Keen as folk: Quality Time
What do students do after graduation? An MFA in Design is not just an accolade—it is the foundation of how we work and connect in the world.
In spring 2024, I spoke with alum Kate Greenberg (BFA Furniture 2020), who reminded me that while we often seek out community, it's just as important to build it ourselves. This idea came to life in conversations with three collaborative design studios formed during the MFA Design program at CCA—groups that found each other through shared values, creative energy, and a love of making. Their stories, often rooted in mutual support and long hours of joyful work, frequently mention faculty member Luca Antonucci, whose course on hybrid business practices has inspired many students to forge their own paths through publishing, residencies, teaching, and beyond.
QT group with extended members, left to right, back to front: Farzad Kargaran, Maria Cardenas, Devan Ponce, Savithri Velaga, Cole Ryder, Thomas Euyang, and Andrew Roque
Quality Time is the collective and studio of Devan Ponce, Maria Cardenas, Andrew Roque (all three class of 2023), Savithri Velaga, and Cole Ryder (both MFA Design 2024)
“Grad school is forever,” is a phrase I’ve adopted from Devan. Meaning, school is generative, it produces community, and it opens ways of working and responding that can stay in our practice… forever. When I sit down with the members of Quality Time and ask what they are up to, it’s no surprise to hear that they are busy. The members: Devan, Maria, Savithri (or Sav), Andrew, and Cole, were busy in school too. Cole describes them as “secretly serious,” beneath the fun, but it isn’t a secret; they are keen. While pursuing their degrees, they were running hard, submitting excellent work, exhibiting paintings, teaching, and selling work.
They haven't lost the momentum. This spring, in addition to individual jobs at Apple and Heath Ceramics, residencies, freelance work, making art, and planning curation, the collective is doing the branding and production for San Francisco Art Book Fair. The Fair was founded in 2016 by Luca Antonucci’s imprint Colpa Press and has grown to host over 120 exhibitors from around the world. The fair welcomes approximately 15,000 guests every July. Quality Time wanted to do the production and branding for the SF Art Book Fair for two years, and in 2025, Luca threw their name in the ring.
QT group with extended members, left to right, back to front: Farzad Kargaran, Maria Cardenas, Devan Ponce, Savithri Velaga, Cole Ryder, Thomas Euyang, and Andrew Roque
“It’s a big opportunity for us and we’re super stoked,” collective member Maria says. “It’s pretty cool you guys were able to make that happen,” Cole adds, “After years of participating in the fair, now we’re part of the production. This is a perfect opportunity for us, we can have a ton of fun and play.” Maria and Sav secured the job and are managing communication; the whole group is collaborating on the look and feel of the production.
This is typical of their process in its emerging form. One or two members will focus on finding a particular opportunity and run point on communications; they will all lean in on the work. As a group, they strike a balance of playful humor and serious ambition. “The way people assume legitimacy is so different. Is it the space? The paying client?” says Cole. The collective “legitimizes us as individuals and as a group,” says Dev, and Sav adds “People know they get more when they hire us as a group.”
Cole, Andrew, Maria and Sav planning the layout in the new Bayview Studio in 2024
Gathered at the table in the middle of their studio, the feeling is familial. “This is how the school studios are set up, with collective work spaces in the middle and individual desks around them, and it worked for us,” says Cole. Family Style was the first name they considered, “Eating together was super meaningful for us. Ordering in and going out! Multiple (Thee) Parkside hangs post-crit, having a beverage with our instructors and peers. Quality Time grew out of that ethos of working and being together,” says Maria.
What exactly is Quality Time? They are letting it take form. For now, the ambiguity is working in their favor: they can shift to become what they need to be for each project that comes. “We are getting more and more comfortable with trusting the ambiguity, and good things are happening,” says Cole. They all work across lanes of art, design, and craft. Letting it be fluid and exist as one world feels more honest. They all make things that could be called fine art, but enjoy grounding the collective work in design language. “Design helps take the ego out,” says Dev, “because you have to think about someone else,” finishes Sav.
“It’s nice to see how Quality Time grows as we grow, as opposed to calling ourselves a design agency, getting clients, and offering specific services. Maybe that model doesn’t apply anymore?” wonders Maria. “Or maybe it applies as needed,” adds Sav. “Rather than pursuing clients, we’re looking for opportunities to make things,” says Cole. “And to play,” adds Dev. They agree that they are a collective more than a business, or at least “not a business first,” says Maria. At the core, it’s a group of friends. “Instead of having an answer to what we are, we just started,” says Sav. “It’s there for how it works for you,” says Dev. “I’m always asking, how can I continue to make my craft work for me, to have agency in my life?” Quality Time is one of the answers to this question, and the way it answers it is a flexible web of work, friendship, and support.
— Saraleah Fordyce, professor of Critical Studies and MFA Design
May 01, 2025
