Leaving a Tiger Print: The Artist Behind RIT Dining's Food Truck

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That’s a wrap!

Molly Van Dyke graduated from RIT at the end of May with a major in graphic design and a minor in mathematics. Behind her, she leaves something she can take Tiger pride in — a project she led that will forever be part of the RIT footprint.

Molly is originally from Pennsylvania. She has always had a knack for design and art, but where does math come in? According to her, graphic design and math combine beautifully.

“Although they may seem like two very different subjects, I love being able to do work that combines these two ways of thinking to create unique and interesting work!” Molly said.

During her third year as a student at RIT, Molly joined the Auxiliary Services marketing team as a student designer. 

Molly was handed the opportunity to collectively work on designing the exterior wrap for RIT Dining’s first-ever food truck with other design students. It was a chance for her to execute a life-size project and a chance of a lifetime to see her creativity become a reality before graduating. 

“Throughout the last couple of years at RIT, I have been really excited to have the opportunity to create designs for RIT Auxiliary Services,” Molly said. “This was a dream come true, I could not wait to see it come to life.”

In her senior year, Molly worked alongside the other student designers and Auxiliary Services’ assistant director of creative, Shauna Cross, to create the livery wrap for what would eventually cover the exterior of RIT Dining’s very own food truck. Molly and the rest of the team began by brainstorming three concepts to base the wrap on: heart & soul, block party, and showstopper. Each concept was developed using one of Dining’s pillars that spoke to diversity, engagement, or curiosity. The next task was selecting a single concept to base the final design on, which after a number of discussions, became block party!

The idea behind the block party concept stems from the sense of community, colors, and most importantly, the experience of being part of the RIT community. According to the team’s design process, the block party concept is all about the celebration of where food, art, and humanity collide.

It was time to sketch. Molly and other members of the creative team came up with a series of livery designs that featured “block party” elements such as paint splatter, graffiti, bricks, and a mix of bright colors including the RIT orange, hot pink, and a nitrous blue.

In the end, the final design features a black-colored base, semi-transparent bricks on the bottom, the RIT Dining slogan “tigers gotta eat,” and lastly a graffitied outline of a tiger’s paw.

The food truck and its new livery made a sneak peak appearance during Imagine RIT 2023, but hosted its debut at TigerFest on the first day of classes this semester. The RIT Dining food truck serves a variety of gourmet burgers using a local blend of chuck, brisket, and sirloin beef. Every recipe was designed by our chefs — find the full menu on our RIT Dining food truck location page. Every burger can be made vegetarian. 

Molly continues on to the next chapter of her life, knowing that her work can be enjoyed by the campus community for years to come. She thanks her team and the effort they put in as a collective group to bring this project to life.

“I want to be clear that this was a team effort, and it wasn't just me that got this food truck design to where it is!”