get in touch / marthalewisdesign@gmail.com
After earning a Bachelor in Environmental Design in Visual Design from North Carolina State University, Martha Lewis spent subsequent years working in advertising agencies and and design firms on the east coast of the US, eventually establishing her own client base before branching out into academia.
Martha began teaching part-time at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA in 1999. Shifting focus to academia full-time in 2001, she moved to the Middle East where she was an Assistant Professor at VCU's satellite campus in Qatar, teaching in the Communication Design program and serving as Area Coordinator of the program. Her international experience teaching continued and most recently traveled to Nanning, China in the summer of 2018 where she co-taught week-long design workshops. Living overseas provided many opportunities for travel, meeting diverse people, and experiencing different cultures.
Venturing back to the US, Martha moved to Portland, OR in 2006 and relaunched her design business while teaching communication design part-time at various colleges. Reentering academia full-time from 2013 through 2018, Martha was an Associate Professor and Lead Faculty for the Communication Design program at PNCA.
Martha believes creating as well as teaching others to be creative clearly enhances the work produced in both the profession and academia. She currently juggles her active design business while teaching at Clark College often working with students on real world projects.
In addition, Martha is a past member of the AIGA Portland Board serving as Education Director. Accomplishments in this role include organizing "THE MIX," AIGA portfolio reviews for recent graduates in the Portland area, as well as co-curating "Cuban Ephemera," a Cuban screen printed poster exhibition, and organizing a lecture by Cuban designers Michele Hollands and Idania del Rio.