PROFILE
[email protected]
Studying Graphic Design at RIT.
Love to perform music, theater, or both at the same time!
Inspired to facilitate connection and create great experiences.
Fighting for the minimization of apathy and entropy.
PROFILE
[email protected]
Studying Graphic Design at RIT.
Love to perform music, theater, or both at the same time!
Inspired to facilitate connection and create great experiences.
Fighting for the minimization of apathy and entropy.
THIS WILL GO ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD!
magna cum laude
June 2026
Rochester Institute of Technology
BFA, Graphic Design
Admitted Fall 2026
2022 - 2026
PA (PHSSL) State Champion 2025
Role: Morticia
Spring 2026
Clue
Role: Mrs. Peacock
Fall 2025
Role: Crew Member
Summer 2026
Purrista Cat Cafe
Role: Graphic Design Intern
Summer 2025
Last Updated 08.11.26
SELECTED WORK AND PERFORMANCE
Leveraging an experimental process from a few years ago to figure out how to bake the best chocolate chip cookies, Don’t Give Up the Chip! is a project to build community as I become a freshman at RIT. Each new person I meet gets two cookies: one to eat and one that they can use to build relationships of their own.
Get on the list to be notified of the next cookie drop!
My class elected me to give the commencement address, which was a thrill that quickly became a challenge to pay it back. At age 18 and a product of (mostly) the same school, I didn’t have any blinding insight or wisdom that my peers didn’t already know.
As an alternative, and true to the theme of education, I called out each student of my class of 150 with a short reminder of what they taught me. After all, you learn as much or more from the people you grow up with then you do from your teachers.
Needless to say, this speech didn’t put anyone to sleep.
Rebranding a business I started with my sister breathed new life into it and helped me grow in sales and design.
The business provides handmade balms with catchy titles featuring seasonal scents like Resting Witch Face at Halloween or Immaculmint Reception for a line of Pittsburgh lip balms. These have sold nationally and internationally through the Balm Shop website.
Our high school put on The Addams Family for our Spring Musical. Getting to be Morticia was a lot of fun and my favorite number was Death Is Just Around the Corner (these Ohioans just won’t leave!)
Before I applied to design school I wanted to figure out if I liked the process of designing for others. An acquaintance who owns Purrista Cat Cafe graciously gave me the opportunity to tackle several of her design challenges.
This poster for a fundraiser collaboration event managed by Because You Care pet shelter was one of them.
This is one of my favorite design school portfolio pieces where I challenged myself to use a single color to express various emotions.
Fall 2025
In a musical (at least in high school) the choreo and musical expectations occupy most of the available mental space. Portraying Mrs. Peacock in this comedy performance without the complexity of a musical gave me the chance to deeply inhabit a character. It was perhaps the most characterization I’ve been able to bring to the stage so far!
Class Assignment
The assignment was to design a book cover. I chose one of the most misunderstood books in children’s literature (by perhaps one of the most subversive authors of children’s lit!) for a cover redesign.
Fall 2025
After completing an online course on design called “Baseline” I was even more motivated to explore typography.
When I was young, my grandmother, a self-taught artist, used to challenge me to find letters in the tree branches outside her window as we snuggled against the winter chill.
This is a piece that helped me reminisce after her passing and scratched the typography itch.
Class Assignment
Photography has woven through my interests for years. This class assignment was a collage challenge, and I wanted to find an intersection between collage and portraiture.
Fall 2025
Class Assignment
Linoleum block print collage of the various activities and interests that have been a big part of my life so far.
Acrylic on canvas with embroidery floss stitching.
Class Assignment
Glazed and fired clay
Fall 2024
Class Assignment
Collage of circuit boards and other mechanical leftovers.
Class Assignment
Photography collage
Poster design practice
© MADELYN POESE 2026