Press • The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

..."This is really a showcase for emerging artists," says SCAD President Paula Wallace.  "You never know when someone's going to walk in the store."

For consumers, shopSCAD is a one-stop shop where they can purchase unique gifts and accessories.  Nothing in the store is mass-produced and , in some cases, a customer will have the option of working with a designer to customize a product.  But merchandise won't t be starving-artist cheap. 

"Prices are definitely going to be higher than if you go to a department store because small businesses, or in this case, artists, are making these things,"  Amy Zurcher says...

"We won't try to do too much ourselves, "Wallace notes.  "We have been approached by major retailers who want to carry SCAD-designed art.  We just remain open to the possiblities." 

The school recently formed a partnership with West Elm to sell limited printed reproductions of original art done by a trio of SCAD graduates.  The items hit stores in late July.

But for many of SCAD's unknown artists, teh next customer that stops in to browse the new shop mihgt be their ticket to design fame.

Andre Leon Tally, an editor-at-large for Vogue magazine, recently purchased a ceramic bowl by SCAD graduate Tiffani Taylor at the Savannah store.

"He sent it to Oprah as a gift," Wallace notes....

--an excerpt taken from "Class Work" in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, an article written by Alma E. Hill