Product Design senior creates furniture line for Chicago firm
MIAD’s product design major was a good fit for Samantha Shappell’s longtime love of interior design and furniture.
For the MIAD Senior Exhibition, Samantha designed a four-piece furniture line for Third Coast Interiors, a Chicago-based interior architecture and design firm. The firm recently was formed from a merger of a Chicago interior design studio with an architecture firm owned by an architect from Mexico. The furniture line celebrates the company’s rebranding and the intersectionality of Mexican and Scandinavian cultures and its location in Chicago.
This Senior Exhibition project was the first time Samantha had built furniture. She designed and built:
- a lounge chair featuring custom upholstery.
- a side table, featuring a concrete tabletop embedded with black and white mirror pieces.
- a coffee table featuring a concrete top and woven cord shelf.
- a concrete terracotta planter.
Samantha received a MIAD Alumni Thesis Scholarship Award for her project. “A lot of the materials were really expensive to source. The scholarship helped offset the cost of material exploration, which is very important in furniture design,” Samantha said.
Samantha was hired full-time by Third Coast Interiors and plans to continue to develop the furniture line further for the company.
Samantha’s project is currently on view in the virtual MIAD Senior Exhibition at seniorexhibition.miad.edu. The MIAD Senior Exhibition is generously sponsored by BMO Harris Bank.
News
MIAD Task Award: Alum pays it forward with generous mentoring
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) alum Amy Cannestra ’06 (Communication Design) believes in giving back, in mentoring and in the supportive nature of the Milwaukee art and design community. By founding Task Creative and the MIAD Task Graduate Award, the incredibly busy creative exemplifies all three beliefs. The Task awardee, Ashley Osorio ’26 (Fine Art + New Studio Practice), will receive five consecutive days to use the Task Creative space for a project of their choosing this summer.
Meet Michaela Prischman and 2026 Senior Exhibition Project Cloth
Michaela Prischman ’26 (Communication Design) is a President’s (Honor) List student from Tinley Park, Ill. She created “Cloth,” a tool to help guide young professional women to find and organize alternative work attire through a personalized style subscription box.
Flagship Madison museum features exhibition by FYE faculty
The First-Year Experience (FYE) at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) blends contemporary and traditional techniques, an approach embraced by FYE faculty David R. Harper in Good Morning Sweetheart, a solo exhibition on view at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) through August 30, 2026.
Illustration seniors land NASA and Disney internships
Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design seniors Grace Weisner ’26 and Allison Stras ’26 have landed the internship of their dreams: Weisner at NASA and Stras at Disney. Both are Illustration majors with minors in Communication Design.
Meet Kas Cook and 2026 Senior Exhibition Project Mcallaster’s Special
Cas Kook ’26 (Animation Track in Illustration) is a Dean’s List student from the Greater Chicago area and a recipient of a 2026 Alumni Thesis Award. “Project Calvin Sazerac” is about Calvin Sazerac, a seasoned barkeep, who creates new cocktails for his favorite regulars. When he is challenged to meet the demands of a picky saloon patron, he creates something life changing.