On her very first day at American University, Isabelle Ritz ’25 sat on a bench in the AU Amphitheater, taking a moment to process her big leap: a new city, a new chapter, a new life. 

Years later, during her senior year, she returned to that same bench, this time reflecting on the issues that had come to matter most to her. The bench had always been a place of comfort. But in that moment, she realized that for many unhoused people in the city she had grown to love, a bench isn’t a quiet escape—it’s the only home they have. 

The realization inspired Ritz to create A Bench is NOT a Home, a 30-second graphic video for Professor Yana Sakellion’s “Kinetic and Sequential Graphics” class. Recognizing its impact, Sakellion submitted the piece on Ritz’s behalf to both Creative Quarterly 79 and the AIGA 2024 Flux Student Design Competition. 

The video was selected as a featured piece in Creative Quarterly 79, an international journal that showcases outstanding contemporary work in graphic design, illustration, photography, and fine art. As a runner-up, Ritz’s work will appear in the journal’s online gallery and be featured in its year-end annual issue. 

A Bench is NOT a Home was also named a finalist in the Motion Graphics category of the AIGA Flux 2024 Student Design Competition, recognized for both its animation quality and its advocacy on behalf of unhoused communities. 

Still from A Bench Is NOT a Home by Isabelle Ritz. 

“Fading Into the Structure” 

The purpose behind A Bench is NOT a Home, Ritz says, “is to serve as an informational advertisement connecting viewers with this resource to help raise awareness for the need to mitigate the crisis and stop criminalizing homelessness.” She created the piece for the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which advocates for policy-based change before Congress and provides resources for members of the homeless community. 

The creative process behind A Bench is NOT a Home led Ritz to delve into the shortage of shelter options for DC’s unhoused population. She walked the city with her camera, photographing benches in neighborhoods across Washington, DC, including areas where benches serve as makeshift beds. 

“After gathering all the bench imagery, I recorded myself sitting and lying on a bench to create a red silhouette of a young woman slowly fading into the structure,” she explains. “I then cut this video, frame by frame, and overlaid it onto the bench image collages to create a stop-motion animation style graphic. The project was compiled using Adobe After Effects to create the final animation.” 

Ritz’s Next Chapter 

Ritz graduated summa cum laude in June with dual bachelor’s degrees in Graphic and Visual Communication Design and in Public Relations and Strategic Communication, along with a certificate in Advanced Public Affairs Leadership Skills. 

While at AU, Ritz served on a team of students who created Mozaik, an award-winning mobile app designed to foster meaningful connections in post-grad life. She sharpened her digital strategy skills through internships with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, Vision360 Partners, Action Together NEPA, and The Standard-Speaker.  

Now, she’s applying those talents in her new role as a graphic designer on the communications team at the College of American Pathologists. 

Ritz credits Professor Sakellion for amplifying her work beyond the classroom. “Professor Sakellion pushes her students to successes they never thought possible. Throughout the process of this project, she encouraged me to draw on my talents as a photographer and my passion for political justice to create a piece I will cherish for the rest of my life,” Ritz says. “Without her, I would have never been able to achieve the successes The Bench has brought me, and I am incredibly grateful to her for sharing my work with the world.”