Gracing the latest “Students To Watch” feature are Woodbury seniors Ashley McFadden and Ibrahim Alfaraidy. “’Students to Watch’ has become a tradition that resonates and renews,” said Gordon Kaye, GDUSA Editor. “Rising talent gets recognized and the professional creative community gets refreshed.” The next edition of GDUSA Magazine will showcase the institutions that nurture these students along with the 78 students themselves.
Here’s a closer look at who the design community is watching from Woodbury:
- A senior graphic design student and multiple GDUSA award-winner, Ashley McFadden attended the national Designation Conference in New York City in 2018. During her academic career, Ashley’s work has been showcased in a number of graphic design exhibitions on campus. She embraces the crafty and the creative; her work often revolves around a female figure and vivid color scheme. She tends to test her creative limits and tackles new design challenges with enthusiasm. Among fine artists, Ashley most admires Picasso and the Austrian Gustav Klimt. Had she not gone the graphic design route, she says she would have been a painter or a cultural anthropologist. Her mantra: “When nothing goes right … go left.”
- Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim Alfaraidy was drawn to graphic design at age 16. “I’ve always been inspired by nature, art and everything around me,” he says. “Design has the power to express ideas and create experiences that words alone cannot… [especially] design that is clear, conscious, individual and tells an exciting story.” Ibrahim discovered that the design elements and styles he found most compelling came into focus as he began his studies at Woodbury. With a passion for both fine arts and design, Ibrahim, like Ashley, admires Picasso, and he’s also enamored of another Spaniard, Antoni Gaudi. If the graphic design muse hadn’t landed, he said he would have been a diplomat or a photographer. Ibrahim’s axiom to live by: “Limit your ‘always’ and your ‘nevers’.”
“The continuous success of Graphic Design students at Woodbury University, including Ashley and Ibrahim, is the result of a program that provides students with the means they need to grow into the creative artists they long to become, to have the courage to discover new solutions from failure, and to become meaningful contributors to solve social and global problems through design thinking,” said Behnoush McKay, M.F.A., Graphic Design Chair. “We are immensely proud of them. They have demonstrated time and again their immense aptitude for innovative design, which has brought recognition to themselves and to Woodbury.”
“No doubt, it’s an exciting time to be working in the design industry,” said Diane Domeyer, Executive Director of The Creative Group, sponsor of the GDUSA’s recognition program. “Companies and agencies are hiring creative professionals who can help with new and ongoing initiatives – and employment opportunities are growing.”