Maryland Institute College of Art

(Bethel University, Minnesota). Eric has been working as a designer since he was in high school, pursuing projects in/around Chicago, Minneapolis, and Detroit. Now he’s heading east to redefine his work “outside of the strictly commercial realm.” He and his brother run an independent record label, Common Cloud Records, and most recently launched The Fey 7″ Project to benefit the rebuilding of music schools in Haiti.

(Western Carolina University, NC). Since graduating from WCU as a design major four years ago, Cam has worked as a designer for National Geographic in DC. This experience has given him a strong background in information graphics, typography, and publication design—a strong basis for the next phase of his artistic development.

(University of Cincinnati). Aggie embraces “design as storytelling,” a core belief that she has refined over several years of working for creative agencies. For Aggie, storytelling involves listening as well as talking, and she seeks to develop design strategies that encourage dialogue and exchange.

(University of Pennsylvania). Aura recognizes the surprising power of the little stuff: “the vast effects that rotating a shape slightly, changing one color, and reformatting a single line of text can have on the look and feel of an end product.” With a liberal arts education from one of the world’s premiere universities, Aura’s ready to ramp up her design vocabulary while keeping an eye on the bigger picture.

(Ontario College of Art and Design, Ontario). Michal has worked professionally for several design firms, including Karacters Design Group in Ontario and AXIS Communications in DC. Interested in cross-cultural design strategies and the role of mass media on society, she has worked in four countries and speaks four languages.

(Bard College, New York). With a background in fine arts, photography, and liberal arts, Skye is interested in food politics and environmentalism as well as visual culture. For Skye, design is a fundamental point of connection among diverse interests, and a powerful tool for shaping consumer choice and behavior.

(University of Tampa and Miami Ad School). Born in Venezuela, Clarra has worked professionally in Miami, Chicago, and Amsterdam. She is excited about the possibilities of design as a persuasive medium in the public realm.

(Holon Institute of Technology, Israel). Aviv is interested in the “those places where art meets design,” including artists books and exhibitions. He participated as a curator, writer, editor, and designer for the public exhibition “My Camp,” an experience that reinforced his interest in design as research.

(Rhode Island School of Design). Jenny studied furniture design at RISD and went on to work professionally in product design before embracing the 2D world of graphic design. She has worked for the past two and a half years as the graphic design manager at OLIN, a landscape architecture and urban design firm in Philadelphia. Jenny embraces design as an interdisciplinary collaborative process and strives to blur the lines between graphic design, architecture, product design and fashion.

(Arizona State University). Jinhwan studied graphic design at Kyonggi University in Korea for two years before coming to US in 2003. He is interested in Korean and Latin-based typography, and he loves line, space, simplicity, and elemental geometric forms and architectures.

(Miami University, Ohio). With substantial training and professional background in architecture, Jessica is a collaborative thinker committed to design as a “generalist practice.” Life-shaping experiences have included a studio charette with renowned furniture designer Patricia Urquiola.

(Messiah College, Pennsylvania). Tim created his own freelance studio, The Infantree, soon after graduating from Messiah College. Today Infantree is a three-partner studio and contemporary art gallery in Lancaster, PA. Tim will bring to MICA his fascination with “idealism” and “imperfect stories.”

(University of California, Los Angeles). As a member of the Easter Island Statue Project, a large-scale archaeological survey, Alice has learned to look at design processes from the points of view of an archaeologist and archivist. She is interested in exhibition design, visualization, and education: design as a means to inform and instruct.

(Abilene Christian University,Texas). Fascinated by the “aesthetics of the natural world,” Rolando discovered design by way of science while a pre-med student at ACU. Brimming with energy and enthusiasm, he continues to explore methodologies such as psychology and semantics, while also enjoying design as an expressive form.

(University of Texas, Austin). Working professionally in DC in the social marketing field, Abe is a self-taught designer with a BS in Biology. He learned his craft working with independent musicians in Austin, where he fell in love with graphic design as a creative medium and cultural tool.

(Savannah College of Art). Interested in design for social change, Noel has worked as a graphic designer for the Democratic National Committee and the Taproot Foundation. She was one of five recipients of the Sappi Fine Papers: Design That Matters grant in 2006.

Axel J. Wieder, born in 1971, has been the artistic director of the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart since 2007. Wieder studied art history and cultural theory at the University of Cologne and the Humboldt University in Berlin, specializing in conceptual art, postmodern theory and architecture. Since 1990 he has taken part in numerous exhibitions in collaboration with Jesko Fezer, including the 9th Istanbul Biennale in 2005. In 1999, together with Jesko Fezer and Katja Reichard, he founded the “Pro qm” bookstore in Berlin, which is also a venue for experimental events in the field of art and urbanism. For the 3rd Berlin Biennale in 2004 Wieder and Fezer devised a section on urban spatial development in Berlin. Among his many other projects, Wieder co-curated and managed the exhibition “Now and Ten Years Ago” at KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin (with Stephan Dillemuth and Josef Strau, 2004/2005). He has also held lecturing posts at various universities and art academies, including the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and the Jutland Art Academy in Aarhus, Denmark.

Keetra Dean Dixon joined MICA’s full-time faculty in the Graphic Design BFA program in 2010. Her work explores the interplay between physical and digital interactions. Her work is in the permanent design collection at the SFMOMA and was featured in STEP magazine’s Emerging Talent ‘09 and tADC Young Gun ‘08. She has been featured in numerous publications, speaking engagements, and exhibitions, including Etapes Magazine, Die Gestalten, and London’s Kessel Kramer Gallery KKOutlet. Dixon developed many of her core objectives during her 2004 – 2006 masters studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work has gained notoriety for its friendly, sincere absurdism. Her socially-themed objects and installations involve the viewer as an active participant.

Denise Gonzales Crisp is Associate Professor at the College of Design, North Carolina State University, in Graphic Design, a department she chaired from 2002 to 2006. She was the senior designer for Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California from 1998 to 2002, as well as the designer for projects including Artext magazine, SciArc lecture series, and independent presses. Her design and writing have appeared in the Russian KAK, Graphis, Émigré, Metropolis, Eye, Print, Step and I.D. magazines, ACD 100, Communicaion Arts and Graphis. Her design work was featured in a 2002 Paris exhibition East Coast/West Coast Dreams, and more recently the 2005 anthology All Access: The Making of Thirty Extraordinary Graphic Designers. She has lectured around the U.S. and the world.

Prior to joining MGMT Design, Sarah was a senior designer and project manager at 2×4, where she worked on numerous branding, collateral, and book projects for cultural clients. Prior to 2×4, she worked at several New York City design firms. Sarah teaches at Parsons School of Design and serves as a frequent guest critic at Yale University. She received her BA from Oberlin College and her MFA from Yale University.