Newsletter

Quinn Bonney ’25

Quinn Bonney ’25, under the instruction of graphic design lecturer Etsuko Rosenblum ’12, was selected as an honorable mention in the fashion/lifestyle design category of the Society of Publication Designers 2024 competition. See Bonney's entry on the SPD website.

Elizabeth Blasco ’25

Elizabeth Blasco ’25 is the newest member of the Department of Art History's Visual Resources Library, and has made some valuable contributions as a social media assistant for the department. Blasco also works on campus as a lab intern at the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center.

Jazmyne Daily-Simpson ’25

Jazmyne Daily-Simpson ’25, a graphic design BFA major and art history minor, participated in UCLA 's Andrew W. Mellon Opportunity for Diversity Conservation Summer Program in Los Angeles this past July. Pictured is Daily-Simpson at the Conservation Training Laboratories at the Getty Villa, where she spent a lot of hands-on quality time gaining insight from professional conservators working with a variety of media.

Shauna Keating ’16

Shauna Keating ’16 returned to campus in September 2024 to participate in the Fine & Performing Arts career panel at the Women's Leadership Summit. Keating is a design systems leader and digital accessibility advocate based here in the Hudson Valley. Since graduating with her BFA in graphic design, she has worked applying her design knowledge in the tech industry. In her undergraduate thesis project, she established herself as an industry expert in inclusive design & web accessibility and has remained focused on this specialization in her career across multiple industries over the past decade. 

Keating is currently a senior experience design lead for insurance company Travelers on their design system team. The Travelers’ Design System serves as the design and front-end development building blocks for over 500 applications across the Travelers’ digital enterprise. Her role is focused on leading their visual design and accessibility initiatives, ensuring Travelers digital experiences are united in upholding brand standards and top of the line accessibility compliance. She also serves as an adjunct instructor at New Paltz for the Design for the Web I course, focused on the intersection between User Experience (UX) design and front-end development. 

Jacqui McCullough ’16

Jacqui McCullough ’16 returned to campus in September 2024 to participate in the Fine & Performing Arts career panel at the Women's Leadership Summit. McCullough has eight years of experience designing for startups like theSkimm, Teachable, Rokt, and now Convertkit (soon to be Kit). She’s had the privilege of leading teams through rebrands and website migrations, spurring her love for brand strategy, marketing collaboration, and fast-paced startup growth. 

During her time at SUNY New Paltz, McCullough was a student ambassador, resident assistant, and an active member of Design Society. In her spare time, she enjoys baking and decorating cookies, painting murals, and embroidery, and trying new restaurants.

Brianna Rascoe ’15

Brianna Rascoe ’15 returned to campus in September 2024 to participate in the Fine & Performing Arts career panel at the Women's Leadership Summit. Rascoe has almost a decade of experience in marketing-centric design, creating strategic visual solutions across web, mobile, and print. Her skillset in front-end web development, content creation, creative direction, and illustration enables her to serve a small number of clients across multiple industries.  

Rascoe currently serves as an adjunct lecturer for the Graphic Design program. She is also a board member of her local youth-focused non-profit in her hometown of Beacon, NY. She’s passionate about using her design and problem-solving skills in both a professional and volunteer capacity to serve efforts that seek to provide positive experiences, education, and empowerment in her community. 

Anthony Reid ’24

Anthony Reid ’24 landed a summer 2024 internship with the Brunswick Group in NYC, thanks to a New Paltz alumni connection: Drew Park ’16, a senior graphic designer with Brunswick, met Anthony at a portfolio review event the graphic design program held in Kingston, NY during the spring semester. The two connected once again at an alumni networking event at Design Week in April 2024.

In spring 2024, Reid worked as a graphic designer for the Fine & Performing Arts Dean's Office as part of Professor Amy Papaelias' Design Lab course.

"I am already impressed by the dynamic environment that I am having the privilege to be a part of this summer and I’m excited to embark on this journey of learning and growth," Reid wrote on LinkedIn.

Celina Sciuto ’25

Celina Sciuto ’25 worked as a graphic designer for the SUNY New Paltz Center for Student Engagement during the spring semester, where she created engaging graphics, flyers, social media posts, and more to help promote the Center's various programs and events.

Sciuto was also a speaker at Design Week's Slide Slam in November, where students, alumni, and Hudson Valley-based designers shared their current work in a rapid presentation format. 

Tania Velin ’20

Tania Velin '20 returned to campus in September 2024 to participate in the Fine & Performing Arts career panel at the Women's Leadership Summit. Velin is a multidisciplinary graphic designer based in New York City with five years of professional experience and a natural curiosity for crafting digital storytelling experiences and campaigns across digital and print media outcomes. Previously, she held design roles at T Brand Studio at The New York Times, startup digital advertising agency, Ready Set Rocket and e-commerce web agency, Barrel.  Velin has also done freelance work across paid and organic social media for financial services company KOHO, @impact on Instagram and The George Floyd Memorial Foundation.  

Velin is now a designer in the North American Stores department at Amazon, where she is designing on-site and off-site user experience and marketing visuals for the company’s two largest annual shopping events. She plays a crucial role in integrating Figma as a collaborative tool for producing thousands of creative deliverables using a combination of design systems. In her practice, Velin integrates her visual problem-solving skills to work cross-collaboratively and find flexibility in the creative as brands continue to evolve. 

Velin came to New Paltz with a fine arts background and in the degree coursework had found herself becoming deeply interested in using a combination of type, charts, infographics, collage and digital media to explore ways to make information more engaging and tangible. In 2019, she was recommended and was granted an internship position within National Geographic’s magazine department in Washington D.C. for the summer following her junior year.  During her time as a student at New Paltz, she was an involved member and later appointed as the vice president of New Paltz Design Society. 

Graphic Design BFA students discuss thesis projects

At Design Week in November, Graphic Design Thesis I students gave four-minute presentations about their in-progress thesis work, inspired by the PechaKucha method, a storytelling format created by architects in Tokyo in the early 2000s as a way for designers to “talk less, show more.” 

Thesis projects will be presented at the Design Show in May 2025.

Graphic Design alumni share work at Design Week

Graphic Design alumni Tim Brown ’03, Lauren Gay ’20, Kristy Jados ’20, Casey Labatt-Simon ’18, and Jojo Turano ’18 shared some of their recent work and gave feedback on student portfolios or current projects at the "Pizza and Portfolios" event during Design Week in November 2024.

Students Present at Design Week Slide Slam

Celina Sciuto ’25, Faith Wilson ’26, Brianna Rascoe ’15, Eliza Edge
Jesse Ragan

New Paltz Design Lab wraps semester of client work

Students in New Paltz Design Lab, a 3-credit course that connects students with on campus and community-based clients, wrapped another successful semester by showcasing their work in Old Library on Dec. 16.

Congratulations to all the fall ’24 Design Lab students on the great work they produced for their clients this semester: Olivia Wilson ’25 (NY ACE Women’s Network), Cal Stamos ’24 (Department of Art History), Emely Moncion ’25 (Ulster County Habitat for Humanity), Dylan Yu ’25 (School of Fine & Performing Arts), Bryce Walsh 25 (Design Week 2024-25), Ji Won Oh ’27 (ESL/Office of International Students), Kat Humphrey ’25 (Doors at Seven), Allison O’Connor ’25 (Department of Art's Ink and Dye Garden), Sarah Himme ’24 (Dorsky Museum of Art), Arianna Moore ’25 (Roost Arts Hudson Valley), Jess Soledad ’25 (NYC Jewelry Week/Metal Program), Charlie Barnes ’25 and Xindha Yaeger ’25 (Assembly Art Journal), Tyler Boggi ’25 (New Paltz Athletics), and Melina Devine ’25 (Donkey Park).