Herberger Institute students showcase talents at ASU London kickoff events
Student exhibits part of collaboration with renowned London businesses

By Scott Bordow, ASU News
September 17, 2026

Story highlights


Herberger Institute students show off their products at ASU London kickoff events



Fashion student’s design takes center stage at&nbsp;Wolf &amp; Badger store in Soho



Students from The Design School produce “The Curious Matter of Chocolate” exhibit for&nbsp;Cadbury/Mondelez International


LONDON — As guests sipped wine and mingled inside the Wolf &amp; Badger store in Soho Wednesday evening, 26-year-old Elijah Samuels stood near the outfit that was displayed on a mannequin at the store’s front window.

Samuels wore a sharp suit and a wide smile. Four years ago, he enrolled at Arizona State University and was drawn to the fashion program in ASU FIDM, part of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

This past May, he received his bachelor’s degree in fashion design, and now here he was, the guest of honor at an upscale London store, showing off the outfit he had worked on for 10 months.

“Coming out of graduation to have my look dead and center here at Wolf &amp; Badger ... I’m just very honored and grateful,” Samuels said. “If you had told me four years ago my look would be in London, I would not have believed you.”

As ASU London — a new independent, U.K.-degree-awarding higher education provider founded by Arizona State University — is being celebrated this week, students from the Herberger Institute are involved in multiple ways. 

In addition to five students from ASU FIDM having their outfits displayed at Wolf &amp; Badger, 25 students from The Design School have worked in collaboration with the confectionary brand Cadbury/Mondelez International to create an exhibit titled “The Curious Matter of Chocolate,” in which industrial design and graphic design students explore the relationships between chocolate, people, products, packaging, communication and experience.

The five winning designs in the chocolate exhibit are on display all week in London, and the outfits designed by the ASU FIDM students also will be shown at London Fashion Week, which began Thursday and runs through Sept. 21.

“Our approach at ASU London and our approach at ASU in general is to engage students immediately as creators of knowledge and art and design and solutions to world problems,” said University Provost Nancy Gonzalez, who was on hand for the Wolf &amp; Badger showing. “We feel like their engagement is part of their training and not something that comes only after they graduate.”

Dennita Sewell, founding director of ASU FIDM, which is located at the ASU California Center and the Downtown Phoenix campus, said the Wolf &amp; Badger exhibit emanated from a conversation she had with the store’s owner at Los Angeles’ Fashion Tech Show.

“Knowing this (ASU London) was coming up, we started working with them,” Sewell said. “It’s wonderful that everyone is standing here, looking at our students’ work.”

Samuels’ outfit was part of a five-piece collection that was his capstone project and originally shown in April at Scottsdale Fashion Square. He said he used several different techniques, including hand-manipuating a silk shirt, hand-dying a leather vest and laser engraving a pair of jeans for eight hours to create a herringbone pattern.

“I’m just super proud of this look and so happy to have it represented here,” he said.

(Video: {https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRae9T4Qzd8&amp;feature=youtu.be})

About two miles away, inside the Tait Building, part of the nearly 300-year-old Clerkenwell campus of City St. George’s, University of London, where ASU London is located, Luis Angarita looked at his students as they displayed their chocolate exhibits, the pride evident in his eyes.

It was Angarita, head of the industrial design program at The Design School, who reached out to a friend and design director at Cadbury/Mondelez to see if they would be willing to collaborate on an exhibit with ASU students.

The result is “The Curious Matter of Chocolate,” which focuses on creating experiences to eat, well, chocolate. In addition to the exhibit being shown at ASU London, it is also part of the London Design Festival, which is running from Sept. 12–20.

“The exhibition is about designing,” Angarita said. “You cannot taste the chocolate because it’s going to be plastic. Otherwise, it would melt.”

While ASU London currently offers six undergraduate degree programs — business management; computer science; electrical and electronic engineering; engineering with artificial intelligence; engineering with mechatronics systems; and global design engineering — Angarita said The Design School exhibit is a natural spinoff.

“Part of the DNA of ASU London is to embed design in everything they do,” he said. “So we are kind of the cherry on top of the cake.”

Mekai Rai Hogan Begay, a graphic design major, said the inspiration for her exhibit came from the Sonoran Desert. She created what looks like a potted cactus plant but when opened, it reveals chocolate lollipops that can be dipped into chocolate at the bottom of the plant.

Within the plant is a lamp that produces dim lighting, a nod, Begay said, to how the Sonoran Desert can feel relaxing. The exhibit also included an app that displays a playlist of songs “tying into the light and the total mood of the Sonoran Desert,” Begay added.

“With the dipping, it actually slows the snacking process down, because a lot of times, we feel rushed to finish everything,” Begay said. “This is meant to introduce the idea of slowing everything down and enjoying a nice pause in the day.”

A few feet away, graphic design student Margaux Emma Quam, displayed her exhibit, which featured four chocolate products that cater to a different moment of the day, each with their own distinct shape. For example, Cadbury Go is shaped like a pyramid and has chocolate, peanut butter, oatmeal and bananas — perfect, Quam said, for an active person who is preparing to go to the gym or for a hike.

“My partner ... and I are very functional with how we approach design,” Quam said. “We wanted to see how we could make something whose shape would match the energy of the day.”

Chocolate and fashion. This week, at ASU London, the Herberger Institute and its students are enjoying some rather rich experiences.

ASU London: Behind the scenes

Follow along as ASU News reporter Scott Bordow shares what it's like to be reporting on this week's events from London, and shares some tips, ideas and locations he discovers along the way.

More ASU London coverage

Preview: Students packed and ready for a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity'

Wednesday: Ribbon cutting, panel discussions mark the grand opening

Friday: ASU London students jump in with a multi-day hackathon

Also Friday: Event management students visit revered sports venues on study abroad trip

Saturday: Super fans and festivities at the Union Jack Classic

This story originally appeared on ASU News.