About

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Olivia S Verdugo is a graphic designer and bird-nerd, passionate about mission-driven work, interdisciplinary cross-pollination, space exploration, fine art, and urban nature.

She is currently the Design Lead at the MIT Media Lab, where she leads design across Lab-wide initiatives and individual research groups, stewarding the Lab's visual identity across one of the world's most interdisciplinary research environments.

After studying dramaturgy at Oberlin College, she gravitated toward graphic design as a discipline with the same essential quality: the ability to bring disparate things into conversation and help a body of work find its own internal logic. Her multidisciplinary approach has carried her across the museum industry, the fine arts, and the sciences.

In addition to her design work, she creates textile art as part of CRUSH studio, an ongoing materials collaboration with artist Jenna Robb.

Outside the design studio, she loves camping and spending time with her husband and pet pigeons.₊⊹

Talks, podcasts

In-house/In-Focus/In-Person, 2026
On the arc of a design career and the work of the MIT Media Lab.

The Illustration Department Podcast interview, 2022
A conversation on design practice.

Athletics NYC Design Talk, 2021
On the history, architecture, and graphic design of the Barnes Foundation Museum.
⸝⸝⸝ jump to history
⸝⸝⸝ jump to architecture
⸝⸝⸝ jump to design

Education

Rhode Island School of Design
MFA, with honors, Graphic Design
Providence, RI, USA
RISD GD MFA 2011 group thesis site

Oberlin College
BA, Dramaturgy, Art
Oberlin, OH, USA

Certifications

Nielsen Norman Group
UX Certificate
Boston, MA, USA

Brown University
Sheridan Teaching Certificate
Providence, RI, USA

Awards

Olivia’s designs have been recognized by GD USA, the How In-House Design Awards, Graphis, the American Advertising ADDY Awards, Type Director’s Club TDC58, and Print Magazine’s Regional Design Annual.

During her time at RISD she was awarded RISD’s Graphic Design Graduate Fellowship Award and RISD’s Joan Shewmon Memorial Scholarship for excellence in graphic design.

Experience

The MIT Media Lab
Design Lead, 2022–present

The Barnes Foundation Museum
Art Director, 2017–2022
Graphic Designer, 2013–2017

URBN
Web Graphic Designer, Free People, 2012–2013
Print Graphic Designer, Urban Outfitters, 2011–2012

Rhode Island School of Design, Edna Lawrence Nature Laboratory
Designer + Graduate Assistant, 2008–2011

Teaching / teaching adjacent

Visiting Workshop Critic, Appalachian State University
Branding and Visual Identity,
Spring 2024, Spring 2026

Visiting Critic, Corcoran School of the Arts & Design at George Washington University
Graphic Design, Spring 2023

Visiting Critic, University of Pennsylvania
Graphic Design, Fall 2018–Spring 2021

Visiting Critic, Maryland Institute College of Art
Winter 2015, Winter 2016

Graduate Thesis Advisor, Rhode Island School of Design
Winter 2011 – Spring 2012

Teaching Assistant, Rhode Island School of Design
⸝⸝⸝ History of Graphic Design, Doug Scott, Spring 2011
⸝⸝⸝ Making Meaning, Hammett Nurosi,
Fall 2010

Guest Lecturer, Rhode Island College
Biomimicry in Graphic Design, Fall 2010

Visiting Teacher, New Urban Arts
City Nature Workshop, Summer 2010

Exhibition History

Water, Wind, Breath: Southwest Native Art in Community
February 20 – May 15, 2022

Suzanne Valadon: Model, Painter, Rebel
September 26, 2021 – January 9, 2022

Soutine / de Kooning: Conversations in Paint
March 7 – August 8, 2021

Elijah Pierce's America
September 27, 2020 – January 18, 2021

Marie Cuttoli: The Modern Thread from Miró to Man Ray
February 23 – August 23, 2020

30 Americans
October 27, 2019 – January 12, 2020

I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like: The Art of Bill Viola
June 30 – September 15, 2019

From Today, Painting Is Dead: Early Photography in Britain and France
February 24 – May 12, 2019

Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist
October 21, 2018 – January 14, 2019

Renoir: Father and Son / Painting and Cinema
May 6 – September 3, 2018

Kiefer Rodin
November 17, 2017 – March 12, 2018

Mohamed Bourouissa: Urban Riders
June 30 – October 2, 2017

Person of the Crowd: The Contemporary Art of Flânerie
February 25 – May 22, 2017

Live and Life Will Give You Pictures: Masterworks of French Photography, 1890–1950
October 8, 2016 – January 9, 2017

Nari Ward: Sun Splashed
June 24 – August 22, 2016

Picasso: The Great War, Experimentation and Change
February 21 – May 9, 2016

Strength and Splendor: Wrought Iron from the Musée le Secq des Tournelles, Rouen
Ellen Harvey: Metal Painting
September 19, 2015 – January 4, 2016

Mark Dion, Judy Pfaff, Fred Wilson: The Order of Things
May 16 – August 3, 2015

William Glackens
November 8, 2014 – February 2, 2015

The World Is an Apple: The Still Lifes of Paul Cézanne
June 22 – September 22, 2014

Yinka Shonibare MBE: Magic Ladders
January 23 – April 20, 2014