When Gabe Crown (B.F.A. illustration) posted his portrayal of pro skateboarder Nora Vasconcellos on Instagram in mid-March, it generated likes from a few dozen fans of sweet linework and watercolor wizardry. Then Vasconcellos saw it, reposted, and the likes leapt over the 15,000 mark. “It was awesome," Crown crows, still incredulous.

Crown's illustrations of everyone from his kite-flying father to a soporific fox, a feather-shedding Icarus, and Pulitzer-prize winner Kendrick Lamar all utilize distinctive tonal blends and evocative perspectives. The Piedmont, California native, a regular denizen of Savannah Skate Park, recently completed a four-minute video showcasing the skate stylings of his fellow Bees and the influence of director Spike Jonze. Only a SCAD sophomore, Crown is already on a roll.

SCAD: How did your illustration of pro skateboarder Nora Vasconcellos come to be?

GABE CROWN: I was taking Professor Don Rogers' “Materials and Techniques" class here at SCAD last quarter, exploring a broad range of media including watercolor, acrylic and colored pencil. I'd been wanting to create an illustration of Nora for a while. She rides for Welcome Skateboards, my favorite company. They have linework-heavy skate graphics, which relates to my illustration style. I thought a cool twist would be to make a mock ad for Nora and Welcome. I used a combination of pen and ink and watercolor, creating the initial drawing using a photo of her as a reference. After digitally adding elements like the Welcome logo, I posted it on Instagram, tagged Nora and Welcome, then she regrammed it and messaged me to say, “The colors are perfect!"

SCAD: What's the key to getting your skateboard illustrations kinetic and authentic?

CROWN: Life drawing really helps with being able to understand shape and form of the body. More so my background in skating has helped. I've been making skate videos since I was a little kid. Through repetition of filming different angles, I've retained a sense of motion. The energy that I get from landing a new trick gives me the stoke that I fuel into my artwork.

SCAD: Coming from the San Francisco Bay Area, how did you first learn about SCAD?

CROWN: My art teacher at Piedmont High School, Ms. Gillian Bailey, told me about SCAD. My senior year I flew out to Savannah with my dad for SCAD Day, saw art everywhere and was blown away. I could feel the energy and knew I needed to be here. At SCAD, being around so many other creative people puts you to the test.

SCAD: What are you doing this summer, Gabe?

CROWN: I'll be back in California interning at GSN, the Game Show Network, in Santa Monica. I'll be assisting the GSN design department in each component of the design process in their studio. It's going to be a great experience. Shout-out to my motion media professor Min Ho Shin, who told me about the internship. I'm pretty excited.

See more of Gabe’s great work at at his website www.gabecrown.com.

"We’re not trying to replace the world," said Brian Schwab, interaction director, Magic Leap, from the SCADshow stage during opening day of SCAD ForwardFest. "That’s VR’s job."

Along with Magic Leap interaction designer Aleissia Laidacker, Schwab led the ForwardFest audience in an exploration of the granular aspects of VR, AR and spatial computing. As SCAD digital media students know, spatial computing is the combination of the real and virtual worlds, allowing developers to introduce pixels and interactions to the space around you.

Presenting a number of unique challenges and opportunities for programmers, designers and artists, Magic Leap is adding another dimension to computing where digital respects the physical. Named #4 on Business Insider’s "25 tech companies everyone wants to work for right now," Magic Leap is an eclectic group with a mission to harmonize people and technology to create a more unified world. Their vision to advance the human spirit was delightfully embodied by Schwab’s on-stage example of a child scolded by a parent for drawing on a wall. In Magic Leap’s world, children can draw freely, virtually, yet in reality. Their painted world is one where pixels dance on walls and creativity knows no bounds. 

SCAD ForwardFest, a three day festival of preeminent programming from SCADFILM, presents emergent content creators and forward-thinking professionals to explore the future of digital arts and immersive storytelling. Magic Leap’s "Bringing Pixels to the Real World" presentation was the perfect personification of the festival’s mission.

At SCAD, digital media intersects with degree programs across the university, including animation, interactive game design and development, visual effects, film and television, and themed entertainment design. SCAD pioneers developments in mixed reality, as the first university to use VR goggles to provide newly accepted students an immersive introduction, and the first university to design AR into its catalog. At SCAD, students and faculty collaborated to create the world's first VR musical, "Say It with Music."

Presented at SCAD's state-of-the-art Digital Media Center and SCADshow theater, ForwardFest features a VR Experience for guests to engage directly with work by celebrated mixed reality content creators and original content produced by SCAD students for HTV Vive, Oculus, and Samsung Gear devices. Demonstrations include "Milo, the motion-capture robot" and professional virtual painter and Google artist-in-residence, Estella Tse. Visual effects masters Chris LeDoux and Drew Sawyer of films "La La Land" and "Hidden Figures" will take guests through the unseen magic of visual effects in some of the most popular films and television series.

For more information, visit SCAD ForwardFest.

"I know what I'm doing and nobody else is doing it," Telfar Clemens said from the SCAD MOA stage, his nonchalant confidence befitting his status as 2017 Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund winner. Flanked by fellow finalists Ahlem Manai-Platt of Ahlem Eyewear and Chromat founder and CEO Becca McCharen-Tran, Clemens spoke of his unisex clothing brand Telfar as anything but an overnight success. Moderator Steven Kolb, CFDA president and CEO, interjected: "It's an overnight success that took 15 years."

One alchemical aspect of SCADstyle is witnessing guests and panel moderators interact in real time. Unexpected responses to loose prompts, conflicting answers to knotty questions, these are places where insights bud. "Fashion's New Stance" was civil and convivial. Kolb knew to elicit the requisite friction.

Asked about popular misconceptions about starting a brand, Manai-Platt said, "Don't think that money is the key to making a brand." Clemens: "It is." McCharen-Tran corrected the casual collision course: "Anything you want, you can make happen on whatever budget if you have friends and collaborators who can help."

A unifying element of autodidactism meant extra intrigue for all three designers' personal and professional narratives. French by birth, Manai-Platt qualified for Fashion Fund after becoming a U.S. citizen through marriage. As founder of Ahlem Eyewear, a luxury eyewear company that specializes in handmade frames, she explained her design process: "I take a pen, a paper, draw it, and see what's up. I visited factories to learn what I needed about materials, temples, sizes. All the rest is really intuition."

Chromat's McCharen-Tran, a Virginia native with a background in architecture and a winning grin, said that her brand was "ready to launch our curve collection in a major retail way five years ago, but no one wanted to buy above a size L for their stores. It wasn't until this past fall that we got out first order. Nordstrom has opened the doors to a whole new customer for us. Now we're going to up 3XL with Chromat swimwear."

Of his eponymous label, Telfar said: "It's based on size, but I don't put a gender on anything. Whatever fits you, that's what you wear. When I started doing the line, no one was buying it because I didn't let them know if it was men's or women's." Telfar has exploded fashion world orthodoxy, like his 2017 event celebrating his collaboration with White Castle, where instead of a runway show he hosted a raging dinner awash in onion rings.

The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund was established in 2003 to cultivate the next generation of emerging American design talent through monetary support and integral mentorship from CFDA members and editors of Vogue. These designers are rising quickly towards the top of their profession, and their presence is a great fit for SCAD. This was the second year SCADstyle hosted the proverbial CFDA gang and CEO Kolb. Again, it was good.

"If you start high, you can always go low," said Maisonette co-founder Sylvana Ward Durrett, her business partner Luisana Mendoza de Roccia nodding in agreement from the SCAD MOA stage. "You can't do the opposite."

Since launching their e-commerce space for luxury children's apparel a year ago, the pair have grown Maisonette to 22 full-time staffers, 35K Instagram followers and uncountable stylishly outfitted young'uns. Their success also brought them to SCAD as featured guests at SCADstyle 2018, discussing the future of digital brand development with Homepolish CEO and founder Noa Santos.

"Being authentic to the customer that you're serving is the right place to start," said Mendoza de Roccia. "Understand your customer, deliver something that makes sense to them, and be certain it always fits into the narrative of your brand."

Before founding Maisonette, Ward Durrett and Mendoza de Roccia met while working as executive assistants to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Their decision to found Maisonette hinged on one game-changing personal experience: motherhood.

"When it comes to dressing children, there wasn't a Net-a-Porter or Shopbop," Ward Durrett explained. "We built Maisonette to solve our own problem, which was we wanted shopping for our children to be more fun. We didn't want to spend hours on the internet trying to find stylish cool things in different locations. As mothers we innately knew what moms were looking for, because we were solving our own problem."

Maisonette deploys a drop-ship model, storing no inventory themselves, their hand-selected vendors filling every order using Maisonette brand-standard packaging.

"We're able to get top boutiques and brands to work with us because they trust we're a positive brand alignment and that we'll showcase their brands in a way they want," said Mendoza de Roccia. "We really have two customers: the customers on our site, and our vendors. Because we're selling and representing what our vendors do, they're our customers too."

The pair were lovingly interrogated by Homepolish's Santos, whose wry soundbites ("If you aren't a little embarrassed with the first thing you go to market with, you're waiting too long"), suggested his deep experience as a business owner. He asked Maisonette's lady bosses what has surprised them so far about their baby business.

"When you start a business, you think you're going to be consumed 99 percent of the time with your customers and what you're delivering to them," Mendoza de Roccia observed. "But a lot of time is dedicated to building your team, and finding the right people at the right time to continue to build your company. One of the surprises once you're up and running is how much time you're dealing with internal team building and company culture. You have to make coming to work fun."

Considering the importance of Maisonette as an e-commerce entity, Ward Durrett's answer took a tech bent: "You have to build a platform that's nimble, because technology changes every year. Create an open source system where you can add plug-ins and a middleware system that will give you the most flexibility."

A spirited Q&A session punctuated the talk. Students, professors and members of the SCAD community filed out enlightened, anticipating the next scintillating SCADstyle event.

Savannah College of Art and Design is pleased to announce the 13th annual SCADstyle, the university's signature week celebrating the luminaries of design and their work, April 10-12, 2018.

SCAD Étoile honoree Jason Wu, and guests including Eric Villency, CEO at Villency Design Group; W Magazine fashion director Rickie De Sole; Noa Santos, CEO and co- founder of interior design site Homepolish; and recent CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund award winners and CFDA President and CEO Steven Kolb will take part in panels and intimate conversations, celebrating global design innovation and leadership.

"Feel the vibrations! Style is all around us, and SCADstyle is where people come to find the frequency," said SCAD president and founder Paula Wallace. "SCAD’s preeminent degree programs in fashion, industrial design, interior design, jewelry, architecture, accessory design, and more contribute to the culturally expansive role of the built environment and fashion in global economies. Our honored guests are leading experts, defining style across marketplaces and continents. Conversation, creative energy, of-the-moment cachet—it’s all here at SCADstyle. Tune in and be transformed."

SCADstyle brings together influential international thought leaders and practitioners from across design industries — fashion, architecture, interior design and graphic design, among others — to discuss contemporary ideas and business principles that are defining success for these fields. SCADstyle will hold concurrent marquee programming at SCAD locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia, and Hong Kong.

This year's programming will feature Tiffany & Co. chief artistic officer Reed Krakoff and Delphine Krakoff, principal of the interior design firm Pamplemousse Design, Vogue contributing editor Chloe Malle, Maisonette co-founders Sylvana Ward-Durrett and Luisana Mendoza Roccia, advocate and fashion blogger Sinéad Burke, Teen Vogue’s Jessica Andrews, Away Luggage co-founder Jen Rubio and celebrity fashion stylist Robert Verdi and more.

SCADstyle will also bring together alumni Eduardo Calvo-Mendoza (B.F.A., fashion, 2012), Thomas Finney (B.F.A., fashion, 2010), Recho Omondi (B.F.A., fashion, 2011) and Rita Watson (B.F.A., fashion, 2010) to share their business experiences and advice on what propelled them toward success. Calvo-Mendoza is a designer and creative assistant at Tory Burch, where he develops collections from initial concept to final production. Finney launched his eponymous label of made-to-measure suits, shirts, knitwear and accessories after stints at Thom Browne and Club Monaco. Omondi’s eponymous line OMONDI challenges cultural norms by eschewing pre-prescribed seasons and casting all women of color. Her designs have been featured in ELLE, Vogue, W magazine and on HBO’s "Insecure. Watson is a designer at Kate Spade, overseeing the design of eight accessory and ready-to-wear categories, including eyewear, soft accessories, legwear, outerwear, activewear, sleepwear and swimwear.

As the preeminent authority in creative disciplines with four locations on three continents, SCAD has long been a destination for industry leaders to connect with emerging talent. The university cultivates and celebrates careers in art and design by prioritizing professional preparation in a real-world context. SCADstyle provides a platform for students to interact directly with professionals in fields closely related to SCAD's intentionally curated degree programs.

SCADstyle is open to the public. Follow @SCADdotedu and use #SCADstyle to join the conversations via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

"Wear makeup if you're going to be a rock chick," journalist and author Sylvie Simmons said from the Arnold Hall stage, flecking her "Art of the Mind" lecture with a wry aside. A rare woman in the elite rock critic fraternity of the 1970s and '80s, and the subject of BBC documentary "The Rock Chick," Simmons saw and heard it all, wrote for music publications including Sounds, Creem, Kerrang and Rolling Stone, and lived to deliver jewel bright insights.

Simmons' lecture was an inviting, picaresque stroll through her London childhood, her breakthrough scribbling for England's weekly music broadsheets ("they called them the 'inkies' because the ink was so cheap it came off on your hands"), her stint documenting the hair metal bacchanal of '80s L.A., and the writing process behind her award-winning biography "I'm Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen" (Ecco Press, 2012).

A singer-songwriter in her own right, Simmons engaged in a lengthy and lively Q&A before concluding the evening serenading students on her ukulele, performing three Leonard Cohen songs, including a "Hallelujah" singalong. Simmons will join musician Jim White in performance at the Roasting Room in Bluffton, SC, Thursday, April 5.

Sylvie Simmons' Top Ten Writing Tips

1. Persistence. That isn't required just to become a writer, but to stay a writer. If words don't come, if you're not in the mood, you have to fulfill some other function of whatever book or story you're working on. Just putting one word after another is a kind of sacrifice to the gods of words, and they'll look kindly on you.
2. Keep rewards for yourself in the house. Cold drinks, chocolate, whatever you want, so whenever you finish your page you can reward yourself.
3. Do not take a break to Google yourself or any other writer.
4. Read aloud what you've written. This is very important. Sometimes people who get logorrhea write long ridiculous sentences. If you can't read what you wrote aloud then it's not going to communicate what you want to say.
5. Fine yourself for every exclamation point and any unnecessarily pretentious word you use, then send the money to the Authors Guild, an excellent organization worth joining.
6. Don't keep a picture of a favorite author on the wall above your desk. This is especially important if your favorite author committed suicide.
7. If you're writing an article, make sure you cover the brief that your editor gave you (that's the outline of what the editor wants), but be sure to add the things that interest you, because that's often what the reader will want to read.
8. Write honestly and accurately and the best you can. Don't be lazy.
9. Write a book or an article that you would want to read.
10. This is for career writers: Remember that writing is work. You may love your work but it's still a job. But by all means, make it seem as glamorous as possible on social media.

The last day of winter quarter feels like spring, but inside Clark Hall, interior design students Lauren Brackett and Sydney White are focused on foster care.

Presentation boards, capsules of their 26-week, double-quarter projects, stand alongside books detailing their designs and supporting research.

"Our professor Christina Gonano told us to find a gap in society, something we can fix in design," explains Brackett (B.F.A., interior design, 2018). "I have a family friend who started an organization called Fostering Youth Independence, so my idea was to design the dream facility for what they're doing with foster children."

"I was in foster care as a kid," says White (B.F.A., interior design, 2018). "My experience revealed how unstable it is. So, I designed a place separate from foster homes, for foster children ages 7-13. It doesn't matter how many times foster kids move within a city, they still have a place that's there for them, outside of a home."

Lauren and Sydney had never met when they showed up on the first day of Gonano's "Interior Design Studio V: Design Thinking for Innovation" class, though both already planned on creating capstone projects focused on foster care. As Brackett explains, "We wound up sitting next to each other and sharing research, reading as many relevant scholarly articles as we could and dissecting them so we had facts and evidence to back our ideas up."

Brackett's "Third Point" design targets young adults who are leaving foster care and need a resource center where they can better manage that challenging transition. "The resources that are currently available are spread across so many platforms, so I thought, if I can bring career counseling and financial aid help into one place, they have a better chance to succeed." Bracket designed a center that also features a gym and a teaching kitchen, for a holistic, life skills approach to health.

White's "Tree House" design, with its ligneous materials palette, modular and organic, includes touch screens for activity planning, rearrangeable furniture, and lockers "where kids can put their stuff and leave it the entire time they're in the program."

The coursework made White reflect on her own experience: "Going to school as a foster kid, you know that you're different from everyone else. At a place like Tree House, everyone is equal. It creates camaraderie and community that kids might not have otherwise. That's important."

Brackett designed her center to be located in Santa Clarita, California. White set hers in Winter Park, Florida. Both explored specific details of site building, examining issues including transportation and proximity to adjacent services like restaurants, shops, schools and indoor and outdoor recreation.

Having both graduated after winter quarter, they now go forth into their lives: White moving to Florida where she will work as interior design associate for Marc-Michaels Interior Design, while Brackett heads to Texas to explore opportunities in Austin's professional interior design sector.

"We'll be back in Savannah," Brackett says. "We have a senior show Friday, June 1, the same day as our graduation ceremony."

White nods in enthusiasm. "It's definitely been a great experience at SCAD."

SCAD student Katherine Diaz Villegas (B.F.A, fashion) spent her winter quarter studying abroad at SCAD Hong Kong. Here, she writes about her week in Sri Lanka investigating sustainable practices in the fashion industry.

At SCAD Hong Kong, certain classes are offered the special opportunity to take a week-long trip to experience different aspects of the industry work. This winter quarter the fashion design, interior design, fashion marketing and management undergraduate students and luxury fashion marketing and management graduate students traveled to Sri Lanka, one of the world’s leading countries in sustainability.

It was chilly in Hong Kong during February so a trip to a warmer climate was exciting. The weather helped ensure we packed light as we would be moving around Sri Lanka throughout the week. After arriving at night in the city of Colombo, we started our trip early the following morning at Island Craft Studio, an initiative supporting local artisans through contemporary design integration. The young designers were so welcoming as we toured their working spaces and attended presentations from both Island Craft Studio designers and SCAD students. Sharing ideas on the curriculum and the possibilities of the future made for exciting conversations with the talented young designers of Sri Lanka.

The focus of our trip was to learn about sustainability from industry professionals. A tour of Selyn, a fair trade textile and production company, provided a first-hand experience of textile development and production. The representatives of the company took the group through each part of the process, from dyeing the fibers the perfect shade (a process that could take weeks) to witnessing handloom weavers create vibrant and patterned textiles, to a sorting warehouse that ensures the seamless quality of the work. The fabric is then sent either to buyers or taken back to a production area for the fabrication of clothes, toys and home décor. Ending the tour at a Selyn store to see the finished products was inspiring.

The following day we explored more of the culture and heritage sites of Sri Lanka. The morning began with a hike up the World Heritage site, Sigiriya, where the view and ruins of the palace were breathtaking. Afterwards, we stopped at the Kandalama Hotel for a tour of the space and lunch. The hotel was designed by Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa and is based on the idea of working in concert with the environment. Part of the hotel is built on natural rock and is completely open to the environment producing more light and air, contributing to the theme of sustainability. Though the trip so far had been impeccable, our next event felt like something out of a film. Our bus dropped us off to a line-up of jeeps ready to take us on our Minneriya safari, where we got to see multiple herds of elephants and other animals at Minneriya National Park.

Our last day before our free day was filled with two apparel factory tours. We started with Linea Aqua Factory Tour, producers of  swimwear. The tour took us through the process, from designs to laser-cutting patterns to the organized rows of sewing and embellishments. We also saw the administrative side of the business, including production planning and product goals. Our next stop was Hirdaramani, an apparel manufacturer in a zero carbon building and factory. The tour led us through the process of dyeing and working with denim as a textile. Much of their work is still hand frayed and bleached. The factory had its own dye plants, giant washers and dryers and a laser cutting and engraving system. It was impressive to see a factory committed to sustainability in action.

During the trip we stopped at various shops that had handmade home décor, clothing and art. Paradise Road Gallery Café was a personal favorite, serving scrumptious food and fresh juice. The shop was the perfect place to pick up souvenirs and gifts.

Throughout the six days I spent in Sri Lanka, I saw more of the beautiful country and met more inspiring people than I ever would have on my own. SCAD provided the opportunity for students to enjoy a learning experience outside of the classroom, in the heart of the specific industries we’re preparing to join. This was a once in a lifetime experience that will stay with me throughout my future endeavors.

The winners of SCAD Drawing Works 2018 have been announced, with Camille Gbaguidi (M.F.A., architecture) awarded top prize. The exemplary student work, currently on display at Alexander Hall Gallery, was judged by alumni mentor Caroline Farouki (M.F.A., interior design, 2010), who said: "The entries were incredible. It was a real challenge to select the winners!"

Undergraduate students from all SCAD locations and minors/majors were eligible. Diverse drawing practices were considered, demonstrating traditional and unconventional use of media, experimentation, aesthetic expressions, styles and formats.

"Drawing is a tool for expressing one's ideas," remarked Farouki. "SCAD students are learning incredible fundamentals and how to think and communicate their ideas from talented professors.

"I was honored to be asked to spend a few days with students and faculty to share my thoughts on how drawing is a major part of my process as an interior designer. I sat in on classes, gave feedback on student projects, and held a workshop called ‘Advice from a Professional.' I thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the students and am truly inspired by their work."

Best in Show ($1,000 Prize)
Outstanding in contemporary aesthetic and conceptual qualities, inventive use of composition and media handling techniques, fully expresses the unique attributes of drawing.
Winner: Camille Gbaguidi
Title: "Assemblage d'espaces"
Media: Digital illustration, inkjet print
Major: Architecture
Campus: Savannah
Caroline Farouki, judge: "The overall winner, Camille Gbaguidi, showed a variety of innovations in her drawing...from experimenting with perspective and layering, combining architecture work with illustration and fashion, and the overall composition was compelling."

Preparatory sketch/ideation ($500 Prize)
Demonstrating exploration into concept, content and composition, and use of sketch methods to inform and support research and development processes.
Winner: Nicholas Hammond
Title: "Site Analysis Notre Dame Cathedral: Architecture of Provence. Lacoste"
Media: Mixed media
Major: Architecture
Campus: Savannah
Caroline Farouki, judge: "The sketchbook winner, Nicholas Hammond, showed an incredible passion for experiential learning and experimentation in research."

Inventive exploration/play ($500 Prize)
Demonstrating creativity experimenting with traditional and/or nontraditional drawing media, expressive mark making, gestural approaches.
Winner: Oki Honda
Title: "Yellow Jacket"
Media: Digital painting over graphite sketch
Major: Illustration
Campus: Savannah
Caroline Farouki, judge: "The experimental drawing winning entry by Oki Honda is highly  compelling because it combines very gestural charcoal marks with digital drawing.  The color and movement are really intriguing."

Finished drawing/composition ($500 Prize)
Demonstrating drawing abilities in the production of a fully realized finished work.
Winner: Jenna Ward
Title: "Untitled"
Media: Charcoal
Major: Illustration
Campus: Savannah
Caroline Farouki, judge: "I awarded the completed work prize to Jenna Ward for a portrait that shows a real depth of emotion and beauty in the line work. Afterwards I learned the subject is the artist's grandfather, with whom she is very close."

Drawing Works 2018 exhibition through March 18 at Alexander Hall Gallery. All displayed artworks are for sale.

As Monika Jonevski moves through modish Morris Hall, fashion marketing and management (FASM) students approach her with impromptu questions about brand-building, case study creation, or simply to spark a smile. "Professor Jonevski brings an extensive background of fashion industry experience to SCAD," says department chair Daniel Green. “She has become a highly valued resource for faculty and students alike." Now in her second year teaching at SCAD, Jonevski exemplifies the university's commitment to preparing students for creative careers.

MONIKA JONEVSKI: I worked for Adidas in fashion collaborations for nine years before I came to SCAD. I was living in New York when my now department chair, Dan Green, invited me to come down to Savannah. I'd never been here before. I looked at it on the map, saw it was by the water and thought, ‘That looks nice!'

I flew down and gave a guest lecture about brand-building with Adidas and Y3. Students responded really well, they know who Yohji Yamamoto is. I spoke about building the Y3 brand from an initial collaboration to being in New York Fashion Week every single season, producing runway shows, creating ad campaigns, all the way to brick and mortar stores and a full-fledged business. I saw right away that SCAD students are always challenging themselves, pushing themselves to do better work.

Now that I'm a professor here, I can pull a campaign up and my students can see what I'm talking about while I'm relating the behind-the-scenes process, why it's important. We talk about the art of collaboration, about my experiences collaborating with Kanye West and Opening Ceremony for Adidas. I joke around and tell them, “This is my last sneaker story, then I'll stop." Class can feel like a town hall with a lot of discussion. I love it.

We talk a lot about sustainability. Is fast fashion sustainable? How does fashion marketing intersect with the environment? It's a serious issue in the fashion industry. This will be a huge problem-solving opportunity for my students as they go forward into their careers.

Alongside fashion marketing and luxury and fashion management students, fashion design students often come in to check out our department. My FASM 215 class “Fashion Aesthetics and Style" is about brand building and developing marketing strategies to extend a brand. Fashion students find it useful, because as designers, they want to understand what happens after they make the garment. A story needs to be told. I show examples of new and up and coming brands that I've seen or heard the students chatting about, and apply standard theories and concepts to that brand.

At Adidas I started off as an intern and left as director of marketing for the fashion group, so I always tell my students to stay humble. My students are really great. I'm learning different things about their cultures that they teach me. We have a diverse international student community at SCAD. In my classes right now, I have students from Italy, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, China, Philippines. We share mutual care and respect for one another. That's why I'm so passionate about teaching them. I tell them every term that I've heard in the industry so they're familiar before they put their foot in the door. That's my mission, that they're prepared.