How SAIC Alum Spencer Davis Designed a Career at Microsoft
When School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) alum Spencer Davis (BFA 2011) wanted to transfer to SAIC, his parents asked him to make a presentation about career paths that would be open to him as a graduate of an art and design school. At the time, he was studying art history at a liberal arts college in Ohio, but he was starting to realize that he didn’t just want to learn about the old masters, he wanted to paint and make, to get his hands dirty.
He outlined possible futures for his parents but did not imagine where he’s ended up, as a successful principal design lead at Microsoft, working on operating systems and virtual reality headsets. Still, his pitch to his parents was successful, and within a few months, he was moving to Chicago.
At first, Davis struggled to find his niche at SAIC. “I thought I was not artistic enough,” he said. Faculty members encouraged him to take classes from a variety of departments, until he found Visual Communications. “I just fell in love with it,” he said. “I loved how it took the beauty of art and combined it with the realism of design and structure.”
A few years after graduating, he was recruited to work for Artefact in Seattle, consulting on design work for companies like Alaska Airlines and Samsung. One particularly memorable project was for Intuitive Surgical, in which Davis helped to design medical equipment for laparoscopic surgeries, the same procedure he’d once had as a child. He also worked on an operating system for Magic Leap, a gaming company that was launching their first mixed-reality headset. Davis had grown up loving open-world video games like Elder Scrolls, and he got hooked on this immersive technology. When the opportunity to work on the HoloLens team at Microsoft arose, he jumped at it.
“I'd always worked on both hardware and software together from my days at MNML,” he said. “That combination allows you to tell a story for a product. For HoloLens 2, I got to work on the hardware, the software, and building up the entire user experience.” At Magic Leap, their headset was used for video games, but at Microsoft, the HoloLens had a broader scope; the US government began using it for front-line workers like doctors and firefighters.
Davis has now been at Microsoft for nearly eight years, and he’s currently leading a team working on Cloud and Windows operating system devices. “I love leading a team because my focus is on caring for the people on my team to make sure that they're successful and that they get to grow,” he shared.
He thinks his time at SAIC gave him a unique preparation for his various roles and projects in the design world. “SAIC was focused on craft and execution, grounded in making and learning the fundamentals.”
When Davis thinks about what advice he’d give to current students, his response is both that of a dreamer and a pragmatist—the same qualities that initially attracted him to design. “Once you know you’re passionate about something, figure out what your goals are,” he said. “This is something I've done over the years. I wrote down, ‘I really want to work with Nike. I really want to lead a project. I really want to lead a team.’ I think taking the time to honestly understand yourself and what you want is the foundation of everything.”
As the social media intern at Buddy in the Chicago Cultural Center, student Da Zhuang curates digital content, assists artists, and helps bridge the gap between local creatives and a wider audience.
