Spring 2025 Designlife Magazine

Jun 10, 2025

Spring 2025 Designlife Magazine

The spring issue of Designlife magazine is here! Explore this issue for stories on the magazine’s new look and feel, the incredible work done by faculty, students and alumni and…

Maraffi instructs students on how to use the motion capture suit in front of the LED wall of the Virtual Production Lab.

Jun 10, 2025

At the Forefront: Making a Place in Virtual Production

A giant talking octopus in a lab nestled in the South American jungle. Actors and Hollywood filmmakers working to complete a Sci-Fi short over just four days. Off screen, technicians, camera operators and support staff create the immersive world displayed on the giant LED wall, using 3D printed props, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and generative AI. This is just another day in the Virtual Production Lab, where students and educators innovate and learn within this burgeoning field.

Jun 3, 2025

Meet the newest members of the College of Design Leaders Council for 2025

The College of Design is excited to welcome six new members to its Leaders Council. Established in 2010, the Leaders Council of the NC State College of Design is a select group of alumni and friends in design-related professions across the country.

May 9, 2025

Congratulations, Spring 2025 Graduates!

The College of Design is proud to celebrate the graduates of the spring 2025 class.

Apr 14, 2025

Thinking with the box: Maestro’s Theatre delivers a new experience for arcade gameplay

A marionette character controlled by ragdoll gameplay. A rotating game screen embracing the look and feel of vintage theater. Limited computer graphics and limited time. All of these came together via a student team with limitless creativity and a desire to problem-solve to create Maestro’s Theatre, an arcade game developed by MADTech students and displayed at Super Magfest.

Mar 13, 2025

Art2Wear pop-up gallery and live event at the Gregg Museum

This article was written by Kelsey Bohn and originally appeared in the Technician. See the original. The Gregg Museum of Art and Design opened a new Pop-Up Gallery Lounge entitled “Art2Wear: Through the Archives” Tuesday. The exhibition is in partnership with NC State’s Art2Wear club, which hosts an annual student-led showcase that displays a variety of innovative,…

Feb 17, 2025

College of Design Signs MOU with National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

The College of Design at NC State University has signed an MOU with the Faculty of Architecture of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma De México (UNAM) to promote academic and research activities between the two institutions and further affirm the value of international collaboration. Collaborations with UNAM will allow the college to extend its involvement in global issues related to urbanization and the environment and translate that knowledge into teaching and practice through the lens of a global framework.

Aug 15, 2024

“A remix of Pink Floyd, 2001 Space Odyssey and Akira” – Faculty member enters Pink Floyd animation competition

Marc Russo can distinctly remember one of his first introductions to Pink Floyd. He was sitting on the front steps of his friend’s house in 1980, listening to “The Wall”, and he was 11 years old. “It was like a battle cry,” he says. “I didn’t understand much more of the album, but I was connected to this song.” 44 years after that first encounter, Russo, alumnus and associate professor of media arts, design and technology, is connecting his love of Pink Floyd with his professional work in a different way – designing an animation as entry for a contest hosted by the band to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their release of “Dark Side of the Moon.”

Jul 30, 2024

A Love of Art and Technology

Roxanne Hicklin graduated with a BA in Fine Arts from Salem College. She spent her summers as a sketch artist at Carowinds, capturing quick likenesses of people on the sidewalk before their attention wandered, along with their feet. Following graduation, she was able to parlay that skill into working at Channel 5 News as a courtroom sketch artist, learning graphic arts and computer animation while there. Her ability to be adaptable and always learning on the job led her from Channel 5 to SAS, and finally landing as a volunteer and philanthropist at NC State, where she’s mentoring and nurturing a new generation of artists.

Jul 15, 2024

Designing a Path Through Mental Health: Wellness in the First Year Experience

Following several major grants awarded to the College of Design by the NC State University Foundation, the First Year Experience has blossomed into a program that integrates wellness and mental health awareness into an interdisciplinary design curriculum. The College of Design is a very close-knit community, and most of the first year involves practicing intellectual risk-taking through studio-based learning. The wellness-informed curriculum was created because the freshman experience in design bridges the vast threshold or transition between high school and college where students are expected to routinely fail and subsequently grow through trial and error.

Jun 5, 2024

MADTech Department Head Derek Ham accepts new position as director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center

MADTech Department Head Derek Ham, PhD, has accepted a new position as director of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) in Pittsburgh, PA, effective September 1.

The 2024 Student Art Sale, photo credit: Kyle Lewis

Jun 5, 2024

Student Art Sale Soars to New Heights; Largest Sale To Date

The 2024 Student Art Sale featured work from over 75 artists across 11 colleges at NC State, granting student artists of all disciplines an opportunity to be represented and share their art. The 2024 Visual Artist Winners are Sean Evans, a second year majoring in graphic and experience design, with the piece “Platinum” for the 2D category, Erin Emott, a graduate student in plant biology, with the piece “Skelly” for the 3D category and Jack E. McKissock, a first year in media arts and technology, with the piece “Sahbabii” for the digital category.

Aurora Henderson's collection, Psilocybin, brings human anatomy to life in oversized forms.

Apr 30, 2024

Be Transported to the Wild and Wacky Dimensions of Art2Wear 2024

On a balmy spring evening, in a packed house at Stewart Theater, students from the College of Design and across the university paraded their collections as part of Art2Wear 2024, pulling the audience into another dimension. With each collection, designers led us into their own worlds, from the depths of the ocean to wind-swept dunes, even traveling into outer space. The eight designers who showcased collections of four or more looks came from disciplines across the college, and their fields of study influenced their final looks.

Teaser image for The Student Publication, vol. 40

Mar 27, 2024

Artificial Apotheosis: The Student Publication, Volume 40

This year’s Student Publication, volume 40, explores the intersection of design and spirituality. Editor Steven Nohren dove headfirst into editing the publication as a design studies student, returning full-time after taking a sabbatical during the pandemic. Now, he’s attending talks on AI and approaching professionals to contribute to one of the college’s oldest print media.

Oct 13, 2023

Exploring Connection through Paper Form

This year’s First Year Experience Paper project was all about connection – the connections we make with others, with our surroundings, and with ourselves. First-year students in the College of Design were tasked with creating a wearable or inhabitable structure that examines how we related to one another. Pieces created by the students were meant to raise awareness of interpersonal relationships in new and nuance ways, and were primarily constructed using paper or fiber with minimal fasteners, adhesives or support.

Photos showcasing Art2Wear's 20+ year history

May 25, 2023

Art2Wear: A Tradition of Showcasing Wearable Art

Art2Wear — one of the largest student-run productions of its kind in the Southeast — has become a highly anticipated annual wearable art showcase. But the first one was a small, grassroots production. It started in a fibers and surface design studio in 2002, where Vita Plume — then an assistant professor of art + design, who retired as an associate professor in 2012 — taught textile techniques such as weaving, knitting and dyeing cloth.

May 10, 2023

College of Design Faculty win NC State Awards in Teaching and Research

Six College of Design faculty were recognized with awards from the Alumni Association, Graduate School, Libraries and Office of the Provost this spring.

Dare Coulter in front of book illustration

Feb 3, 2023

Joy and Pain

Artist Dare Coulter ’15 depicts both in a new picture book about the trauma of slavery.

Media Arts, Design and Technology: Launching Careers in Animation, Gaming, Interaction Design and Fiber Arts

Jan 25, 2023

Media Arts, Design and Technology Department Embraces Name Change to Highlight the Future of Design

The Art + Design Department in the NC State College of Design will now be known by a new name, the Department of Media Arts, Design and Technology, affectionately known as MADTech. “This name change reflects a shift in the future of our department towards the emerging trends in digital media production” says Department Head Derek Ham. “It aligns with our academic content, our faculty expertise, and focuses on the areas of the profession that use emerging technology for creative use.”

Sep 26, 2022

Students showcase work in ASIFA-Hollywood Educators Forum

In spring 2022 the Department of Art+Design launched a Senior Capstone Animation Studio. In the studio, students worked individually and in groups on a year-long project to complete an animated film. The films ranged in form from hybrid 3D animation to traditional 2D animation and in length from 4 to 7 minutes. The films were screened as part of the ASIFA Hollywood-sponsored 2022 Student Animation Showcase with other animation programs from around the country.

JMark Scearce composes music for Carolina Ballet

Sep 6, 2022

Designing for Dance

“Designing for dance is the ultimate act of design,” says Professor of Art + Design J. Mark Scearce, Ph.D. For the ballet’s 25th anniversary, four of Scearce’s ballets will be produced, giving design students a rare front row seat in the art of meeting client expectations.

Adrienne McKenzie entry for the Hand & Lock competition

Sep 20, 2021

Adrienne McKenzie’s finalist entry shown in London

drienne McKenzie was in the finalist round for the Hand & Lock exhibition of Fiberart International 2022. Presented by the Fiberarts Guild and recognized around the world as a benchmark documenting trends and innovations in the field, the goal of the exhibition is to include work rooted in traditional fiber materials, structure, processes and history, as well as art that explores unexpected relationships between fiber and other disciplines. Adrienne’s work will be displayed in the Bargehouse Oxo Tower in London.

Sep 2, 2021

Exploring Nature as a Resource in Virtual Reality

GGRAPH 2021 Groovy Graphics Assignment, “Photogrammetry for a Virtual Reality Nature Scene.” As part of their on-demand talk, the two discussed capturing nature using photogrammetry and building a virtual reality nature scene.

May 27, 2020

Berreth, Fitzgerald and Polyak to Present at Prestigious SIGGRAPH 2020

It all started with some wooden spools. Brooks Hall was being rewired for internet, and a faculty member stumbled across 20 wooden spools lying in the breezeway between two buildings.

May 20, 2020

Derek Ham Appointed Department Head of Art + Design

Associate Professor Derek Ham, Ph.D. has been appointed as the department head of Art + Design. Ham has been at the College of Design since […]

May 18, 2020

Animation Program Ranked in the Top 20 Nationally by Animation Career Review

The College of Design has again ranked in the top public schools in the nation for its animation program. #2 in North Carolina for Animation Schools […]

Feb 24, 2020

NC State Creatives: Darrien Bailey

Design is about telling great stories. Darrien is using his passion for history to bring people into those stories through graphic novels and exhibit design.

Christine Klocke