Counsels

Hank Richardson

Hank Richardson is President of Portfolio Center. He was recently elected to AIGA’s National Board and is an AIGA Fellow. He has served on the Boards of AIGA/Atlanta, Allied Design Council/Atlanta, and Atlanta Ad Club.

An avid teacher and inspiring leader in design education, Richardson travels widely, speaking at universities and conducting workshops and seminars at conferences around the country. Most recently he moderated a panel on Approaches to Teaching Design History at the Schools of Thoughts conference in Pasadena.

Richardson wrote the commentary for the Graphis New Talent Design Annual, 2001, Designing for the Real World, and his articles, speeches, and columns are published frequently in print and online. As a consultant, he has also contributed to books by such industry notables as Steven Heller, Elizabeth Resnick, Ellen Shapiro, and Luke Sullivan.

During his tenure at Portfolio Center, Richardson’s students have garnered over 5000 local and national awards. His graduates are employed in the most highly respected firms and agencies in the world, including And Partners, The Attic, Cartoon Network, CNN, DesGrippes Gobe, Goodby Silverstein, Hornell Anderson, Hallmark, Landor, Leo Burnett, Martha Stewart, MTV, Pentagram, The Richards Group, Sapient, and VSA.

Most important, however, he works within the philosophy that one of the most wonderful aspects of being a designer is the opportunity to confirm one’s own integrity and to promote design as a personal advocacy and a catalyst for change.

Melissa Kuperminc

Melissa has been passionate about visual arts for as long as she can remember. After earning an undergraduate degree in Communications and Political Science from the University of Delaware, she spent six years as an award-winning journalist and editor. She decided to merge her interest in storytelling and visual arts by studying design. Melissa earned an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 1997. Since then she has worked on a range of projects from book design and publications to academic and corporate work.

But Melissa’s most satisfying work has been in the classroom, as a design counsel and teacher. She loves working with students to help them develop a powerful voice and the ability to communicate these ideas visually. Her research interests include the creation of visual narratives, and the study of design objects and strategies used by parents and children.