Matt Woolman

As Executive Director of Entrepreneurship in VCUarts, Matt leads a school-wide mission to integrate entrepreneurship into a culture and mindset that promotes the translation of creativity, knowledge and research into innovative products and sustainable business ventures. This includes defining areas of collaboration with academic disciplines and industry; and developing dynamic intra-curricular and co-curricular programming to prepares students and alumni to utilize their arts and design education in unique and rewarding ways.

Armed with MFA and MBA degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a BA degree from Oberlin College, Matt has navigated his over 20-year career between multiple identities — designer, consultant, business owner, professor, writer and publisher. He has developed a unique combination of skills that combine creative thinking with a comprehensive understanding of entrepreneurship and enterprise across a range of disciplines. Most importantly, Matt is passionate about design and its role as a strategic business asset.

Matt is profoundly curious about influences of information and communication technologies on the evolution of language and learning. As an independent producer, Matt has authored and co-authored ten books related to his research, including the best-selling Type in Motion: Innovations in Digital Graphics. His other books address such defining topics as motion design, music and the visual arts/design, and information visualization. Matt’s writings and art/design projects have been published internationally in design journals and books; exhibited internationally; included in private collections; and have received awards from PRINT Magazine, AIGA and Art Director’s Club.

Matt is a partner in CrossThink, LLC, a catalyst for cross-disciplinary thinking to boost a company’s innovation performance. Matt also consults with universities and colleges in entrepreneurship program development and evaluation.