Kevin O’Callaghan

Designer of the iconic “popcorn” trophy for the MTV Movie Awards, Kevin O’Callaghan is a design educator with a unique focus on transformative conceptualization. O’Callaghan has been teaching 3D design courses at the School of Visual Arts since 1985. In 1999, he founded the undergraduate 3D design program, which he currently chairs. He and his students transform wasteful, dangerous, obsolete, and iconic objects, products, and “other” things into conceptual products and works of art. The exhibitions have been featured in more than 190 newscasts, including CNN, and 400 articles reaching more than 500 markets around the world. As a 3D designer, O’Callaghan also creates monumental imaginative spectaculars for clients such as MTV, History Channel, NBC, and other media giants. As an educator, O’Callaghan possesses a rare combination of indomitable fortitude and immeasurable tenderness. He is a demanding teacher who gives his students all that he can and expects them to work at least as hard as he does in helping them to achieve their visions. He instills in his students both the strength and confidence that “they can accomplish anything” with creativity and hard work. He is the subject of Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O’Callaghan and was a 2012 Inductee of the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame.