Media Contact:
Sherry O’Neal, College of Design, 919/515-8311
Tracey Peake, News Services, 919/515-6142

June 30, 2006

Piedrafita Named Chair of NC State’s Graphic Design Department

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Santiago Piedrafita

Santiago Piedrafita has been named chair of the Department of Graphic Design in North Carolina State University’s College of Design. His appointment becomes effective on Aug. 1.

Since 2004, Piedrafita has served as chair of the design department at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). Prior to joining the MCAD faculty, Piedrafita was senior designer at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and worked in the Museum of Modern Art’s in-house design department in New York.      

“Santiago Piedrafita joins the College of Design community at NC State with the reputation as one of the most promising talents in his field in the nation,” says Marvin Malecha, dean of the College of Design. “His experiences at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design – as well as positions in several prominent design offices – make him well prepared to lead student and faculty on our campus. His appointment promises to bring a period of high energy and innovation into the life of the department and the college.”

Piedrafita’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including Eye, Graphis, Metropolis and I.D. magazines, and has received recognition and awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Earlier this year, he was named to the prestigious I.D. Forty, the International Design magazine’s annual list of the top 40 designers, architects and visual designers worldwide.

Piedrafita received his bachelor’s degree from the College of Industrial Design (ESDI) in Rio de Janeiro in 1988, and his master’s in communications design from the Pratt Institute in 1993.