MAD Student Places as a MoDE Finalist
A Media Arts Design student became a finalist at the biennial Motion Design Education (MoDE) Summit, held in Philadelphia last month. Cypress College’s William Kwon placed in the experiential design category for the student competition portion with a projection mapping piece titled “The Grid.”
The international design conference, which took place this year at Moore College, attracts students from schools around the world, including notable institutions such as Rochester Institute of Design, Savannah College of Art and Design, and Kent State University School of Visual Communication Design. MAD Department Coordinator Kati Angelov says the significance of this achievement is notable.
“Cypress College was the only and first community college in this competition,” Angelov said, of the MoDE summit. Former students of hers have attended previous events, including another another MoDE finalist in 2021. For the 2023 event, she says the organizers received 400 submissions and selected only 45 to compete in various categories.
Angelov says the experiential design category is the newest and most cutting edge and that only six finalists were chosen by industry professionals from around the world. Kwon produced this work as one of his fall semester projects for class, with Presidential Scholar of Distinction Abdul Meelar credited for the mapping portion.
Angelov presented a paper at this conference titled Experiential Design for the Inexperienced. In it, she describes how she funded, wrote, and taught the first projection mapping class for a community college in the United States. Her 10-minute presentation includes videos of students work as well as interdisciplinary performance footage, and has become part of the conference proceeding packet.
“I am immensely proud and happy for the Media Arts Design department’s success. I know that Will’s professional self-esteem and the belief in his own capacity has been positively impacted by his success.“