Adjunct Instructor
Susan Matherne has over 25 years’ experience as a university and college educator in areas of graphic design and communication arts. Her experience and expertise includes graphic design, visual art, communications arts, and other adjacent relevant areas. She has taught all levels of numerous studio courses including: design foundations, beginning and advanced typography, layout and design, publishing, intro to design, advanced design, pre-press and production, digital drawing, photo manipulation, type & image, advertising, branding and visual systems, web design (UI/UX), motion graphics, visual studies, senior projects, portfolio, as well as: design history, art history, writing and editing for designers, copyright and intellectual property law for creatives, criticism and other theory and communications courses. Her experience includes teaching students from a diverse student body with regard to all demographic categories, as well as identity orientation, disabilities, cultural backgrounds, religion, socioeconomic status, ESL, and neurodiversity.
She has an advanced level of experience in course and curriculum development as well as teaching both traditional and emerging areas of design; advising students; committee work; leading student groups; portfolio and career development; facilitating design for social good partnerships between students and community groups; and teaching both in classroom setting and through remote learning platforms.
Susan Matherne also has over 25 years of experience in marketing, communications, management, development, graphic design, and other adjacent fields. Early in her professional career, she worked in Omaha, Nebraska, as a graphic designer for a national well-known wedding magazine publisher. She worked as senior graphic designer and design manager for an international information technology company InfoUSA, Inc. Susan worked as an art director, writer, and assistant editor for a regional sports magazine, Nebraska Sports. After moving back to her birthplace of New Orleans, Susan taught graphic design at a two-year college for many years and then worked in a freelance contract capacity as art director for Saints Gameday magazine, a designer for Renaissance Publishing, and art director and assistant editor for acclaimed regional food and culture publication, Louisiana Cookin’ magazine. She also worked for several prominent advertising agencies in New Orleans.
Later in her professional career, she began her own practice working with clients for many years providing branding, marketing, communications, design, and strategic planning and development, and consulting for business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients including retail, restaurant, architecture, and construction, nonprofits, and numerous other sectors. She owned and published her own franchise consumer magazine for several years. Susan expanded her career into areas of management and executive level communications, marketing, and development. More recent professional roles include marketing and business development manager, c-suite level executive chief marketing officer for a Fortune 100 wealth management and financial advisement company, and executive director for UCDA (University & College Designers Association, a national professional association for designers and design educators.
Throughout her career, Susan has always been a passionate leader in advocating for the discipline of professional design and design education. She served on the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) New Orleans Board of Directors for over 10 years. As a board member, she served in many roles and positions including education director, development director, vice president, and president of the chapter. During her time as president, she was instrumental in serving the design community during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, providing supportive programming and resources to professional and academic members. Susan also served on national AIGA committees including the national disaster response leadership committee, the AIGA national Design for Democracy committee, chapter leadership committee, and the education committee. She planned and executived over 20 conferences, summits, portfolio reviews, and other local, regional, and national events during her tenure.
Susan grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and in Omaha, Nebraska. These two distinct visual and cultural places made indelible impressions on her as she developed as a creative person. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at Northwest Missouri State in Mass Communications with emphasis in Journalism and minor in Art/Design. She also holds a Master of Fine Arts degree with emphasis in Graphic Design from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Susan is also a certified health and wellness coach with additional training in life coaching. Her training as a coach enriches her approach to teaching and working with students in a collaborative, student-centered, and holistic way.
She maintains a creative art/design practice in areas of drawing, mixed media, monoprinting, photography, and collage. She enjoys gardening, being in nature, studying art/design history, and documenting the visual culture and visual language of a place and vernacular typography, signage, and art wherever she can find it.