Global Crossing
The international exchange program offers students opportunities that range from semesters abroad to interacting with international students on campus.
By Camille LeFevre
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| A music poster by Hexágono Design.
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September 2011—One night last spring, six graphic design students from Mexico discussed how they could inspire each other’s creativity while also giving back to the Santa Fe University of Art and Design community. “We were all at different stages in our design practices, with different backgrounds and interests,” recalls Mauricio J. Martínez Portillo, of Guadalajara, Jalisco, “but we were looking for a way to share our talents and become better designers.”
The answer was Hexágono, a design collective that has completed more than a dozen projects, from logos and T-shirts to expressive typographic pages for the student publication Glyph. The group’s most notable project to date? “Definitely the conceptual banners for Santa Fe University,” says Portillo, Hexágono’s spokesperson. Each member created three or four double-sided banners, but they collaborated to ensure the project communicated a uniform visual language.
“Many students can make things intuitively,” says David Grey, chair of the Graphic Design Department. “We teach them how to approach the beginning, middle, and end of a project. In other words, we help them develop process and methodology.” The Hexágono students worked through “an incredibly complex process that resulted in a professionally executed project,” Grey adds. “Hexágono is about art making and uplifting the community.”
The innovative collective is one example of how Santa Fe University’s international programs are enriching student life and learning. Since joining the Laureate International Universities network in 2009, the university has welcomed almost 250 international network students to campus, for both study-abroad and traditional four-year programs. “International students bring a singular rigor and dedication to their studies, which adds a dynamic component to the campus community,” says John Rodriguez, director of Santa Fe University’s International Student Office.
In addition, the university is providing students with more opportunities to study abroad. This fall, Moving Image Arts, Graphic Design, Art, and Photography students can create individualized study programs that can result in a Certificate in Creative Technologies while at Media Design School, an internationally acclaimed, award-winning institution for digital and creative design in Auckland, New Zealand. Graphic design students can also spend a year at Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano (NABA), a renowned academy of fine arts and design in Milan, Italy, with the option of earning an additional degree.
“These are critical résumé-building and professional enhancement opportunities that allow our students to stretch, and gain maturity and responsibility as they become astute global citizens,” says Laura Nunnelly, senior director of Student Life. “It’s wonderful to have a growing population of international students on campus—and there’s no better way to stimulate creativity than to travel to a different country and learn how artists work while networking with other students and professionals from around the world.”
Portillo has returned to Mexico to graduate and has been hired by Cocoa Branding, a top design studio in Guadalajara, based on his Hexágono portfolio. “As a member of Hexágono, I was able to develop projects for the Santa Fe University community while working with real clients to develop skills that complement the work I created,” he says. “I’m still evolving and learning, but Santa Fe University allowed me to develop a personal voice as a designer.”
