Select Page

Innovation Center designs branded wall for M3 Insurance

Various designs in blue and yellow with M3 Insurance's logo. Some iterations incorporate the Milwaukee skyline.

Sarah Madden, “M3 Insurance concepts,” 2024.

Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design student Sarah Madden ’24 and Candice Roth, director of workplace experience & corporate administration at M3 Insurance, agree that collaboration was key to the success of M3’s branded wall project with MIAD’s Lubar Innovation Center. The finished graphic mural was placed in M3 Insurance’s new headquarters in downtown Milwaukee.

Roth began her experience at MIAD with a tour of the center. “After touring MIAD’s space and seeing all that they offer, I was really excited to work with Sarah [then a MIAD student], to have her bring some fresh new ideas for a wall mural that we put in our lobby,” says Roth. “The whole team was great to work with. Sarah had a lot of great ideas and was very open to feedback and incorporating it into the final product. We are very pleased with how things turned out!”

“Working with M3 was a great experience,” says Madden. “They had a collaborative approach and valued open communication, which made it easy to bounce around ideas and get feedback. I especially liked designing with the office space in mind and finding a concept that was true to their brand. It was really exciting to see my ideas come to life by the end!”

The Lubar Innovation Center connects MIAD students with companies to work on paid creative projects while providing support and guidance. For Madden, this was not her first project with the Innovation Center.

“Before M3, I also collaborated with the Innovation Center on a branding and advertising project for the Pettit National Ice Center,” she says.

“The Innovation Center was vital to my time at MIAD,” Madden adds. “I was able to get experience, make connections and grow as a designer in ways that prepared me for real-world challenges.”

Now a MIAD graduate, Madden says she “just wrapped up her time interning at Anthropologie on the digital design team creating social media, site and app content. I am now focused on pursuing full-time design opportunities in Chicago!”

Read more about becoming involved with the Innovation Center as a partner or student and about MIAD’s award-winning Illustration major and Animation track.

News

MIAD Values Recognition Award: Leslie Fedorchuk

Leslie Fedorchuk, Professor of Writing & Humanities and Director of Service Learning, received the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) MIAD Values Recognition Award for February 2026. Leslie received nominations that highlighted her embodiment of MIAD’s Core Values, especially Integrity, Kindness and Community.

MIAD Innovation Center and MAM provide career experience

Through a partnership with the MIAD Lubar Innovation Center, stunning campaign artwork by a student at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) once again is helping to launch Art in Bloom – the Milwaukee Art Museum’s annual celebration of art and spring. Illustrations by senior Emily Porven ’26 are both vibrant and subtle, colorful and evocative, capturing the essence of the event.

Nohl Alumni Award propels lasting impact for MIAD professor

Receiving a Ruth Arts Mary L. Nohl Alumni Award has both immediate and longer-term impacts for Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design Professor Jon Horvath; for himself as an artist, for the arts community and for MIAD students. Horvath, who teaches in MIAD’s Fine Art + New Studio Practice major, was one of three artists and one collective recently given the award, which provides $25,000 in unrestricted funds to each.

Arts education lays groundwork for MIAD alum curatorial role

Nikki Ranney ’22 (Illustration), the new curator of the Cedarburg Art Museum, says she “is so grateful that I went through my Bachelor of Fine Arts and got to experience a traditional art education at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design because it laid the groundwork for the more academic side of the curatorial field.”

Museum Studies class: Hands-on exhibition and career experience

Last fall’s Museum Studies class at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) has solidified a career choice for at least one of the 16 students who took it. The class was on the go all semester, visiting museums throughout Milwaukee, meeting with professionals and thinking critically about the role of museums in our society.