Our Team
Shawna Mansfield MFA
Associate Professor & Lead Professor Graphic Design
Shawna Mansfield (MFA Graphic Design and Visual Experience) is a graphic designer, professor, and all around curious creative. She is the lead instructor for the graphic design courses in Santa Fe College’s Digital Media Technology program and has been teaching at the college for 20+ years, first as an adjunct and now as a full-time professor. With a professional background that includes awards in print, video, and web along with a penchant for travel she is continually pushing her own creative boundaries as well as inspiring her students to do the same.
Although a true local of Gainesville, Shawna has worked with clients on both sides of the pond while traveling back and forth on global missions trips and managing her professional design studio. She also studied a semester in the south of France while attending the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) for her undergraduate degree. Several of her print design pieces have been added to SCAD’s permanent collection and one of her works was purchased by SCAD for use in their Lacoste, France campus.
In 2019, Shawna completed her Master of Fine Arts degree from SCAD. For her graduate work in Graphic Design and Visual Experience, she focused on the impact graphic design can have on the history of a community through the urban infrastructure. By creating these long-lasting pieces as representatives of a community and its people, these elements can become cultural artifacts for generations that follow. Of all the elements of the streetscape to choose from, Shawna focused on the ever-present manhole cover due to the pervasiveness of this item globally.
“A merging of graphic design and urban infrastructure has created a story of placemaking through the creation of sustainable cultural artifacts. My MFA Thesis in Graphic Design and Visual Experience strives to bring awareness to the importance and value of the functional items around us and how they can represent us, our past, and our future.” – Shawna Mansfield
The exhibit highlighted just a few of the many manhole covers Shawna has documented in her travels. More importantly, there are several covers from historic neighborhoods in Gainesville. Including one from the Gainesville Foundry and Machine Works which could easily be well over 100 years old. And that is the beauty of this concept. If the elements of the street are able to stand the test of time, then shouldn’t they also be enabled to reflect time? This is where Graphic Design, Urban Infrastructure, and Visual Experience intertwine.
On her thesis website www.shawnamansfield.com you can also see a video reel of over 200 world-wide submissions from fellow manhole cover enthusiasts. The best part is being able to see the culture represented in not just a few of those images.
Currently, Shawna Mansfield is interested in: Not being afraid to make ugly. Maintaining the computer as a tool. Being a lifelong learner, as one of her colleagues often says. Reminding creatives to use their hands when creating and not to rely solely on a machine. And she is obsessed with the possibilities of what can be made when collaborating with a scanner!
Marc Shahboz MFA
Professor & Lead Professor Digital Media
Marc Shahboz is a producer/director/writer and educator. He received his MFA from the University of Florida in digital media and also earned a baccalaureate degree in psychology from Florida State University. Marc is professor of video production, VFX and multimedia at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida and also the lead instructor for the college’s baccalaureate degree program in digital media. Marc has a love for producing both practical and digital VFX including tracking and compositing, digital and practical VFX makeup as well as miniature and 3d work.
Professionally, Marc has worked on projects for SYFY Network, Spike TV, Universal Kids, G4 Network, Capital One, US Navy, Microsoft, and NBC and continues to produce independent films and music video projects. His video for the song “Quicksilver” by the band the Cruxshadows was named by Huffington Post as one of the top 10 goth videos of all time. He has produced 7 episodes of his original supernatural series Weird U, which is available on Amazon Prime. Additionally, his work has screened film festivals including: Slamdance, SXSW, Action On Film Festival, NAPTE Web Shorts Competition (Overall Winner), H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival (with DVD distribution), Cosmos Film Festival (Best Short Animation), San Diego Comic Con Film Fest, ScreamFest / Spooky Empire, Sunscreen Film Festival, and Dragoncon.
At Santa Fe College, he teaches courses in production, lighting and visual effects and has had students go on to work as VFX leads for studio powerhouses like Industrial Light and Magic and commercial houses like the Mill. Marc’s former student was the VFX Supervisor for the top Super Bowl ad of 2020 for Jeep which featured Bill Murry.
Outside of filmmaking Marc is a competitive swim coach and he and his family have been featured on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior and American Ninja Warrior Junior.
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2529371/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marc_zombie_king/
Wes Lindberg / Professor
Wes Lindberg is a full-time Professor in the Digital Media Technology and Graphic Design Technology programs at Santa Fe College. With over 20 years of teaching experience Wes continues to fulfill his passion of inspiring and exciting the masses through the visual and performing arts.
He is a visual storyteller expressing his creative visions through film, photography and digital media. In addition to his computer programming degree Wes Lindberg also has a rich artistic background with 22 years of touring as a Professional Art Photographer receiving awards in many major exhibitions throughout the country prior to his teaching career at Santa Fe College.
Wes is an extremely active creative artist with multiple projects and activities happening every day including cycling, photography, film-making, and tractor adventures. He travels with multiple GoPro cameras attached to his mountain bike capturing life from all angles at the same time.
His most recent accomplishment was a live performance art presentation on the Santa Fe College Fine Arts Hall. With over 500 guests in attendance the show was 100% successful. “Automagically” is the way Gainesville photographer Wes Lindberg describes his multi-media collaborative theatre production, “Radiant Light,” a world premiere presented January 17, 2020. With projected images, actors, dancers and live music, “Radiant Light” explores the universal human experiences of birth, life, love and loss. The inspiration for “Radiant Light” came from several photographs Lindberg took of the stained-glass windows at Gainesville’s Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. By moving the camera, he created a streaming light effect that he said “speaks to people.”
“This show is the story of life from before birth to ascension,” Lindberg mused. “I believe we come from white light, we lead colorful lives, and we eventually go back to the white light.”
“Radiant Light” begins with the recorded heartbeat of a baby still in the womb and moves into images of sacred spaces and stained-glass windows. Lindberg then captures streaming light and paints with that light, using dancers as brushes. Each figure is photographed in motion and contemplation while the radiant light shines through and around them, illuminating the spirit within. Lindberg calls these images “symbolic light paintings.”
“As the images are projected above the stage, you’ll see what you witnessed but didn’t really see,” he said. “In front of us all, every day, there is more happening than what we perceive.”
After the premiere in Gainesville, Lindberg has been invited to take “Radiant Light” performance to Tokyo, India and Brazil, where the production will use local dancers, actors and visuals photographed and filmed on location to create a unique show in each place.
Wes Lindberg brings this exciting creative energy into every class he teaches. His students are energized and inspired to be the very best creative artists they can be. He believes every moment is an opportunity to change the world for the better, one creative step at a time, every moment.
Linnea McCarty / Assistant Professor
Linnea McCarty is a full-time professor of graphic design in the Digital Media and Graphic Design Technology program. With a BFA degree from Savannah College of Art and Design, the high-quality design direction Linnea brings to the classroom is a perfect pairing with the rest of the team.
The adorable pug in her photo is Petunia! More to come.
Eric Flagg / Program Coordinator
Eric Flagg is the Coordinator of the Digital Media Technology, Graphic Design Technology and Multimedia and Video Production Technology programs at Santa Fe College and Co-Owner of the Documentary Film Production Company, Jellyfish Smack Productions.
Eric received his Bachelors degree in Environmental Science from the University of Florida in 1998 and spent the next 8 years as an environmental consultant focusing on water quality investigations and wetland science. His first two major projects were in the Everglades and the Upper Ocklawaha River basin managing water quality sampling data for major multi-year studies contracted by Water Management Districts.
Eric eventually realized that scientific studies take a long time to produce discernible results and wanted to find a way to make a bigger impact in the environmental field in a shorter amount of time. He also wanted to find new ways to communicate environmental issues the way he was seeing them in the field beyond the mainstream media.
Eric left this career to earn a Masters degree from the Documentary Institute at the University of Florida. His thesis film, ‘Gimme Green’, that he produced with classmate Isaac Brown won a College Television Award (Student Emmy) award in 2006 and was nominated by the International Documentary Association’s David L. Wolper Award, which is their highest award for student films.
Since then, Eric has produced numerous long-form and short films and has found a passion for teaching. Eric started teaching at the Art Institute of Jacksonville in 2007 and later served as department chair of their digital film program while also teaching at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. Eric ‘came home’ to Santa Fe’s Digital Media Technology program as Coordinator in 2012.
Eric loves the ethos of Santa Fe College: Students from every walk of life, age and background, a campus-wide commitment to equality and meeting students where they are, it’s connection to global and local community and the drive towards excellence in teaching.
Kelly Cartier / Program Assistant
Kelly Cartier, works in the Digital Media and Graphic Design Technology program at Santa Fe College. Her skills include graphic design, video production, computer programming and web design among others. She holds two A.S. degrees in Programming and Digital Media Technology and is currently working on a Bachelors of Applied Science degree in Business.
Kelly loves all things technical and mechanical and as the Program Assistant, she helps keep the gears of the Digital Media Tech program turning smoothly. Kelly is a positive force in the workplace and uses her positivity, desire to serve our students and her boundless energy to encourage others to succeed. Our students depend on Kelly every day. When not at work Kelly enjoys horse-back riding, working on her small farm and photography.
Program Overview
Digital Media and Graphic Design Technology programs offer degrees that combine career and technical skills with state-of-the-art graphics and multimedia training.
Digital media skills can be applied to all industries and are necessary for many different job roles. The need for digital graphic design or multimedia and video production continues to grow in many fields including communications, advertising, education and entertainment.
With small classes and qualified instructors, we give students the support they need to succeed. You will gain more than skills. Our programs give you the confidence you need to excel in an exciting and creative career.