News
School of Design

Experiential learning opportunities and design and engineering classes laid the foundation for Ari McMahon '22 (industrial design), who is starting as a design engineer at Unger Enterprises after graduating.  

Aaron Gordon ’13, CEO of Optic Sky, an advertising and digital experience production company; Franklyn Athias ’85, CTO and senior vice president for Xfinity Mobile Retail Convergence; and Erin Sarofsky ’98, ’00 MFA, an award-winning creative visionary, discussed how the pandemic opened up the eyes of many industries to the future.

RIT's printmaking studio will be a hive of activity from May 15-21 for Artists Print!, a weeklong experience that concludes with an exhibition and auction of monoprints created in the workshop.

Accomplished alumni are returning to campus to discuss the future of technology, art, and design as part of the Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival on April 23. The Imagine RIT Futurists Symposium is from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Wegmans Theater, RIT MAGIC Center. It will also be available to watch as a livestream.

Nate Rohman, academic advisor for RIT's graphic design and studio arts BFA programs, will be honored April 12 at the Celebration of Teaching and Scholarship ceremony.

GMG Color recently donated one of its high-end color management software systems, ColorProof, to RIT. The system will be used as part of classroom instruction and research projects based in RIT’s Department of Graphic Media Sciences and Technology to better evaluate color quality prior to print production.

As many of his classmates spent spring break someplace warmer than Rochester, one RIT student stayed in town, donned a Batman costume, and provided food, water, and clothing to people in need.

An image of a 3D, futuristic, jack-in-the-box is the winning entry in this year’s Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival poster contest. The artist, Sarah Neff, a second-year new media design major from Waterbury, Vt., wins $500 in Tiger Bucks. More than 50 entries were submitted.

Drawn to RIT for its unique focus on technology, art, and design, Lindsay ’09 and Andy Mindler ’09 saw new media design as the perfect blend of 3D, motion, and code to fuel their diverse design interests. The couple started dating at RIT in 2007 and married in 2011. Since moving to the West Coast, they have carved out successful design careers, joining an ever-growing throng of new media and other RIT design alumni living and working in the Bay Area.

Industrial Design students and faculty, in collaboration with RIT Libraries, designed the Hexacart, a library-on-wheels that brings rich visual resources to the doorstep of College of Art and Design students, faculty and staff.

In virtually every art course and studio environment at RIT, technology is integral to the delivery of content and production of work, whether it’s an “ancient” technology like using a hammer and anvil to forge metal or a computer numerical control plasma table to cut metal forms.

RIT is contributing to Rochester’s revitalization efforts in a significant way, bringing a creative energy and economic development acumen translating into important arts, cultural, educational, and economic opportunities for the city.