New faculty spotlight: Leech brings logo, branding and design expertise to SMAD
Media Arts and Design
By Meirra McChristian, staff writer
Professor Matt Leech has worked on creating logo designs and branding for companies such as Brothers Craft Brewing with its distinctive mountains in the design, Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, The Virginia Beer Co., as well as Hotel Madison.
Starting this year, Leech is bringing his expertise and connections with area organizations and local businesses to give students practical experience.
“In Harrisonburg [there are] various nonprofits and small businesses downtown that try to lift up different types of groups of people that might need help or might need to be seen,” Leech said. “One of my favorite things to do is to pair them with students that might have a skill set that could benefit [them],” Leech said.
Leech graduated from JMU in 2008 and is teaching SMAD foundations courses SMAD 201 Foundations of Visual Communication Design and SMAD 203 Foundations of User Experience. He said he grew up in a household where both of his parents were educators and saw how meaningful their jobs could be.
“You would just basically see how important education could be to people,” he said. “I also have two young daughters and I see how important it is to them.”
Leech said he has been enjoying teaching foundations classes, where students who have just been admitted into SMAD are getting to create stories visually and digitally.
“It's been really exciting to be in classrooms where people are just really excited to dig in and learn this information,” Leech said, “It's been exciting to just remember, people really want to know this stuff that I do every day and kind of forget is special.”
Before coming to JMU, Leech was a self-employed entrepreneur, and he stays updated in his field of design by reading blogs, books and talking with clients. Now, he said he is also to stay up-to-date with developments in the design field because of his students.
“I have to learn these kinds of styles which I need to serve visuals. So, I just learned just like you all constantly and from students too, said Leech. “You are faced with other people's design work all in the same problem. So it really helps you become aware.”
Leech said he hopes students will be willing to reach out and ask questions to their professors.
“I hope to give students good real-world experience so that they feel a little less nervous about practicing their craft or whatever their major is once they graduate,” he said.
