DesignHER Women’s Panel

For the third year, CMA affinity group the Columbia Design League presents DesignHER, a Women’s History Month event spotlighting amazing designers within the Midlands community. The panel features a diverse group of accomplished women including Eva Foussat, owner of Eva Foussat Creative and president of AAF Midlands; Katie Fyock, visual merchandising manager at Anthropologie; Christine McFadden, partner, creative director, and brand strategist for Devote; Rita Patel, owner of Hotel Trundle; Janet Swigler, contemporary and improvisational quilt designer; and moderator Maya Smith, visual artist and operations manager at Stormwater Studios.
 Learn about their journeys, impacts, and designs across the Southeast and beyond. Light refreshments included. Before the panel, enjoy the MakeHER market with panelists and other female creators selling a variety of wares. $20 / $10 for CDL members / Free for students with ID. Join today!

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Panelist: Eva Foussat, owner of Eva Foussat Creative and president of AAF Midlands
Eva Foussat is an award-winning creative director who has been working in the Columbia area for more than 20 years. From brand launches to copy editing, healthcare to roller derby, on the web and etched (literally) in stone, she has worked on it all!  

She currently owns her own design and marketing company, Eva Foussat Creative, which she started in early 2020. Her previous roles include creative director for the South Carolina Hospital Association and graphic designer at Lexington Medical Center.

Foussat has served on a number of boards in her career, including the Columbia QuadSquad Rollergirls, the Carolinas Healthcare PR & Marketing Society, AAF Midlands, AAF District 3, and Trustus Theatre. She holds professional memberships with the Carolinas Healthcare PR & Marketing Society, AIGA South Carolina, and AAF Midlands. She is also a donor to various local organizations, including the Columbia Museum of Art, Trustus Theatre, Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands, PASOs, Harvest Hope Food Bank, and the Free Medical Clinic.

Foussat is from the San Luis Rey Band of Luiseño (Payómkawichum) Indians in Oceanside, California. Her family relocated from California when she was young, and she was raised in Aiken, S.C. She moved to Columbia in 2001 to attend the University of South Carolina. 

She is deeply passionate about discussing beautiful typography, telling you about her most recent audiobook listen, and [ME1] debating the Oxford comma. 

Panelist: Katie Fyock, visual merchandising manager, Anthropologie
Katie Fyock likes to consider herself a passionate and driven individual with an appreciation for good design, pleasing aesthetics, and all things vintage. Originally from Greenwood, S.C., she attended the University of South Carolina and graduated with a degree in public relations. While studying, she worked part-time in retail, which eventually led to a role in visual merchandising. A couple years after Fyock graduated, Anthropologie announced its planned opening in Columbia, and she was eager to get her foot in the door with a brand that celebrates artistry in everything that they do.  

Fyock started with the brand as a department manager and has held many different roles in her nine years there. For the last six years, she has held the role of visual merchandising manager, allowing her the opportunity to support other Anthropologie stores in the district in visual workshops, be a part of the new store opening team for the location in Bend, Oregon, and continue to help grow the Columbia location.  

In addition to her career at Anthropologie, Fyock has pursued a passion project on the side — sourcing and selling vintage home decor and furniture for her antiques booth, Golden Goods, located at Re•Find. Her skillset in visual merchandising has proven invaluable in making this venture a success.  

Panelist: Christine McFadden, partner, creative director, and brand strategist, Devote
Christine McFadden is the partner leading creative direction and brand strategy for Devote, a multidisciplinary brand and design firm in Columbia, South Carolina, and Birmingham, Alabama. McFadden and the Devote team work to develop comprehensive brand identity programs and brand extensions with the goal of creating impact through authentic work that promotes beauty and uplifts the common good within communities and organizations. The firm’s work has served locally and throughout the country, with clients including Dream Golf, Regions Bank, Alys Beach, Telluride Food+Vine Wine Festival, the town of Lake Providence, Louisiana, and UNC’s School of the Arts. She and her husband, Luke, live in Columbia with their three young boys.

Panelist: Rita Patel, owner, Hotel Trundle 
Rita Patel, the vibrant soul behind Hotel Trundle, Columbia's exclusive haven of independent boutique charm, is a fervent advocate for living joyfully and daring to dream fearlessly. Now nestled in the heart of Columbia, Patel's journey began in Orangeburg, immersed in the captivating world of her parents' hotel management venture established in 1990.

Her academic pursuits led her to the University of Georgia for interior design and later to the University of North Carolina Charlotte, where she immersed herself in the enchanting realm of architecture, earning her master's degree. Starting her career in the artistic tapestry of Atlanta's metro area, Patel honed her skills in crafting luxurious residential havens and later ventured into the dynamic realm of commercial builds.

Fate intervened during her architectural odyssey when she crossed paths with Marcus Munse, her now-husband and kindred spirit in historical architecture. Drawing from their collective experiences in commercial design and hospitality, the dynamic duo birthed the ingenious boutique concept of Hotel Trundle, an embodiment of their shared vision, and opened its doors in 2018.

Beyond her role as a visionary hotelier, Patel is an active force in the community. She lends her expertise to the City Center Partnership Board and passionately serves on the Prisma Health Children’s Hospital Board. Recognized as a 2020 Experience Columbia SC Local Insider, Patel infuses her community with vibrancy and insight.

When not immersed in the world of hospitality, Patel finds solace and joy in the art of mehndi, the fluid strokes of watercolor, and the thrill of fossil hunting. Her eclectic passions harmonize with her downtown abode, where she resides with her husband, two spirited sons, a loyal canine companion, and a bearded dragon, creating a living canvas of creativity and warmth.

Panelist: Janet Swigler, contemporary and improvisational quilt designer
Stitching, by hand or machine, and manipulating fabric are Janet Swigler’s most satisfying creative outlets. Her quilts are improvisational, cut freehand, and created intuitively without the use of patterns. A rotary cutter is used to “draw” the fabric elements of a piece. Quilt making is her art form and incorporates principles of art: quality of line, value, proportion, and figure/ground composition. Exploring color, imaginative restructuring of a simple motif, and developing a piece as she creates it are important components to her work.

Since retiring in 2013 from a career in music education, Swigler has traveled numerous times to Ohio to study with Nancy Crow, an innovative quilt maker and a Master of the Medium in the Smithsonian Museum’s Renwick Alliance. Swigler’s background of musical training provides additional perspectives and depth of artistic understanding. Travel, observations of daily life and nature, reflections on personal insights, and regular tai chi practice inspire and inform her abstract creations. 

Moderator: Maya Smith, visual artist and Stormwater Studios operations manager

Maya Smith, also known as Maya the Artist, currently serves as the operations manager at Stormwater Studios. A graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design, Smith is a professional visual artist who utilizes a variety of media including graphite, colored pencils, and acrylic paint. The imagery she creates typically features visually realistic people depicted in stylized or fantastic settings. Smith uses image making as a vehicle to celebrate the diversity of people.