Written by Colleen Miller, Photos by Nick Thomsen
For many, SCAD fosters a tight knit community of creatives. For a lucky few, it’s truly made up of family. In 2000 Celeste Lovette and Cyril Guichard got married, and now 20 years later, they respectively teach interactive design and game development (ITGM) and architectural history at SCAD.
They met 22 years ago, in France, and have since lived in New York and Paris. It wasn’t until 2004, when SCAD offered Celeste a teaching position, that the pair moved to Savannah. “I was very excited about Savannah. I was curious about what life would be in a smaller city where we could own a house, have a dog,” Cyril said. “A slower pace and nice architecture, too,” Celeste said.
As Celeste became a professor, Cyril continued his work as an art and creative director in the advertising industry. He also continued working as an independent game developer and, at times, lectured at SCAD events. He even participated in the Career Fair and hired students as a recruiter prior to becoming a professor. In 2015, Cyril was hired into the ITGM department, where he primarily teaches game classes.
The Guichards’ workdays tend to have their differences. “The reality is, we are in two different departments, with very different focuses, with very different processes,” Cyril said. “What’s fun is we share some students.”
Their respective fields also allow each other to peak into the world of a game developer or architectural historian. “It’s so valuable to have new perspectives. It’s enriching to have your spouse to work alongside,” Celeste said. “There are things we share, but we also have very different classes and content. It’s not repetitive.”
In addition to teaching, Celeste and Cyril also share a common interest in video games. “I hadn’t played much, but when I was writing my dissertation in Paris. We didn’t really have a television,” Celeste said. “[The television] was the size of a postcard and in black and white,” Cyril said.
“I tried to watch basketball and it was like these little skinny ants running across the TV,” Celeste said. “So, I started to play Warcraft 2 between chapters. We’ve gone on to play together online or pass the controller to each other.”
Now at SCAD, the Guichards’ continue their teamwork. “We are in the same administrative environment so there is a synergy there where we both understand what is happening. Our specialties are so different when we talk about our days, the stories we share are not the same at all,” Cyril said. “It’s a different world but by both working at SCAD, we are anchored by the same reality.”
“There is one downside,” Cyril said. “My students who have had Celeste as a professor say she’s funnier than me.”
