2026/27 Merit Scholarship Recipient: Henry Williamson

Why did you decide to come to MCAD?

I transferred to MCAD from UW Stout, I was looking for a program that would push me harder and really challenge me. I am thankful to have found my place here, students are much more excited about design and I feel challenged to work as hard as possible and constantly reevaluate my practice.

How/why did you choose your area of study?

I have long been inspired by designs potential for individual empowerment and social change.

Describe the work you submitted for merits.

Most of my work centers around an interest in design as a social and spatial force for change. I am interested in how design interacts with global systems and how designers can harness their power of communication for good. Through my work I explore the many complexities of typography, language, and communication. Additionally I utilize bookmaking techniques for my publications as well as photo documentation to continue communicating the aesthetic of each work.

What are your plans for your senior year? And beyond?

I am currently working on my senior project where I am exploring language circulation in city systems. I am exploring the modern city and the designed visual environment as two everyday systems deeply shaped by capitalism, in which space and language are organized according to the logic of efficiency, production, and profit. These systems structure how people move, interact, and communicate, often at the expense of human connection. Through this mode of thinking I am exploring the bumper sticker as a way to use the circulation of language in car culture as a way to work within and undermine this system. After graduation I hope to move to the Netherlands and pursuit a masters program there. This will hopefully open up opportunities to move their permanently.

Favorite thing about college life (so far)?

I love working on homework. I also love being surrounded by people who are excited about design.

What inspires your creative self?

I have been interested in exploring failures of capitalism and how its symptoms appear within our built world both physical, oral, and visual. Typography is another string driver of my practice. I believe typography allows for the most complexity within the interaction between designer and consumer. By manipulating, distorting, and changing the context of the type you can restructure the consumers idea of the piece they are interacting with.