From Spanish Major to Museum Designer: A Nonlinear Creative Path for Board Member David Hastings

January 22, 2026

Perpich Board member and graphic art director, David Hastings, visited with Craig Farmer’s Museum Studies students on Thursday, January 22. By following curiosity instead of a rigid career plan, Hastings built a creative career that eventually led him to his current role as a senior designer at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia). His path, from studying Spanish at St. Olaf College to designing major museum exhibitions, was anything but traditional.

David Hastings (back row middle) spoke with students from Craig Farmer’s Museum Studies class on Thursday, January 22.

While studying Spanish and management studies at St. Olaf, David didn’t major in design, largely because the option didn’t exist. Instead, he gravitated toward creative work wherever he could find it, including a student job at the campus library, where he designed posters, displays, and event materials. “There was always this self-motivated drive,” he said. “I just knew I had to be doing something creative.”

After graduation, David bought a one-way ticket to New York without a job or apartment lined up. To make the move possible, he worked retail at a store with a New York location so he could transfer. “You can put yourself in the space of opportunity, even if the way you get there isn’t the obvious or direct path,” he said.

In New York, David worked a series of jobs from concert production to retail before landing a receptionist role at a tech company. That job unexpectedly launched his design career. When the company’s creative director asked if he was a designer, David said yes. “She asked me if I was the thing I wanted to be,” he said. “So I just said yes.” Two days later, he started as a junior designer.

David Hastings

That pattern of saying yes to opportunity when presented continued through layoffs, freelance work, and roles in publishing, including designing children’s books at Disney and later working on book covers for major publishers. Eventually, David returned to Minnesota and joined Mia, where he now designs exhibition identities, gallery walls, publications, and large-scale advertising. One of his most notable and complex projects was “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” in 2025.

At the museum, his work blends creativity with collaboration. “I’m not doing something personal; I’m doing something in service of the artwork,” he said. “You have to remove your ego from the equation.”

David emphasized that there’s no single “correct” path into creative fields. Despite not having a design degree, he’s spent more than a decade working professionally. “I was a Spanish major,” he said. “I’ve just been working as a designer for ten years.”

For students feeling uncertain about their future, his advice is simple: stay open. “I didn’t focus on a specific career,” he said. “I followed a path that unfolded.”

David Hastings is a graphic designer and art director with more than a decade of experience creating thoughtful and impactful designs across industries in publishing, education, technology, and the arts. David is currently Senior Graphic Designer at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where his work spans design leadership over print publications, large-scale exhibitions, advertising campaigns, and identity systems that bring clarity and cohesion to complex ideas. He has also held in-house design roles at General Assembly, Disney-Hyperion Publishing, Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt, and HarperCollins Publishers. A lifelong lover of the arts, David grew up immersed in public arts education, and holds a bachelor of arts from St. Olaf College. He was appointed to the Perpich Board of Directors in September 2025 and is honored to support young creatives through arts education.