USC Roski Announces Spring 2026 Designer in Residence Lineup
USC Roski School of Art and Design is pleased to announce the Spring 2026 Designers in Residence. This group features Olga Severina, Corie Mattie, and Lawrence Azerrad, three influential creatives whose work spans graphic design, street art, music, and cultural storytelling. Through projects and student engagement, each resident brings a distinct perspective on how design shapes public dialogue and creative practice today.
Olga Severina (January 13 – February 10)
Ukrainian-born, Los Angeles–based designer and curator Olga Severina believes a single, powerful poster can shift how people see war, climate, and justice. Drawing on her work with major international poster biennials and global eco-poster exhibitions, she talks about how graphic design distills overwhelming world events into one unforgettable image—and why that clarity matters for public understanding, activism, and empathy.
Through PosterTerritory and Art Territory Ukraine, Olga brings together designers, artists, and students from around the world to collaborate on single, shared poster projects. This segment focuses on how one brief, one format, and one public-facing exhibition can create a moment of harmony and collective focus across borders—showing how design becomes a meeting place where international voices work side by side on themes like war, ecology, and human rights, and how USC Roski students can participate in that shared creative space.
Cori Mattie (February 17 – March 10)
Corie Mattie, also known as “LA Hope Dealer,” is a multi-disciplinary street artist whose impactful work graces the vibrant streets of Los Angeles and cities around the world. Her art is a fusion of pop culture, activism, and poignant social commentary, and it never fails to stir strong emotions across social media platforms.
Hailing from South Jersey, Corie’s journey initially led her to a career in sports management after completing her degree at Georgetown University. However, her unwavering passion for art soon led her to make a daring leap across the country to Los Angeles, where she decided to dedicate her life to her craft. It was in the heart of LA that she developed her unique artistic style, drawing inspiration from renowned artists such as Barbara Krueger and Shepard Fairey. Her work is bold, unapologetic, and impossible to overlook.
Lawrence Azerrad (March 31 – April 21)
Lawrence Azerrad is a two-time Grammy Award-winning creative director, author and curator. His studio Macroscopic works with musicians and educational and cultural institutions who seek to visualize the future, such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Esperanza Spalding and Wilco, The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, The Cooper Hewitt Museum, USC, UCLA, and Berklee College of Music. He was the lead curator of “The Future Happened: Designing The Future of Music,” a music and speculative design exhibit online with The Museum of Design Atlanta. His initiative “Designing The Future of Music” includes programs at the Royal College of Art, the Imperial College of London, and California College of the Arts.
Lawrence has spoken on design and inspiration at The V&A Museum, London, at TEDxUCLA, The Smithsonian and at universities, professional organizations nationwide and internationally.
