JWU Design Students Accepted into RISD Guild

The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Guild is a student-led program connected to the RISD Museum that brings together college students from across Providence to create events, programs and interactive experiences for the community. JWU Design students Jahnele “Jelly” Williams ’26 and Jawon Parker ’28 were recently accepted into the Guild, which offers the opportunity to grow as designers while helping make art more accessible in the city.

So far, they have worked on a variety of projects including scavenger hunts, craft nights and other collaborative art projects, all designed to make the museum feel welcome to a broader audience. The size and scope of the projects range depending on creativity, with the largest one being a collaborative, table-wide collage that allowed participants to create something that represented themselves. “Participants were asked to think about their identity and represent it on paper,” Parker says. “They were free to tear, cover up and highlight certain parts of the images provided, or draw self-representations.”

For Williams, these projects represent a greater effort to make museums and other intellectual majority spaces more accessible and less closed off. "When you think of museums, you think of pretentious people," she said. "What we're trying to do is break that ideal and turn it into a space for everybody." Parker shared a similar point of view, reflecting on how these events bring people together. “Our events brought people young and old together to participate, bond and enjoy art,” he said.

Both students credited JWU with giving them the confidence and skills to pursue opportunities like the RISD Guild. For Williams, the Design program has helped her expand her basic skills and improved her confidence in applying them to the real world. "In all honesty, I knew nothing about graphic design before I came to JWU," Williams said. "JWU taught me how to take those skills to the next level and apply them in all these different areas and get these opportunities.” 

For Parker, the program changed the way he viewed design altogether by teaching him that design isn’t about something simply looking good. It also relies on the audience, context and the ability to continuously revise concepts. "I realized that design is an ongoing process," he said. "Even after a project feels finished, it still requires minor tweaks and sometimes major adjustments."

How Williams and Parker Approach Design

A strong foundation is essential to the creative process for both of these designers. "We usually start with research," Williams said. "That's how we know what we want to create in the end." From there, ideas are developed through sketches, revisions and feedback.

Parker follows a similar approach, focusing on elements such as research as well as balancing inspiration, efficiency and planning. “Things like research, looking for inspiration, sketching, having other eyes on your work and managing your time wisely are important,” Parker said.

Within the RISD Guild, collaboration has become an especially important element to both students. For Williams, the feedback is often what helps determine the success of a design and whether it needs to be tweaked via trial and error. “More often than not, there’s something that needs to be revised,” Williams said, adding “it’s just a bunch of revision and then moving on to a final product.” Parker also described this process as one centered on teamwork. Rather than relying on himself and his opinion alone, he has had the privilege of working with design students from RISD and other schools to volley opinions and ideas off each other and make a better final product. “My creative process in the RISD Guild has revolved around working with our team,” Parker said. “We would give opinions and feedback to make the design the best we could.”

This experience of collaboration has even affected them outside on a more personal level. For Williams, this experience has revealed that she could easily adapt to unfamiliar creative environments and experiences. “The fact that I was able to adapt shows that I have the ability to do so more, both now and in the future,” Williams said. “It’s about learning to take that leap of faith.” Parker, on the other hand, emphasized the openness to new creative opportunities being part of the Guild has given him, especially within the museum world. “Enjoying museums the way I do, I realized that a lot of talent can be used here in terms of work,” Parker said. “You don’t just have to be a designer to work or contribute to a museum.”

Williams and Parker agree that joining the RISD Guild would be an amazing experience for Design and non-Design majors alike. This opportunity allows a variety of fields to collaborate and engage directly with the RISD Museum. “It’s not just graphic design students who get accepted,” Williams said. “There are people from all different kinds of majors or positions who got into the RISD Guild.”

“This is a great experience and opportunity to meet new people and improve your design work,” Parker adds. “But this isn’t just a design experience — you also improve communication, researching skills, event planning, your eye for art and much more.”

From their time at the Guild so far, both students have already gained a stronger understanding of how design can connect people to art and community and how they themselves can use their skills in a multitude of ways. With more programs and interactive experiences ahead, their involvement reflects not only their own creative growth, but also the growing presence of JWU students within Rhode Island’s art scene.

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