Get acquainted with VCUarts Dean Carmenita Higginbotham, Ph.D., and join her for a conversation about the professional journeys of our alumni. Bobby C. Martin Jr. (BFA ’99) and Sara Al-Afifi (BFA ’19), graduates from our Richmond and Qatar campuses, will discuss their experiences and talk about developments in the field of graphic design.
Please note: this event is free but registration is required.
About the panelists
Sara Al-Afifi (BFA ’19) is a graphic designer, researcher and illustrator based in Doha, Qatar. She has been researching Arab societies’ collective psychology and their perception of oppression as well as examining graphic design through the lens of philosophy, orientalism and revisionist history. Her thesis project, “I have things to say, but I’m afraid of the consequences,” samples and remixes text and imagery from historical and contemporary media to produce a range of graphic formats. She is currently the Arabic typography teaching and research assistant in the graphic design department at VCUarts Qatar.
Bobby C. Martin Jr. (BFA ’99) is a founding partner of Champions Design, a branding and design agency headquartered in New York City. He guides the agency’s culture and sets the high standard of design. Since founding the company with Jennifer Kinon in 2010, he has partnered with a wide range of clients such as The Atlantic, Dartmouth College, Girl Scouts of the USA, MoMA, MTV, the NBA, The New York Times and The Studio Museum in Harlem. Prior to founding Champions, Martin led an internal design team for Nokia in London, tasked with the redesign of the company’s global packaging range. Martin also served as design director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, where he worked with artistic director Wynton Marsalis to bring the brand to life and reach new audiences.