Nontsikelelo Mutiti is a Zimbabwean-born interdisciplinary artist and educator. Mutiti holds a diploma in multimedia art from the Zimbabwe Institute of Digital Arts, and an MFA from the Yale School of Art, with a concentration in graphic design. She has been a resident artist at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Recess, and the Centre for Book Arts, both in New York City. As cofounder of Black Chalk & Co. Mutiti has produced projects cultural projects and events. She is also artistic director for Reading Zimbabwe, a platform for archiving and publishing. Mutiti is currently Assistant Professor in Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Minkyoung Kim is a designer and artist based in New York who develops visual systems with a focus on repetition and evolution. She explores ways of presenting a series of iterations based on a system to orient new readings of their shifting contexts. Her work has been shown internationally in group shows including Art Hack Day Providence, FAVORITEN: The Festival of Independent Performing Arts and Incheon International Women Art Biennale. She has taught courses and given lectures at such schools as California College of the Arts, The New School, University of Connecticut and Yale University. She is currently an Assistant Professor in Graphic Design at RISD.

(Co sponsored with EFS and D+M)

Lauren Lee McCarthy is an LA-based artist examining social relationships in the midst of surveillance, automation, and algorithmic living. She is the creator of p5.js, an open source programming language with over 1.5 million users, for learning creative expression through code online. She is Co-Director of the Processing Foundation, a non-profit whose mission is to promote software literacy within the visual arts, and visual literacy within technology-related fields—and to make these fields accessible to diverse communities. She is an Assistant Professor at UCLA Design Media Arts.

Graphic designer James Goggin has spent over ten years developing the lecture/performance project Pop Culture Colour Theory, a continuously-evolving body of research on color as cultural code and commodity. Brought to life with a custom soundtrack and multi-screen projection, James draws connections among a broad spectrum of critical thinking on color, from research in the hard sciences to images drawn from pop culture and music.

The lecture will help launch the new RISD Color Lab, followed by the Color Lab’s inaugural ChromaDisco. The new RISD Color Lab provides a visible and accessible resource platform and pedagogical nexus demonstrating RISD’s commitment to the study of color—its history, material dimensions, scientific properties and cultural significance—as a core component of art and design.

Kelly Walters is a multimedia designer, researcher, and curator who is inspired by graphic design and the power it has to affect people on both a local and global scale. She is the founder of Bright Polka Dot (an independent design practice) focusing on print, digital, pattern and textile design. Kelly has worked as a designer for Alexander Isley, Inc. Designers, the RISD Museum, SFMOMA, Atavist, SOMArts Cultural Center and Blue State Digital. She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a dual degree in Communication Design and Communication Sciences, and received her MFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Communication Design Department at The New School/ Parsons School of Design in New York.

Zipeng Zhu is a Chinese-born designer, art director, illustrator and animator in New York City who wants to make everyday a razzle-dazzle musical. His clients include Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Netflix, Viacom, The New Yorker, Fox, CNN, Refinery29, Chobani, and Samsung. After he graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, he has worked at Pentagram and Sagmeister & Walsh. He was one of the Art Directors Club Young Guns 13 winners and has been recognized as Print magazine’s New Visual Artist and The One Show Young Ones. His work has been exhibited all over the world including New York, Barcelona, Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai and other major museums and institutions. He has recently started his own creative studio Dazzle to make everything dazzling.
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We will kick off the year on Tuesday, Sept 3, with an ice cream social (3:00-3:30) followed by an adviser meet and greet (3:30-4:00). It’s mandatory for incoming graduate and undergraduate students. We want to see your faces, tell you some things and have you meet each other a bit—and welcome you to RISD GD!

Come see the work from the sophomore Color + Surface class in the 2nd floor Design Center glass cases (30 North Main St). The Spring 2019 Color + Surface studios were co-taught by Rich Rose, Suzi Cozzens, Aki Nurosi, Emily Rye, Nancy Skolos and Ramon Tejada.

We welcome graduating students, their families, faculty and staff to honor our graduating students and celebrate the end of the academic year. Drinks and hors d'ouvres will be served.

Join us for short video trailers by each member of the 53-person senior class. Held on Thursday, May 23rd starting at 8:30am in the Chace Center Auditorium (20 North Main Street).

We're almost at the end of the academic year! All BFA students with studio desks in Design Center should be fully moved out by the Friday before commencement, May 31st.
If you want to use a locker to store your things over the summer, please label the locker your name and email address with 'summer storage 2019' somewhere on the label.

Please leave your storage cart keys inside the cart when you leave.

Have a great summer! Questions should go to John Sunderland in the Type Shop.

Below you'll find links to the final review schedule for undergraduate end of year reviews. Note, sophomore reviews are closed to students other than the presenter and those helping the student. Junior reviews are an open bazaar/art fair scenario where everyone from the College is welcome. Senior Degree Projects are by default open, but arrive at the beginning of the review.

Sophomores: Tuesday May 21
→ See schedule

Juniors: Wednesday May 22
→ See schedule

Seniors: Thursday May 23
→ See schedule

Open Class Reviews
→ See schedule

MFA Thesis: Sat/Sun May 18/19
→ See schedule

Come see the 2019 Final MFA Thesis Presentations in the Sol Koffler Gallery at 169 Weybosset Street. Open to larger GD community and interested visitors.

Saturday, May 18
10:00–10:50 Marcus Peabody
10:55–11:45 Angela Torchio
11:50–12:40 Chris Cote
12:45–1:35 Nathan Young
🥪 1:40–2:20
2:25–3:15 Amy Auman
3:20–4:10 Joel Kern
4:15–5:05 Ji Kim
5:10–6:00 Goeun Park

Sunday, May 19
10:00–10:50 June Yoon
10:55–11:45 Eury Kim
11:50–12:40 Olivia de Salve Villedieu
12:45–1:35 Elaine Lopez
🥪 1:40–2:20
2:25–3:15 Wei-hao Wang
3:20–4:10 Robert McConnell
4:15–5:05 Mo Nassem
5:10–6:00 Annaka Olsen

Eddie Opara was born in Wandsworth, London in 1972. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing and Yale University, where he received his MFA in 1997. He began his career as a designer at ATG and Imaginary Forces and worked as a senior designer/art director at 2×4 before establishing his own studio, The Map Office, in 2005. He joined Pentagram’s New York office as partner in 2010.

Visiting Designer Lectures are located at the Graduate Program building on 169 Weybosset Street and open to the public.

Advising period has begun. Registration for fall courses begins on May 7th. We are still adding courses to Student Planning, but we have a list of our intended offerings here on risd.gd and will update it with new information as it becomes available. Meet with your advisers now to plan the upcoming semester (and beyond). You may see Department policies on ISPs and 16+ credits at info.risd.gd