{"id":24087,"date":"2023-06-23T10:52:29","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T14:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/industrial-design\/2023\/06\/23\/back-to-the-pack-luna-vanaman\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T01:42:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T05:42:59","slug":"back-to-the-pack-luna-vanaman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/industrial-design\/2023\/06\/23\/back-to-the-pack-luna-vanaman\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Pack: Luna Vanaman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luna Vanaman earned her Bachelor of Industrial Design from the College of Design in 2000, and currently works as the lead interactive media producer for NC State University’s Communications Office (UComm).<\/em> She shared her story from her time as a student to her time with NC State as a professional as part of our new series, Back to the Pack.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What brought you to study at the College of Design? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had a non-traditional path into the College of Design. I was not the best high school student and as such, the usual pathways into college were not available to me, so I just worked out in the world for a bit mostly in retail settings like Whole Foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was actually doing a stint in a Whole Foods in Berkeley, California when an ad for the Design School was brought to my attention.\u00a0I had a lot of learning differences and realized that a program that is much more hands-on and project-based might\u00a0be a good fit, so I went for it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, the college’s emphasis on admissions was on portfolio review. I had never explored any artistic pursuits. I had nothing prepared and spent a month scrapping together a book that told a narrative using all kinds of media that I just dove into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While doing this, I also toured the college and immediately fell in love with the vibe of individual creativity being celebrated. I fell in love with the personalized loft desks and walls plastered with raw ideation sketches and explorations and teachers that were giving lectures on human figure drawing at the muscular level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was my place and fortunately, the high-concept portfolio caught their attention and I was admitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pages from Luna’s portfolio that led to her admittance into the College of Design. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who were the people at the college that made the most significant impact on your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are almost too many to name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Pause for really honing in on the kinds of fundamentals students needed. Tim Buie and Pat FitzGerald for teaching me the foundational aspects and key points of animation and storytelling that I still lean into today with my job.\u00a0Bryan Laffitte for absolutely boggling my senses while watching him freehand draw with pencil and marker a fully-rendered, beautiful lunar lander. With no rulers and no guides, he created a drawing as good as any computer can do and just as fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Susan Toplikar taught me to see better and took my drawing from zero to a million in a semester. I came away from Dana Raymond’s sculpture classes with a much deeper appreciation of patience and craft and care in everything I make, as well as a philosophy I still carry with me and repeat to anyone I can.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long time, I wanted to be a teacher. So one day after class, I asked Dana what I needed to do in order to be a teacher. He said, “Listen, don’t come to school to teach. Come to school to learn and then you will have something to teach.” It’s one of my more impactful memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last but not least, Vince Foote, who looked at my second-year industrial design review portfolio. I asked him, “What do you think?” He replied, “I think you are in the wrong major.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You were right Vince. You were right.\u00a0I got a minor in media and animation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you could pick one lesson or skill that you took away from your time as a student that still holds true today, what would it be and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I took away from my time in the College of Design that still guides me every day is the ability to observe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design thinking is critical thinking and you can certainly apply that to every aspect of your life, but learning to see and always being in tune with the observer’s eye is a skill I really relish most of all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What kind of work or projects do you do in your current position?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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