"Where's data, where's inspiration, and how do those things square up?" asks Matt Hansen (B.F.A., computer art, 2000). "These are vectors into a decision-making process."
 
Hansen, co-founder, COO, and Executive Producer of Mountaintop Studios, knows about vectors and decisions. He has thrived for more than two decades in video game development, from his early days as a quality assurance tester to his leading role at of one of the industry's most anticipated studios.
 
At Mountaintop, Hansen leads a fully-remote workforce of 90-plus people to create a game with a budget exceeding $65 million. (Mountaintop CEO Nate Mitchell describes the game as "an exciting PvP tactical shooter with a focus on competition and community.") The still-unnamed game, over three years in the making, will be big. Equally impressive is Hansen's approach to getting it done.
 
"When we started Mountaintop, I was working in-engine on the game every day, standing up the initial prototype with about six team members, deep in the details, though at this point I have hired people who are better and smarter than I am," Hansen explains. "My greatest skill is recruiting phenomenally talented and passionate developers. I have had the opportunity to build-out game teams for various studios throughout my career. Those experiences help me identify exceptional talent who excel at creative collaboration, which is the core of any great game development studio."
 
SCADpro Fund managing director Ray Crowell has worked with Hansen to develop a professional relationship, and the SCADpro Fund now is backing Mountaintop. "Matt is quietly courageous and has no vanity need," Crowell says. "He knows the importance of bringing on great people and hearing what they think about what they're doing. To describe Matt's leadership style in a single word, I would say thoughtful. It's why Mountaintop has the potential to be so impactful."
 
In February, Mountaintop made Forbes headlines with the announcement of a new round of financing, including investments from Anthos Capital, RX3 Growth Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Abstract, vgames, BoxGroup, and Spark Capital. (This round also included angel investors shroud, tarik, iiTzTimmy, Zedd, CohhCarnage, Sacriel, and Paul George.) Getting these marquee names on board was, Hansen says, "a balance between demonstrating our team's passion for evolving the tactical shooter genre and supporting our business hypothesis with data."
 
"Traditionally, video games have come from a Field of Dreams approach," Matt continues. "That can work, but VCs can't make decisions based completely on your gut feeling, especially when there's so much money at stake. The teams who ultimately get funded are the ones who use data and market analysis to understand the needs of their target audience, and combine that with inspiration to deliver a fresh experience to satisfy those needs."

Art from Mountaintop Studio's forthcoming debut game.

There is another side to the Matt Hansen story, one detailed in the 2016 documentary series Double Fine Adventure: Sidequests. In it, the Jacksonville, Florida native speaks about how the sudden tragic death of his older brother Andrew — his biggest supporter — prompted him to leave a major state university and pursue his dream at SCAD.
 
"I heard my brother's voice in my head, saying, ‘You have one chance at this, don't you want to work in video games?' It was one of the last things he said to me before the fatal car accident that occurred while we were headed to my first day of college."
 
After graduating from SCAD, Matt swung from the bottom rung to become one of the founding members of EA Mobile in 2004, quickly "finding the fun in simple game loops with small development teams and short schedules." Next, he joined Telltale games to work on the Monkey Island series, the same series he and his brother bonded over when they were kids. He concluded his time at Telltale collaborating with Graham Annable, co-director of Boxtrolls at Laika Studios, on the beloved game Puzzle Agent. In 2010, Hansen joined Double Fine, a studio founded by gaming industry legend Tim Schafer. Over his six years at Double Fine, Matt went from being a producer on multiple games to running all the development and operations for the studio.
 
He was "living the dream" when he accepted an exhortation from Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell to join Oculus as the Executive Producer for the Rift team. Together they worked on the product launches for the Rift S, Quest, and Quest 2 VR programs.
 
In 2020, Hansen and Mitchell took their shared passion for traditional games and first-person shooters and exited the Metaverse to found Mountaintop Studios. "Starting the company as fully remote from day one has helped us to cultivate a remote-first team culture. It also allowed us to attract key industry leaders from various AAA shooter companies who were looking to break free from the traditional AAA development structure."
 
"Over the last four years, we have been fortunate to hire top-tier people from all over the world," Hansen says. This includes, at last count, seven SCAD alumni at Mountaintop. "It's never been like, Oh, they're from SCAD, let's hire them. It's always been, Oh, they're really good, let's hire them."

The Mountaintop team enjoy a day out.

Hansen's SCAD experience remains foundational. Looking back, he says, "My roommates at SCAD really pushed each other to strive for greatness. The one who inspired me the most was Hai Phan. He showed me how hard you must work to even have a chance at success in games."
 
Phan (B.F.A., computer art, 2003) is something of a game art legend for his character work on Overwatch, Rift, and Guild Wars. Currently a director at Riot Games, he knows Hansen as only a longtime friend can. "When we were graduating from SCAD, I didn't know what Matt would do. He started in QA and became a producer and worked his way to where he is now. Matt's nature is to be very curious. He has interactions with different people and relates to all of them with a heightened group awareness. He is the glue for a lot of individuals who probably would not have found each other otherwise."
 
Part of what makes Matt a respected leader is knowing how to roll up his sleeves and do the work. "I think one of my biggest strengths is having a holistic view of the entire development process by being very hands-on," Hansen says. "During my time in game development, I have worked as a Designer, Engineer, 3D Artist, Producer, Animator, and Technical Artist on dozens of projects. I am a solid contributor with most disciplines, and those experiences have helped me to understand the challenges of each of those roles, the right way of doing things, and what excellence looks like."
 
SCAD visual effects professor emeritus Malcolm Kesson remembers teaching programming to Hansen. "I recall how hard Matt worked in mastering the fundamental principles of 3D computer graphics," says Kesson. "We did pretty crazy things back in the early 2000s, like rendering intricate 3D models using only a text editor to communicate directly with Pixar's render engine. Matt took to writing descriptions of 3D scenes using RIB files and writing plugins using RenderMan's Shading Language like a duck to water. He was always professional in his approach."
 
"What I studied in Malcolm Kesson's RenderMan class is still very relevant," says Matt, "especially with real-time graphics for games relying on shader techniques that were only applicable for feature films in the early 2000s. I've been ahead of the game all along because of what I learned at SCAD twenty years ago. Having a great group of friends who were willing to challenge me was essential. It's like 2024 was what I was training for all along."
 
The coming months will be major for Mountaintop. Hansen will lead the team into a new phase. He'll do it the right way, foregrounding talented colleagues. Matt smiles.
 
"I love to be there to cheer people on."

Connect with Matt Hansen.

On an upper tier of the SCAD Student Center, six members of the eSports Overwatch team sit at their computer battle stations. An undefeated season is on the line, Keiser University is the opponent, and "Rayner" is ready to roll.
 
Watching Rayne Beckman (B.F.A. sound design) play Overwatch — his hands fluttering across keyboard and mouse in a blaze of virtuosity — is like witnessing Eddie Van Halen perform "Eruption." For the casual observer, the frenetic multiplayer video game is overwhelming, as on-screen avatars dash through an outdoor bazaar amidst copious explosions. "Well played Terry — sick link!" Beckman shouts to a teammate via his headset.
 
"I've got to give it up for Rayner, he's hitting a lot of shots," remarks the Twitch commentator on the live stream.

Rayne is in the zone.
 
After wrapping up a commanding win — and en route to securing the Sun Conference Championship — the bantering SCAD team heads towards the door. Beckman hangs back to talk.
 
"In Overwatch, we're working together to achieve a goal," he says. "One of the strengths of the game is the diversity of the characters. Each character has their own complexities. You have to know how to play each composition and how to play your hero in the composition optimally."
 

Beckman as a sophomore with the Eastern College Athletic Conference trophy.

When Beckman arrived at SCAD in 2020, he played his way onto the Overwatch team. Now a senior known as "Rayner," he has been intrinsic to the growth of competitive eSports at SCAD.
 
"Rayne is always ready to do what he can to benefit the program proactively," says SCAD eSports Director Ross Adams. "He helps find scrim partners, gives feedback on sessions, take notes for himself on how to improve and puts in the work within the game. I've asked him to play different roles within Overwatch, from support to DPS, and he remains flexible and enthusiastic."
 
The crux of Beckman's SCAD experience may be the crossover between eSports and his studies as a sound design major. In a quest to learn more programming for sound design for video games, Beckman enrolled last quarter in Core Principles: Game Tech (ITGM 266), taught by interactive design and game development professor Walter Woods.
 
"As a student, Rayne exemplifies the most important skill a creative professional can cultivate, which is resourcefulness," says Woods. "He takes on the challenge of bridging disciplines with a strong commitment to problem solving and critical thinking. It can sometimes seem overwhelming facing the complexity of balancing design, technical, and artistic concerns. Rayne just gets excited and gets to work."
 
Sound design professor Jamie Baker, who taught Beckman in Foley Production Technique (SNDS 322), uses one word for her student: "Dedicated."
 

Rayne Beckman, big hitter: SCADpro x PGA Tour.

In spring 2023, he was part of a group hand-selected for a SCADpro project for the PGA Tour, developing concepts to elevate brand awareness and presenting at PGA Tour headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. That led to Rayne, a golf enthusiast, working in summer 2023 to deliver post-production sound design to drive user engagement with the PGA.
 
A native of Houston, Texas, Beckman attended the prestigious Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts ("Yes, it's the Beyonce school!") where his passion for sound design began. He came to SCAD in part because "I liked that SCAD has a multi-channel room and offers a modular synth class." As he nears graduation, Rayne is weighing professional options including working in game audio and mixing for film. He praises a recent guest lecture delivered by industry pro Myron Nettinga (Kill Bill; Blue Eyed Samurai) at the invitation of sound design chair Mitchell Gettleman. "It inspired me to think more about pursuing rerecording mixing, the final stage in the moviemaking/sound design process, where the mixer takes all the audio and processes it."

For now, Beckman basks in the moment, messaging his Overwatch teammates via Discord ("Really proud of the work tonight!") and inviting them to play kickball in Forsyth Park.
 
"For me, it's the combination of sound design and eSports that has made SCAD so special," he says. "I love it."

Connect with Rayne Beckman on LinkedIn.

Beckman portrait photo: Max Fallenius (B.F.A. advertising)

Golf course photo: Samuel Murray (B.F.A. photography)

SCAD presents Manish Arora: Life Is Beautiful at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film in Atlanta. Life Is Beautiful is Arora's first museum exhibition and presents more than 100 bold creations from his runway collections, exclusive collaborations, and looks worn by an international cadre of celebrity clients from Bollywood to Hollywood. The exhibition, curated by SCAD FASH creative director Rafael Gomes, opened Wednesday, March 27 with SCAD students and the global press in attendance.

Life Is Beautiful showcases the exquisite garments that have earned Arora international acclaim as one of India's greatest design talents. The works on view display his signature aesthetic fusing techniques of Indian craftsmanship, such as hand-embroidery, beading, and appliqué, with Western styles and eclectic motifs in an explosion of color. An immersion in Arora's kaleidoscopic world, Life Is Beautiful features looks worn by loyal clients and admirers such as Priyanka Chopra, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Kate Moss, Aishwarya Rai, M.I.A., Katy Perry, and more.

"Manish Arora has been famously called the ‘John Galliano of India,' and while the two share a profound gift for satire and the spectacular, Arora stands on his own in every conceivable way," said SCAD President Paula Wallace. "His oeuvre finds the perfect home in SCAD FASH, where fans of fashion and film luxuriate in an exhibition nonpareil, full of joy and celebration. India's greatest designer ascends triumphant in the greatest fashion museum in the U.S.!"

Arora established his namesake label in 1997 after graduating from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in New Delhi. His vivid collections and fanciful designs earned immediate international attention. In 2007, Arora was invited to show at Paris Fashion Week, becoming the first Indian designer to receive this honor. He was recognized as a member of the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Model and has since presented at Fashion Weeks in London, Hong Kong, and Miami. Arora served as creative director for Paco Rabbane, and throughout his career he has designed exclusive collaborations with the world's leading brands including Swarovski, Reebok, Swatch, Disney, Paris Saint-Germain F.C., MAC, and Nespresso.

"I consider myself an artist, and Life Is Beautiful invites students and viewers of all ages into my magical fantasy world bursting with color, happiness, joy, and love," Arora said. "It is a dream come true to see my creations in the first museum exhibition dedicated to my work and to be the first Indian designer featured at SCAD FASH. I am honored to inspire the next generations of artists at SCAD and grateful to Paula Wallace and Rafael Gomes for the university's vision and dedication to championing the beauty of diverse and global cultures."

Rafael Gomes, curator and creative director of SCAD FASH, explained how the exhibition has honed a legacy of exhibitions embracing diverse cultures and design practices: "Manish Arora is a storyteller, and his collections narrate India's rich sartorial history with a worldly point of view infused with joy and humor. We are delighted to celebrate and present his vibrant and imaginative world to SCAD's international students and community."

SCAD FASH hosted an exclusive opening reception featuring a conversation with Arora on his incredible career. SCAD students from many of the university's top-ranked degree programs — including fashion, accessory design, luxury and brand management, photography, and illustration — engaged with the designer directly. SCAD is the preeminent university for art and design, with an international student body representing more than 120 countries. SCAD fashion graduates will also take on the SCAD Alumni x Manish Arora Design Challenge, envisioned by SCAD President Paula Wallace. Alumni designers will create one-of-a-kind garments that express the beauty of life. The winner, selected by Arora, will be awarded an honorarium for creativity and design innovation.

Manish Arora: Life Is Beautiful is on view at SCAD FASH Atlanta through Aug. 18, 2024.

Arora photo: Colin Douglas Gray / / Banner image: Tarun Khiwal

"Savannah is special," says Ellie Isaacs (B.F.A., historic preservation, 2014) as she settles in at a chic coffeeshop on the former site of a dry cleaners on Whitaker Street. "It's absolutely changed in the ten years since I graduated. There's been a lot of development, changes in the landscape, more hotels, and successful projects like Plant Riverside that have revitalized downtown and River Street."

Meeting Isaacs at a repurposed location feels appropriate. She is the new Director of Preservation and Historic Properties at the Historic Savannah Foundation (HSF), the nonprofit cultural institution dedicated, per its mission statement, to "saving the buildings, places and stories that define Savannah's past, present and future." As HSF CEO and President Sue Adler said of Isaacs: "Her passion, expertise and leadership will usher in a new era of historic preservation here in Savannah."

Call it the Ellie era. A SCAD-bred superstar, Isaacs earned minors in architectural history and interior design and was the only undergraduate presenter at the National Trust for Historic Preservation's PastForward conference in 2014. After graduation, she worked for an architecture firm in Hot Springs, Arkansas before returning to Savannah, where she joined Lominack Kolman Smith Architects as historic preservation specialist, and more recently served as Chair of the Savannah Historic District Board of Review and as a member of HSF's Architectural Review Committee.

"Ellie's bona fides go a long way to ensuring the integrity of Savannah as a historic city with evolving civic obligations," says SCAD professor of architecture and Savannah Tourism Advisory Council member Ryan Madson.

In 2023, Isaacs was invited by preservation design professor Sabrinna Cox to mentor SCAD students, conducting class critiques and giving personalized feedback on projects.

"Ellie showed our students that it is possible to create your own path in the preservation field, and to influence how the field is defined," says Cox. "Our students were able to see how the strength of her commitment at the local level can help set preservation trends statewide and even nationally, which will be an added dividend of her new role at HSF."

As an alumni mentor, Isaacs spoke to students about the realities of working in preservation, which are not always "bright and fuzzy," she says. "Sometimes things you plan don't happen and you lose buildings, or people don't have funds and projects have to be done in phases."

Pragmatic idealism suits her new position. Isaacs is responsible for overseeing HSF initiatives including the Preservation Easement Program and Revolving Fund, purchasing historic properties and selling them on to preservation-minded buyers. She will also work in partnership with the City of Savannah, Chatham County government, and neighborhood associations to save and adaptively use historic buildings.

"Preservation is multi-faceted, which for a long time has not been fully understood," Isaacs says, mentioning the new HSF advocacy strategy to better engage Savannahians on social media. "Preservation is about more than a building or a place, it's about the people who lived there, it's about equity in housing, and a focus on underrepresented stories."

Isaacs orders her coffee to-go, since her afternoon will continue with meetings back at the HSF headquarters on Columbia Square. She notes that the nonprofit organization, which was founded in 1955, has achieved a historic symmetry in 2024. "Historic Savannah Foundation was started by seven women who saved the Davenport House, and in 2024 we now have seven women managing both HSF and the Davenport House."

As the new Director of Preservation and Historic Properties says: "Every building has a story and every building has a soul!"

Connect with Ellie Isaacs.

SCAD is proud to share the transformative effect on local neighborhood communities through the university's unique SCAD SERVE Paint Our Parks public art initiative. Since launching in 2021, SCAD SERVE Paint Our Parks has beautified and enlivened sixteen basketball courts and play spaces in the university's hometowns of Savannah and Atlanta by creating larger-than-life murals conceptualized by an elite roster of talented SCAD alumni artists.

Envisioned by SCAD President Paula Wallace, SCAD SERVE is a university initiative that brings together the SCAD community to address neighborhood needs, listen to local leaders, and create meaningful design solutions that improve quality of life. As part of SCAD SERVE, Paint Our Parks serves the citizens of Atlanta and Savannah through the university's vast network of supremely talented students and alumni to revitalize shared recreational spaces with vibrant and scenic murals.

In the collaborative spirit of SCAD's ethos, each Paint Our Parks mural project is led by a SCAD SERVE Alumni Artist to conceptualize a unifying mural design for each neighborhood. These murals are unique works of art for each local community, with defining colors, symbols, iconography, and meaning to each location's sense of place. SCAD SERVE Alumni Ambassadors oversee teams of volunteers composed of SCAD students, faculty, community advocates, and local citizens to fully realize these murals and bring these vibrant works to life.

"Our parks are where we find our best selves, and SCAD SERVE's Paint Our Parks public art initiative, invites our neighbors and friends to enjoy the work of accomplished SCAD artists," said President Paula Wallace. "SCAD SERVE Alumni Ambassador artists — whose murals enliven streetscapes worldwide — lead each Paint Our Parks public art initiative to realize shared visions of positivity, wellness, and joy, and uplift neighborhoods from Atlanta to Savannah."

Through this Paint Our Parks initiative, the university has made a significant investment to revitalize play spaces in Atlanta and Savannah. To date, SCAD's financial contributions for Paint Our Parks totals over $667,000 which include restoration of park surfaces, new top-of-the-line basketball goals and nets, and painting materials. Paint Our Parks has engaged over 2,000 volunteers from the SCAD community and local neighborhoods and utilized over 2,000 gallons of paint to realize these larger-than-life works of art. Over the past 18 months, SCAD has worked with local partners including Atlanta Department of Parks and Recreation, City of Atlanta Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, Atlanta Public Schools, City of Savannah, Savannah Chatham County Public School System, Savannah Jewish Educational Alliance, and Greenbriar Children's Center.

"Employing the creative skills I gained while at SCAD to positively impact a community has been so deeply rewarding," said SCAD SERVE Alumni Ambassador Alexandria Hall (B.F.A., illustration, 2019). "Providing a space for the community to thrive, grow, and experience joy is the best aspect of being a muralist. From the design creation process, working with the amazingly talented volunteers, to witnessing the finished courts come to life, it has been a blessing and an honor to work on this project with everyone involved at SCAD SERVE."

SCAD plans to continue this legacy initiative throughout 2024 in both Savannah and Atlanta with park restoration and mural plans for Cook Park in Atlanta, and Heard Elementary, DeRenne Middle School, and Southwest Elementary School in Savannah.

"SCAD has given our students and our community the most amazing gift - a gift that combines art, joy, and play," said Coastal Middle School principal Allison Schuster-Jones. "The SCAD SERVE Paint Our Parks team transformed what was an eyesore of an outdoor space into a work of art. Our Parent Teacher Student Association has been working to beautify the space for years, but SCAD swept in and worked their magic as only they can. Our students, families, and community will enjoy this amazing spot for years to come. Thank you, SCAD!"

For more information, please visit: scad.edu/scadserve.

SCAD TVfest returns to Atlanta Feb. 7-10, 2024, with an opening night gala screening of the new season of Max original drama series Tokyo Vice. The university's signature event celebrating the best in television and streaming will take place at the new, state-of-the art SCADshow theater on Spring Street in Midtown Atlanta. The 12th year of SCAD TVFest promises to be the best.

"All eyes in the TV universe look to SCAD for hiring students and alumni as well as using SCAD's phenomenal stages for professional productions," said SCAD president Paula Wallace. "Buzz for SCAD TVfest is at a fever pitch this year, with both the expansion of the university's top-ranked B.F.A. in acting and our elite SCAD Casting Office to SCAD Atlanta. SCAD TVfest guests will also get to experience screenings in our pristine new theater, SCADshow, ensconced within the magnificent new FORTY FIVE, a five-star resort for SCAD Bees in the heart of Midtown. This year's SCAD TVfest shines bright — just like the Bees who already lend their luster to the best shows on television!"

This year's stellar list of SCAD TVfest honorees include Matt Bomer (Fellow Travelers), who will receive The Hollywood Reporter's Trailblazer Award; Joel Kim Booster (Loot), who will receive the Rising Star Award; Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), who will receive the Legend of Television Award; George Lopez (Lopez vs. Lopez), who will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award; Sonequa Martin-Green (Star Trek: Discovery), who will receive the Spotlight Award; Charlotte Stoudt (The Morning Show), who will receive the Variety Showrunner Award; Josie Totah (The Buccaneers), who will receive the Rising Star Award; and Ken Watanabe (Tokyo Vice), who will receive the Virtuoso Award.

Honorees are scheduled to attend screenings and participate in conversations highlighting their performances and illustrious careers. SCAD will present two SCAD45 Awards recognizing graduates who give all of themselves to their creative careers: to casting professional Deanna Greif (M.F.A., performing arts, 2015) and sound editor Filipe Messeder (B.F.A., sound design, 2016).

"It is always a pleasure to celebrate the best in television at SCAD TVfest in Atlanta," said Christina Routhier, senior executive director of SCAD theaters and festivals. "From our terrific honorees, including iconic actors Kelsey Grammer, George Lopez, and Ken Watanabe, to our shows and panels lineup featuring some of the most buzzed-about shows like The Gilded Age and The Morning Show, we can't wait to give Atlantans and our phenomenal SCAD students a full slate of exciting programming."

The Opening Night Gala screening is the US season two premiere of the Max Original drama series Tokyo Vice. Expected to attend are actors and executive producers Ansel Elgort and Ken Watanabe; actor Rachel Keller; creator, writer and executive producer J.T. Rogers; and executive producer and director Alan Poul. In addition, the SCAD TVfest will showcase dynamic programs from 20th Television, Apple TV+, BET, Cartoon Network, Hallmark, HBO, Hulu, Max, National Geographic, NBC, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock, Prime Video, Showtime, Sony Pictures TV, STARZ, Syfy, Universal Studio Group, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Bros. Television, and more. Entertainment Weekly (EW) returns for the seventh year as a media partner curating panels and creating exclusive interview content at their photo and video studio.

Visit scadtvfest.com for a full event schedule.

"If we don't have experimentation, we don't have a way to learn," says Shalom Volchok (B.F.A., graphic design, 2001). "If user metrics don't improve, it doesn't matter what we think of the design."

Make no mistake: Volchok is a lover of beautiful design. As CEO of optimization platform Outsmartly, he is devoted to building technology that drives conversion. His essential question: "How do we push ecommerce further?"

Volchok founded Outsmartly with CFO Emily Adler in 2020, their tagline promising "50x growth potential for Shopify stores at 100x less cost." For online merchants who use Shopify, Outsmartly has become an indispensable tool to help grow, manage, and scale up a business. (Shopify itself has praised Outsmartly's role in the ten-million-sold success of the portable BlendJet blender. That's beaucoup smoothies.)

"Shalom has a pedigree that is different than most," says Ray Crowell, managing director of the SCADpro Fund, the university's alumni start-up investment arm. "His ability to optimize performance for other companies demonstrates the business-model relevancy of Outsmartly. His focus and self-awareness make him an ideal mentor for SCAD students."

Outsmartly CEO Shalom Volchok.

The "many years" of tech-building that Volchok mentions are real. After graduating from SCAD in 2001, he revolutionized his parents' direct-to-consumer company Blessed Herbs, designing all its packaging and marketing, creating an ecommerce strategy, and turning it into an online sales juggernaut. The keys were analytics and A-B testing, two approaches he is refining towards perfection with Outsmartly.

"When a consumer comes to an ecommerce website, that site needs creativity, it needs beauty, it needs design, it needs function, and all that needs to serve a purpose," he says. "By pulling data together, we can manage the levers that are going to drive profitability and the growth of the business."

Volchok excels at explaining business concepts according to his audience. It's hard to imagine anyone more enthusiastically unpacking the challenges of integrating on-site advertising and inventory management. "Paid advertising is probably one of the things that's nearest and dearest to me," he says with a grin.

His appearances on Cloudflare TV and JAMstack go neck-deep in tech-speak, yet they reveal an essential truth: Shalom is an excellent communicator. As he says, "If we don't talk, nothing moves."

Shalom attributes his commitment to effective communication in part to his "intensely isolated" home-schooled childhood. He says he lacked proper peer socialization until arriving at SCAD, where he remembers being "hypercompetitive" and finding success as a member of the SCAD men's golf team. (Volchok was a nationally rated player under Coach Fred Fruisen.)

In turn, communication is the key to Shalom managing his own workforce. "The best people want to do what needs to be done and do it right. The challenge is, how do you get those things to happen together, where it provides a lot of value to the individual, and significant value to the company?"

Backed by SCADpro Fund, Volchok will return as a mentor this year at SCAD. "I love SCAD," he says. "Savannah remains dear to my heart." And for many fully optimized years to come.

   Connect with Shalom Volchok.

Julian Robaire (B.F.A., fashion, 2013), assistant head of the tailoring workshop in CHANEL's haute couture division, has worked for some of the biggest names in fashion since graduating from SCAD a decade ago. His preternatural gift for draping and design leading to commissions for everyone from Catherine Deneuve to Kirsten Dunst. Like so many SCAD alumni, Julian comes back to campus often to share his wit and wisdom with our students. I was honored to sit with him recently for an all-around delightful conversation about his career and the made-to-measure magic of couture.

President Paula S. Wallace: Julian, SCAD is so proud of you! Tell us about your first steps toward SCAD and your rockstar career in luxury fashion.

Julian Robaire: I was always interested in luxury. My great-aunt spent her whole career working for Hermès, and I remember, as a young child, always seeing her wearing Hermès shoes and scarves, even at home! She helped me discover luxury fashion and why it's so important. With SCAD's reputation in fashion, I knew where I wanted to study— and SCAD is where I fell in love with draping. After graduation, I moved to Paris to attend L'Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, and then I went on to work at Christian Dior and John Galliano before moving on to Jean Paul Gaultier and CELINE, and now CHANEL.

PSW: Right to the top! Of course, you were no stranger to Paris, growing up in a Francophile household.

JR: I have grandparents from North Africa, and I've always had French influences around me. My parents took me to meet family in France for the first time when I was eight years old, and I fell in love with Paris—the most magical, most beautiful, most amazing city. It was the luxury so specific to Paris, I think, that made me want to move there after SCAD.

PSW: If I recall, you got your start at Christian Dior after a conversation with someone at a café?

JR: SCAD always taught me to have my business card with me and a killer portfolio ready because you never know who you might meet, whether you're sitting next to them on the Metro or introduced in a restaurant. I started talking to a guy at a café who turned out to be the technical director at Dior ready-to-wear. The number two person there! I gave him my business card, and he said, "Well, show me your work!" I pulled up my website with my SCAD portfolio on my phone. The class critiques at SCAD taught me how to discuss my work with an intelligent vocabulary, and I explained to him what I wanted to do in my career. Two weeks later, I had an interview and was hired on the spot.

PSW: Preparation meets opportunity. Since you mention critiques—your interview process with Jean Paul Gaultier was quite a different process than at Dior. What was that like?

JR: My first meeting at Gaultier was also an interview, but from there, it got interesting. My second interview was with JPG himself, who challenged me to create a garment in the aesthetic of the house of Gaultier that still stayed true to my design philosophy. A week later, I presented to him a half-draped, half-structured, tailored bustier jacket. He loved it and asked for a few alterations and adjustments. Over four weeks, each time we met, Mr. Gaultier reviewed my work and suggested more changes. This is precisely what SCAD prepared me for—learning to listen to what a client wants. Anything I created would have Mr. Gaultier's name on the label, so that interview process was about demonstrating I could adapt my ideas for his brand. Ultimately, he said oui and I was hired.

PSW: After proving yourself indispensable in haute couture for years, CHANEL came calling.

JR: CHANEL found its way to me, yes. I had three different people reach out to me within a three-month span: a recruiter, a freelance headhunter, and someone from within CHANEL. There were several serendipitous circumstances that accumulated to one outcome. I'm extremely happy to have found a home with CHANEL.

PSW: Okay, so let's back up a second. How exactly did you find out about SCAD?

JR: My high school English teacher had a SCAD poster in her classroom, and I started researching. I knew I wanted to study fashion, but SCAD wasn't just a fashion school: it had the most well-rounded education on the market, with foundations classes in sketching and 3D design and opportunities for collaboration across majors.

PSW: Accessory design, fibers and textiles design, filmmaking, we have it all.

JR: Plus, SCAD understands that all design is also business, so every class not only teaches you craft but also how to market and innovate within the industry. I wanted that knowledge.

PSW: Do you remember a favorite collab with your SCAD classmates?

JR: I worked with students from film, graphic design, and sound design on a fashion film featuring my work. It wasn't even for a class—we just loved working together and wanted to create something beautiful for our portfolios! The project really gave life to everything we had learned during our years at SCAD.

PSW: Which SCAD classes set you up most for the success you have today?

JR: I'm always going back to the principles I learned in foundations. I'm not a designer: I work after the designer sketches. I drape fabric on the mannequin and develop the garment's proportions and lines, the movement, the volumes. My foundations and structural design background set me up to look at sketches from a different perspective and really bring them to life.

PSW: I'm so honored that you come back to SCAD to share your experiences! A few years ago, you spoke at the launch of SCADamp, our in-house studio that teaches the fine art of communicating your work to any audience.

JR: SCAD is always ahead of its time. Recently, someone I know professionally asked what I was proud of having done in the last couple of years, and I brought up my keynote talk to SCAD faculty—that was really a big deal for me. I mean, that's a lot of people for me to speak in front of, and they all are experts in their fields! Having been trained to tell my story like that by SCADamp was such a rewarding experience. That type of coaching is something other universities don't give their students and alumni.

PSW: What does a normal workday at CHANEL look like for you?

JR: There really isn't a typical workday in my world! When we're developing a collection, I work with the fabric manager to choose all the ornaments and notions we need to make a garment. I'm also draping garments and taking them down to the studio for model fittings. Some days, clients come to view the collection and order pieces. I'll take their measurements, since haute couture is made-to-measure, before creating a mannequin that fits the client's proportions. There, I'll drape the garment before the workshop prepares the pieces for subsequent fittings. My work really depends on what part of the season we're in.

PSW: Your work involves fine hand tailoring—truly an ancient craft.

JR: My work is very traditional—the same traditions have existed since the time of Coco Chanel and Christian Dior. We still drape simple cotton fabric on a mannequin to make patterns. When I take measurements, I notice body structure and how garments will drape because the life drawing and anatomy classes at SCAD developed my ability to visually analyze the morphology of a client's body. A measurement of a hundred centimeters doesn't tell the whole story. The client can be more developed on one side of the body or have one shoulder lower than the other. No single body is perfectly symmetrical. You can have a hundred centimeters a billion different ways. Those morphological details are really specific, which is why we create every pattern by hand.

PSW: That's what's so special about haute couture—no two pieces are ever the same. Can you remind readers what defines haute couture?

JR: The term haute couture is actually protected by French law—there are only sixteen official haute couture houses in the world. It's not a designation taken lightly. When it comes down to it, haute couture is high fashion made to measure and made to order by an atelier. There are no sizes. We create patterns and garments to perfectly fit the models who walk down the catwalk. Everything is precise, because each piece is completely custom to each client.

PSW: What inspires you most in your work?

JR: I've always been drawn to the post-war liberation of female silhouettes—that point in time really fascinates me. During the Second World War, so many people naturally forgot about luxury and the fun of living. All of that came back in such a big way in the post-war period, and that's really similar to what we're seeing happen today in the post-Covid era. That big boom of relearning and embracing enjoyment again is seen in the music, the art, the fashion, and the films of that time.

PSW: Films like Gilda, An American in Paris, Sunset Boulevard, Roman Holiday.

JR: Exactly!

PSW: The silhouettes from that era are timeless. Moving from the classic to the current, what's a contemporary design trend you especially love?

JR: I spend so much time speaking French I sometimes have difficulty finding the English word, but...lightness, overall not too serious, not too heavy.

PSW: Maybe ethereal?

JR: Yes! Just in general, light fabrics, light colors, fun, easy-going, I think, are all keywords that the industry is looking to moving forward. The embodiment of joy.

PSW: Julian, I'm so happy to see you thriving in your dream career. SCAD loves you!

JR: Merci, Paula! I'm always so thrilled to buzz back to the SCAD hive!

Connect with Julian Robaire!

Eunseo "Bella" So (M.F.A., sound design, 2023) is making a racket intentionally. The Foley artist, mixer and editor has been named a finalist for the Student Recognition Award by the Cinema Audio Society (CAS). On March 2, she will attend the 60th CAS Awards in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton, where the winner will receive a check for $5000. Her nuanced noises are getting noticed.

"Foley is a very cool and creative job, and it means being part of a sound design team that collaborates with other artists in the filmmaking process," So says. Currently based in Fort Lee, New Jersey, she works at C5 Sound, one of the top Foley studios in the industry.

Bella first found her way to sound design while a film major at Yong-In University in Yongin, South Korea. She began learning the unique discipline of Foley, creating original sounds to sync with moving images as a hands-on process, often utilizing odd props.

After graduating from Yong-In, she began working as a Foley mixer in Korea and "felt I was hitting a wall. I desired more knowledge. I wanted to become a master's student at the best university in America, to advance my career. Yet I could only speak English a little bit, so I was hesitant."

Her colleague Hyoenzi "Alex" Wang (B.F.A., sound design, 2022) suggested SCAD, for both its superior sound design program and the support services SCAD offers international students.

"Before I came to SCAD, I'd never gone to another country," So says. Taking ESL classes at SCAD, focusing on speaking, essay-writing, and presentation, Bella found her English improving quickly. "I met a lot of international students with different backgrounds from different countries. It really relieved my concern."

An emboldened So continued to demonstrate her Foley skills in Hamilton Hall. Soon sound design professor Jamie Baker invited her to become her teaching assistant for the course Foley Production Techniques (SNDS 322).

"Bella was a natural mentor to the students, sharing her tips and techniques on both sides of the glass in the studio," Baker says. "She is a versatile, enthusiastic, and creative sound mixer who collaborates well with the entire post sound crew as she exhibits her impressive technical chops. I am extremely proud of her nomination for the esteemed Cinema Audio Society Student Recognition Award. She is an amazing candidate."

For the Cinema Audio Society award, Bella submitted a reel of her noteworthy Foley work including live action, animation, and video game projects. This includes Pirate Lesson, an animated short film directed by Sofia Azpe (B.F.A., animation, 2021). Mixed in stereo/5.1 surround sound, the rollicking high seas adventure follows a father showing his son how to drive the ship...right into battle. "I really enjoyed working on Pirate Lesson, and I tried to deliver the characters' actions and emotions to feel as fun as possible, rather than obsessing about realism," So says. "I've learned a lot about how Foley is different in animation than for live action."

As she prepares to travel to California for the Cinema Audio Society Awards, Bella reflects on what her journey represents for herself and others. "I want other people to see what is possible. You can do this as a woman, as an Asian, and as someone with a master's degree from SCAD."

Connect with Eunseo "Bella" So.

It was peak soccer weather, and the Lady Bees were also peaking.

Wearing their crisp white home uniforms, SCAD women's soccer took to the manicured pitch of the sunny SCAD Athletics Complex last Friday for the 1 pm kick-off of their biggest match of the season. After ninety minutes of powerful action before a grandstand engorged with cheering students, SCAD had won the Sun Conference Tournament Championship, defeating No. 12 Southeastern University 2-0. The conference-clinching victory—the team’s stunning 13th shutout of the season—elevated their overall record to 17-1-2. The celebration was tremendous.

This marks the first time in SCAD women’s soccer program history that the team has won the Sun Conference Tournament Championship.

“The success we have had this season has not come overnight,” said Head Coach Rebecca Gunn. “It has taken time to cultivate a championship culture as our players engaged with and committed to our team's mission and goals. It’s been so fun working with these players. We are excited to celebrate this championship during what has been a record-breaking season.”

The first goal of the game came in the 62nd minute when Ida Akesson won the ball in a scramble in the middle of the box and put it past the goalie to give the Bees a 1-0 lead. SCAD sealed the win in the 81st minute when Sydney Chura crossed the ball for an onrushing Ines Sommer, who fired it past the sprawling Southeastern goalie to fortify the scoreline at 2-0.
 Goalie Katelynn Balsiger saved all three Southeastern shots on goal in yet another complete-game shutout performance.

The Sun Conference All-Tournament Team 2023 was announced at the game’s conclusion. SCAD totaled five honorees including Hailey Lander (B.F.A., industrial design), named the Tournament MVP, having led a defense that did not let in a single goal all tournement. Ida Akesson (B.F.A., graphic design), Ines Sommer (B.F.A., film and television), Berglind Baldursdottir (B.F.A., architecture), and Sydney Chura (B.F.A., fashion marketing and management) joined Lander with All-Tournament Team honors.

Goalkeeper Katelynn Balsiger (B.F.A., architecture) was named Sun Conference Freshman of the Year. Sydney Chura tallied 16 goals and eight assists, earning her recognition as Sun Conference Player of the Year. Sun Conference Coach of the Year Rebecca Gunn said: “We're looking forward to chasing that final championship as we enter the second round of the NAIA National Championship this Saturday.”

The women's soccer team advances to the 2023 NAIA Women’s Soccer National Championship with a bye in the first round. The Bees will play on Saturday, November 18 at 1:00 p.m. at the SCAD athletic complex in Hardeeville, SC. SCAD was selected as one of the institutions to host the series.

All championship first and second round matches will be video streamed. For more information on SCAD women’s soccer, visit the home of SCAD Athletics and follow on Instagram. Go Bees!