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

The RISD Design Guild is a student-run design studio based here on campus. Each year, our group designs posters, t-shirts, videos and more for events like Artist Ball, the Yearbook, New Student Orientation, Lawn Party, and many others.

We're looking for talented designers from all majors to join our group! You can get a sense of what we do through our website: risdguild.com

If you’re interested in applying to this paid position, send us an email at dguild@risd.edu before Saturday, April 27th.

Tomasz Bierkowski is a designer, trainer and researcher of visual communication at Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice. Specializes in publication, information and visual identity systems design. He publishes texts on typography and visual communication, author of the books O typografii [On Typography], Type for Solidarity and Typography for Humanists.

Find out why Hangul, the Korean alphabet, is considered to be one of the most elegant writing systems in the world. June Shin will lead a part-lecture, part-lettering workshop in the GD Commons. Open to anyone interested. Familiarity with Hangul not required. Love of form absolutely required. First come, first serve, as the space permits. Bring a roll of masking tape and some square-tip markers (plus any mark-making tools of your choice—ink, paint, brush, etc.—if you want).

The Graphic Design Department presents an incomplete historical survey of work created by African-American graphic designers from 1865–1999 curated by designer Jerome Harris. Located in GD Commons from April 11 until April 21 and roving various locations on campus.

Closing weekend party, Friday, April 19. More information on the @asnotfor Instagram. Generously supported by the RISD Office of Social Equity and Inclusion (SEI).