on the exhibit design for Orange County Museum of Art’s The Birth of the Cool in Newport Beach, CA. He has served as a critic, lecturer, and teacher of graphic design at Art Center, Boston University, CalArts, North Carolina State University, Otis College of Art and Design, Rhode Island School of Design, the School of Visual Arts, and York University in Toronto. His practice in design/research include a Designer-In-Residence at North Carolina State and

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a Graphic Design Fellowship at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. He currently teaches at Maryland Institute College of Art. Ziddi Msangi Seekonk, Massachusetts Usangi, Tanzania Ziddi Msangi designs for select international clients and social-profit organizations committed to improving the communities they serve. He has collaborated with the Boston Schoolyard Initiative on a schoolyard banner project to transform public schoolyards into places of learning, created identities and CD designs for jazz ensembles, designed the website to market Java for Sun Microsystems, and worked with clients as diverse as the Brooklyn Arts Council and Ngurdoto Lodge in Arusha, Tanzania. Msangi designs and teaches through the lens of ethnography, a qualitative research process focused on narrative and cultural interpretation, which he uses to enrich his work and inspire his students. He received an MFA in graphic design from Cranbrook Academy of Art. As faculty at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, he devotes himself to his students’ progress as educated citizens as well as accomplished, creative professionals.

Illustration Credits Page 6: Design by Silas Munro Page 8: Chasing the Perfect, by Natalia Ilyin, designed by Matthew Monk, published by Metropolis Books Page 11: Detail of a lecture poster designed by Matthew Monk Page 15: Design by Ziddi Msangi Page 19: Frame grab from the video-painting Superpower by Rafael Attias Designed by Serena Fox Design Company ©2011 Printed by Villanti & Sons, Printers, Inc.

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Today’s designers are faced with an evolving discipline where hybrids and new areas of practice are emerging from digital and interactive possibilities. These exciting and complex shifts have provided fertile ground for designers to reinvent and deepen their own design practices to have more social, environmental, and cultural impact. – Bethany Koby, Faculty

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VERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS 36 College Street Montpelier, VT 05602

VCFA Mission Vermont College of Fine Arts is a national center for education in the arts, fostering the excellence of emerging and established artists and advancing the arts to create a more humane world.

VCFA is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. through its Commission

Graphic design is trending to models of practice where a client and graphic designer collaborate remotely. Whole creative teams and agencies—while not physically co-located—produce some of the finest design work you can find. Studying design in a low-residency context is of-the-moment learning where solitary, critical practice, and global connectedness collide.

—Silas Munro, Faculty

on Institutions of Higher Education.

www.vermontcollege.edu