RISD, Brown alums make 2015 Forbes 30 under 30 list

THREE ALUMNI FROM the Rhode Island School of Design and two from Brown University have made the 2015 Forbes magazine list 30 under 30.
THREE ALUMNI FROM the Rhode Island School of Design and two from Brown University have made the 2015 Forbes magazine list 30 under 30.

PROVIDENCE – Three alumni from the Rhode Island School of Design and three from Brown University have made the 2015 Forbes magazine list 30 under 30.
The list, according to the magazine, identifies “young game changers, movers and makers.” This fourth annual list features 600 millennials in 20 fields, selected by a panel of judges. The full list can be found HERE.
From RISD, Lindsay Degen, 26, a knitwear designer, and Jessica Walsh, 28, a graphic designer with Sagmeister & Walsh, are listed in the “art and style” category. Willem Van Lancker, 27, cofounder of Oyster, which delivers books to smartphones and tablets, is listed under consumer technology.
“We are proud of these distinguished alums who are making art and design a vital part of our lives,” said Nancy Skolos, interim dean for architecture and design at RISD. “They exemplify the capacity for artists and designers to spur innovation in our rapidly advancing world.”
According to Forbes, Degen launched her first ready-to-wear collection of “funky and highly technical knits as both art and fashion” in 2012 and a baby collection in 2013, while winning the 2014 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation award.
Walsh has designed for Levi’s and others, won “a slew of awards” and her blog, “40 Days of Dating,” has been published as a book and optioned by Warner Bros., Forbes says.
In 2014 Van Lancker’s Oyster raised $14 million from Founders Fund and Highland Capital Partners, Forbes said.
Also listed under consumer technology are Brown graduates Evan Stites-Clayton, 25, and Walker Williams, 26, cofounders of the T-shirt company Teespring, which in 2014 “sold 6 million shirts through its customers, at least 10 of whom have become millionaires,” Forbes said.

Teespring said in November that it had raised $35 million in Series B funding from Silicon Valley investors.

The Series B round from Khosla Ventures will allow Teespring to grow and build its own manufacturing plant in Kentucky, a company official has said.

In 2013, Teespring raised a $20 million Series A round from Andreesen Horowitz, also of California.

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Another Brown graduate, Max Winograd, 27, the CEO of NuLabel Technologies, an East Providence manufacturer, made the manufacturing list. The company makes adhesives that are only sticky when they need to be; it raised $14 million in funding from investors including envelope manufacturer Cenveo and billionaire Christopher Burch, according to Forbes.

Brown declined comment about the Forbes list.

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