Graduating this coming January, Rutgers–Camden senior Melissa Vilain has built both a portfolio and a path forward through her vulnerable, visual storytelling. The BFA in graphic design student’s visually arresting work, infused with lived experience, was recently recognized by the area’s design community.
Vilain’s brother, a Rutgers–Camden alumnus, played a key role in both his sister’s emerging career and college major. “I realized that growing up, I wanted to be an artist; I wanted to do something art-related. And my brother introduced graphic design to me,” she said. “As I was doing research, I learned a bit about the art department here, and I just felt as though this could possibly be the best decision that I could make for myself,” she said.
After earning an associate degree in graphic design and digital media, Vilain transferred to Rutgers–Camden, where she chose the BFA concentration in graphic design—a decision that extended her education by a full year. She has no regrets. “I just wanted to learn more and grow my portfolio, and I knew that the best way to do it was by just continuing,” she said.
With more courses, Vilain has strengthened relationships with her professors, among them, Professor of Art and Graphic Design Department Chair Allan Espiritu, whom Vilain called her mentor. Last spring, Espiritu sent her details for a scholarship from the Philadelphia chapter of the AIGA, the design industry’s oldest and largest professional membership organization.
Vilain recalled applying, yet she didn’t initially believe it when she won. “It was April 1, so I thought it was a joke. I thought, ‘This is not real.’ But it was, it was real. It's very much real,” she said.
The AIGA Philadelphia awarded Vilain its Alina Wheeler Memorial Scholarship for her outstanding creative vision, personal storytelling, and dedication to exploring themes of identity, emotion, and mental health through graphic design.
Those themes are acutely personal. Vilain has major depressive disorder, which impacts her personal life and, for a time, threatened to upend her academic career. “I’d forget that the resources and the people that I have around me at school are here for me, because I always tried to do things on my own,” she said. Connecting with on-campus resources at the Office of Disability Services and Wellness Center gave Vilain the support she needed to thrive. “I just would not be able to strive and succeed the way that I did because of the struggles that I do have to face on a day-to-day basis," she said.
Vilain has incorporated those struggles into her work, most notably in her favorite piece, “Ephemeral Joy,” a memory book that, through typography, reflects the tension between both fleetingly happy and traumatic experiences. “I try to implement my struggles and not just my lows, but my highs as well,” she said. “And I realized by doing that, I have reached a lot of people, and a lot of people have been moved by what it is that I can create and what I have created so far.”
Despite balancing a full BFA course load and commuting to school, the senior has remained active at Rutgers–Camden through on-campus opportunities. For nearly a year, she has assisted the admissions department as an enrollment management representative, guiding callers to sources for admissions and financial aid.
She has also further immersed herself in design through an internship with the Visual, Media, and Performing Arts (VMPA) department. As an electronic arts intern, Vilain works in the VMPA’s Print Lab, preparing in-house materials for production. She also creates the programs for the school’s Mallery Concert Series.
Now, with graduation in sight, Vilain views the industry in which she aspires to enter as rapidly changing with the rise of AI and automation. She’s unsure of where she will land but is definitive in her creative philosophy. “No matter what path I take, I know I want to keep using design to tell stories, make people feel something, and think differently about the world around them,” she said.
