A Wide Range of Companies Seek Fresh Talent at RISD’s Design Portfolio Review 2026

“The talent that comes out of every single RISD department is incredible,” says alum and Brooks Running Senior Designer Noelle Webster 16 TX. “It’s thrilling to see the next generation of designers focus on environmentally sound practices. That’s the backbone of our strategy at Brooks: green textiles, better dye practices, and reimagined post-consumer materials.”

Webster was one of more than 180 design professionals representing over 80 companies, firms, and design studios at this year’s Design Portfolio Review in March. And, as Career Center Associate Director Susan Andersen points out, more than a third of this year’s portfolio reviewers are—like Webster—RISD alums. “In addition to the online Design Portfolio Review, the Career Center hosted on-campus visits by a number of organizations this year, including award-winning animation studios LAIKA and Skydance,” she adds.

The great thing about the in-person sessions, notes Career Center Director Kevin Jankowski 88 IL, is that they allow visiting professionals to experience “the energy of creativity, innovation, critical thinking, and extraordinary making that takes place here every day. It’s breathtaking, it’s inspiring, and it drives everyone who works and teaches here.” And all the portfolio reviewers, he adds, can see for themselves “how RISD students conceptualize, research, experiment, push material boundaries, and iterate in order to produce amazing projects.”

Senior Chloe Jo 26 ID was one of the students Webster met with, and she has since been selected for a summer internship at Brooks Running in Seattle. “I’m really interested in athletic and performance footwear and took a course on traditional shoe-making last semester in the Industrial Design department taught by Sarah Guerin,” says Jo. “That class let me use a lot of the skills I have built up over the years and offered a great opportunity to push myself.”

Graphic Design major Olivia Wiser 26 GD also has a strong grasp on the kind of work she wants to do after Commencement: for her, it’s type design. She met with a total of four portfolio reviewers, including global consultancy Lippincott, New York and two-person design studio Astronaut Monastery.

“They gave me really helpful feedback about how to organize my portfolio and what to add, like more branding mockups,” Wiser says. “One reviewer suggested that I include more visual storytelling—more of my process—rather than just talking about it.” She is currently applying to the type design program at Cooper Union in NYC, where she intends to “bulk up her resume and then apply to type factories, which is where I want to work someday.”

Astronaut Monastery Design Lead Harshal Duddalwar MFA 23 GD has participated in Design Portfolio Reviews for the past three years and appreciates the conceptual nature of the work he saw this year. He advises students to “put themselves out there, ask the right questions when meeting with company reps, and start with their strongest work.” Is it important to edit one’s portfolio and show only the most recent projects? Duddalwar says no. “You never know which project will resonate,” he explains. “Show a range of stuff and stay true to your process, design sensibility, and approach.”

Grad student Airien Ludin MFA 26 IL found success following that advice but also made sure that her portfolio was tailored to bookmaking, which is what she hopes to do professionally. “The Illustration MFA program at RISD is pretty self-driven,” she says, “and department crits are geared toward your messaging and specific way of working. Portfolio reviewers look at your work through a commercial lens, which is really helpful.”

Reviewer and RISD alum Atulya Chaganty MID 17, senior interaction designer at design consulting firm Blink UX, wasn’t looking to fill a specific position but is “always happy to see great work. I want to see how someone thinks, how well they can communicate their ideas and their thought process, and how they deal with conflict,” she adds.

Although she admits to being biased, she insists that “the work ethic at RISD and the systems thinking behind it are unmatched by anything I’ve seen out there. RISD students have a conceptual, holistic understanding. As designers who have the responsibility and the power to effect great change on the micro and macro levels, that’s what sets you apart: your ability to think in unusual ways and make those connections.”

Top image: illustration from Loose Threads by grad student Airien Ludin.

Simone Solondz
April 9, 2026