DANA MCMAHAN @ UNC

Workroom FashionMash was born out of a 2009 project called Workroom. It was established to give creative advertising students an outlet to produce their work, going beyond presentations to make, build, install and showcase creative ideas. The brands that were clients for the early projects were all based in the fashion and lifestyle industry, a content area students loved. The outcome of teaching students to think with their hands was a tremendous success, and the program was able to expand with a 2016 endowment into its present-day FashionMash iteration. The program now includes three classes (Experiential Marketing, Product Design and Art Direction), a university-wide FashionMash club, a university-wide magazine (Coulture) and a student-run business. I teach, advise and counsel all of these programs.

When Workroom expanded to Workroom FashionMash in 2016, I took a year to develop a concept that would fit a global client. When it was time to pitch a client, a student team of six traveled to Paris with me to talk to the luxury giant, Cartier. They were hooked. So it was at this moment the program transitioned from individual class projects to a year-long piece that spanned the whole program. Each course, the club and student individual projects took at different look at what luxury means in the world today, through the lens of the heritage Cartier brand. This section, the installation, told the story of Cartier’s work with kings and queens across the globe. Status questioned what is means to be royalty and explored it in a 2500 sq. ft. educational, fully interactive exhibition. This is the kind of work that goes so far beyond the classroom, it becomes a mission rather than a project. Students dive into it with long days and late nights. I support the needs their ideas generate.

The second of the global brand initiatives is the 2018-19 Fashion Good project inspired by worldwide fashion behemoth, Gucci. The students met with Gucci’s head of public relations in the spring of 2018 in Florence, then began the project in the fall. The bigger question they are addressing is how can the enormity of the fashion industry bring positive change to the world. They are exploring the ideas through the lens of Gucci. Already, the pop up store that the work has generated so far has won two Addy awards as the store addressed the needs of supporting artists and the arts. The installation they produced in fall of 2018 around sustainability has been chosen for an exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum. The full scope of the project will be completed in April, along with the Smithsonian presentation.

As the license holder for TEDxUNC, I work with the student-run event to support their ideas and administer between the TED brand and the local conference. This project pushes the boundaries of interdisciplinary work at UNC with student from all over the campus joining forces to promote “ideas worth sharing.” Each year the tenor is different as the student leadership changes. The campus and the community look forward to this incredible sharing opportunity each February. I represent UNC at TED global conferences and learn about ways our student teams can continue to bring communities together.

Coulture Magazine began several years ago as a passion project for several students. After completing their first issue, they went in search of a permanent home to grow the magazine and continue to give a voice to students across campus interested in fashion, culture and social issues. Bringing their publication into the Workroom FashionMash collection of projects meant hundreds of students could participate in this content from every part of the campus. The magazine has grown into an award-winning publication that is entirely student-produced. I work as their advisor, champion and counsel as they work to develop an issue each semester and a year-long online edition. The most recent edition has been a change-agent, sweeping the student advertising awards with gold medals for design, a Mosiac award for representing diversity and a Best In Show for student work.

The student’s work on the 2018 and 2019 magazines was recognized with a Silver Addy Award for layout design, a Gold Addy for Magazine Design, the Addy Mosaic Award for diversity and inclusion, and a 2019 Addy Best in Show.

One of the first iterations bigger-scale iterations of the early Workroom initiatives was a partnership between Workroom in the MJ School, Entrepreneurial Consulting in Kenan Flagler and the Burt’s Bees brand. The testing of the ideas revealed an opportunity for supporting local food producers who were sourcing ingredients in environmentally-friendly ways. After the large class project ended, the business development was turned into a real company, Roote NC, a North Carolina non-profit that sells gift boxes of locally-produced foods. Profits from the business were distributed through scholarships to students doing sustainability projects. The business incorported in 2013. It is completely student-run. The seventh director started this year. Roote has been an incredible setting to provide students with a business they can run to truly understand the interplay between advertising, entrepreneurship and design.

Pop-up stores have always been part of my work since coming to UNC. We’ve worked with several large brands to develop concepts that combine advertising, fashion, art and business. This recent iteration, born out of our collaboration with Gucci, is an incredible edition to promoting entrepreneurism with students. It is changing the landscape of our program by uniting another piece of the campus community—the art department students—with the FashionMash teams. Now, the artists, entrepreneurs and media students are working together on another entirely student-run venture and making it profitable. I work to help the students learn how to turn their designs into products and provide a platform for them to sell their work. When they did their official launch last week on Feb 8th, 2019 400 people showed up to celebrate this new outlet for creativity and commerce.

The student’s work on promoting this store was recognized with a 2019 Gold Addy Award.

Fox Sports came to UNC in 2009 to test a new idea called Fox Sports University. It was a company-wide initiative with division one schools to bring real-world experience to marketing and advertising students. UNC was one of four pilot schools for the program. When it formally launched, 32 schools were regular participants. My Advertising Creative class worked with Fox for nine years and winning classroom teams went on to film commercials, develop social campaigns and do live activations with Fox professionals. Students have been given behind-the-scenes access to remarkable sporting events like the Daytona 500 and, as shown here in the photos, the 2018 Superbowl. My role is to guide the teams through the marketing challenge and push them to develop ideas that can move the needle for these huge sports events.

It’s not enough to think about or read about how big and inspiring the creative industry is. It must be experienced first-hand. Every October I arrange an inspiration trip to NYC to meet and network with professionals in the fashion and lifestyle industries. They open their doors and reveal the opportunities that await students as they venture into the field. Many talk about parts of the industry students didn’t even know existed. I started organizing this trip with individuals from my personal network in 2009. Since then, the list of UNC alums who have graduated and want to give back has been heartwarming and joyous. The first trip I took to NY was 12 students, the most recent, 27. Although we are all tired from running across the city, it’s a thrilling time to share with students. I witness how traveling with students fundamentally changes the classroom experience.

Expanding the travel opportunities to add a global perspective began with an initial trip to London and Paris. This first venture into planning for and hosting students abroad deepened my respect for the complexity and responsibility our international programs manage on behalf of students. The trip created a design feature for the Workroom FashionMash client—to meet the upcoming year’s project client in the spring in their own country, then plan a year-long dive into their brand. The following year, we’d host them at UNC so that the students coudl share the ideas generated from what they have learned. As of this writing in 2019, we’ve done this with three clients. It has served the program expansion very well, since international clients have been very attractive to students who want to study them in the classroom and in personal projects. This trip introduced us to the Cartier client, and the resulting work went on to be an awarding-winning project for the student teams.

Continuing to the fashion capitals of Europe, the Spring 2018 trip headed to Milan and Florence where we were introduced to our current client, Gucci. The students are immersed in the elaborate worlds they saw in their travels and currently designing around a broad theme: Fashion Good. Gucci’s sense of art and history is a foundational component to answering the question of what fashion can do to be a change for good. I have designed the project scope to include every aspect of the FashionMash program areas, including a newly-launched student-run store.

Innovate Carolina completely changed the way I work at UNC. After joining this team in 2015, I gained insight into the scope and scale of projects going on around campus that I’d never imagined. It opened up a whole new world of possibilities for collaboration. With this new information, I worked with the team to brand themselves to others in the campus community. I did the design research and outreach, designed a new logo/identity system, and developed a complete advertising and promotional system.

The launch of the new Innovate Carolina brand began with a University-wide Summit on Innovation. Its goal was to educate the campus and alumni community on the variety and expansiveness of the work going on across the campus. Over 100 students participated in developing the work and partnerships with colleagues John Sweeney, Terence Oliver and Spencer Barnes expanded the areas of expertise the project tapped. The Innovate team, the campus facilities and architectural teams, the communications staff and the Chancellor’s office all joined forces. Staged in the middle of campus between South Building and Wilson Library, the showcase of work occurred on stages built by UNC Habitat for Humanity teams and class members. After it was over, the wooden structures were dismantled and used for housing materials. Hundreds of people and countless hours made this installation, performance, event and conference a singular moment as the University began it’s work on the future-visioning strategic plan.

A big step in the iteration of Workroom (before it became the expanded Workroom FashionMash program) was seeing what a project would entail if it spread across multiple classes. Prior to this, any work done in the Workroom setting was reserved to the participants in that single class. I pitched Curtis Media to join forces with us to produce a big event with a lot of moving parts. They agreed to let the students experience with a music festival concept for their LaLey radio station. LaLey has the largest Hispanic audience of any station in the Mid-Atlantic. The work was divided across the creative class, which did the advertising, the Workroom class which produced the event, and the art direction class which branded the concept. A festival and concert was staged at Memorial Hall in English and Spanish. I worked to develop the techniques necessary to do this cross-classroom collaboration. It was the model for all the projects that followed.

Marguax Shoes is a small startup brand brand in NY begun by two recent graduates of Harvard. As young entrepreneurs, they were the perfect client for Workroom FashionMash as the product design class found its feet. I teamed up with the UNC Entrepreneurship MInor to ensure the class was highly interdisciplinary. The team took Margaux’s designs to the next level by prototyping a full line of handbags that would accompany the brand’s existing shoe line. International accessories designers came in from London at the end of the year to critique and support the work. I worked to teach an entire classroom full of students how to cut leather, even though none of us had ever done it before. The resulting designs were fun and very relevant to their target, the young, trendy consumer.

The Minor has welcomed my perspective on design thinking, venture creation and entrepreneurial training for a number of years. It has been a powerful platform to build bridges between both departments and disciplines. My work is to develop hands-on modules for the large ECON 325 course with an enrollment of about 125. It’s not an easy challenge to be project-oriented in this huge setting, but the Minor leadership has embraced being experimental and really trying out some unusual approaches. Receiving a Minor in Entrepreneur includes taking a track course in a specialized area of entrepreneurship. My Workroom FashionMash class is the Design Track for the Minor. It’s a tremendous partnership.

Even though the Workroom FashionMash program is aimed at the media and branding side of the fashion world, it quickly became clear when the program expanded, that the campus is full of student who want to produce lines of clothing. To accommodate this area of interest, I’ve develop systems for individual, independent projects to be supported. This piece, Grunge Save The Queen, allowed four student designers to collaborate on an experimental collection. The film was produced by the Art Direction class after the clothing was finished, linking the independent project to the curriculum of the program that focuses on how clothing collections need imaginative promotion.

The student’s work on this piece was recognized with a2019 Gold Addy Award.

The UNC Admissions department developed the Thrive@UNC program to allow students to tell the stories of their journey in their own words. I was invited onto the team by Terence Oliver to help develop the idea for the promotion and market it to the campus. Mark Katz worked with us to develop content and talent concepts. The idea was to go beyond the written word and into performance with spoken word poetry where students could speak their heart. Terence developed an incredible visual landscape for the pieces with motion graphics after Chad Stevens and has graduate students filmed the piece. I provided the set and studio space, and promoted the final pieces through campus publications and on digital platforms. To date, the videos have been viewed by over 10,000 people.

Students from professor Gary Kayye’s class wrote the manifesto and tagline that continues to guide the School of Media and Journalism into the future. “Start here. Never stop.” The entire school rallies around this sense of wonder and action the line inspires. I art directed and designed an in-school activation for this message after partnering with John Sweeney and Gary Kayye. The idea is to showcase the many companies that help students realize their dreams. As they walk the halls of Carroll, they installations throughout the stairwells and suites remind them of the universe of possibilities that awaits them.

Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Co. trend reports estimate that by 2020, the US and western Europe will fall behind in dominating the fashion market. The consumer landscape is moving East, with China growing the biggest market and Japan and India continuing to expand. Tokyo has always been a core of craft and design with a singular sense of expression and culture. This year’s trip will include meetings with major designers who have changed what we understand about how clothing can work, along with a deep dive in to the culture and landscape of the city. I organized this trip through many contacts who were willing to reach out across the globe. We will be meeting the Tokyo division of our client for next year. The students and I are excited to learn together.

A big component of the Workroom FashionMash program is developing reciprocal opportunities where we can bring international designers to the US so that students can learn directly from them in a workshop setting. Sarah Angold, an artist and jewelry designer working in sustainable materials (London College of Fashion and The Royal College of Art, London) launched our UNC BEAM MakerSpace workshop by teaching students to laser cut acrylic jewelry. Her partnership has led to other relationships where visiting artists can give students an international perspective.

American universities are invited to submit their most creative and innovative projects each year to the ACCelerate Festival at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Curators from the Smithsonian team then select the projects that best showcase these principles and accentuate the offerings the in museum. This year, the Workroom FashionMash program was nominated. The Smithsonian select the project and we are in the process of building an exhibit around our 2018-2019 theme of Fashion Good. The students in the program explore theme from many angles, and they selected their study of on sustainability in the fashion industry to to be focus of the exhibit. The final exhibit will feature an interactive statue of two figures whose clothing can be constantly changed by visitors to the exhibit using recycled materials. I am working alongside our student design team to bring the piece to life.

Explaining and inventing what cannot be explained or does not exist forms the foundation of creative work. The students chose to celebrate the expansion of Workroom into Workroom FashionMash, including thanking and appreciating the Goodwyn Family Foundation $1M endowment, by visioning the future. These students are not engineers, software developers or technical hardware designers. Yet, their show utilized touchscreen technology and projection techniques to ask provocative questions like: Will we need clothing choices in the future, or will we simply load up a programmed design? Or: Will brands be important in the future? Or: Will textures be real, or a sensation in the brain generated in some other way? The transformation of the space to house this installation was incredible, as the students worked for several days to build a backdrop for this dramatic work. The event included visiting professional from the industry to weigh in on the issues the work raised. I worked to coordinate the entire undertaking across several classes and independent study students.

Getting students into a place of fun and joy involves incorporating content into projects that exudes this feeling. Freaker Socks, a knitwear company out of Wilmington, NC was the perfect combination of entrepreneurialism, local craft and unbridled enthusiasm. The entire ECON 325 Entrepreneurial Tools class from the Shuford Minor in Entrepreneurship (125 students!) participated in this project along with the art direction class the experiential marketing class from Workroom FashionMash. Together they produced new product ideas (all prototyped in the UNC makerspaces) and a fully operational mobile unit. I designed the project scope across these varying groups and worked to fully support the wildest ideas they could bring to the project. The result was a freaky and wonderful as the Freaker brand itself.

The network continues to grow each year as student graduate and enter the industry. The program is reaping the benefits of these alums that are so willing to engage and give back. I work to recognize where we fall short in the class curriculum when students have specialized or hybrid interests. Organizing individualized trips, for students or finding connections to content that is meaningful to their journey is a magical part of my work.

Panels open up the whole school to the industry leaders that visit and bring their expertise. I continue to explore the different types of panels we can offer the UNC community that connects their interests to the work being done in industry. Narrowing down the focus is often the hardest task, as we work through projects and expand our understanding of a topic area. These panels also give industry pros a chance to hear from students about their concerns.