After earning a bachelor's degree in English and visual communications at the University of California at Berkeley, she attended the graduate program at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
[2] The encounter resulted in a 14-year partnership that “produced—much as when you mix water with gelatin and fruit flavors—more than the sum of its parts.” [1] The couple brought their talents together to form their first of several design studios, Combine, along with partner Paul Knickelbine.
In 1994, Haycock Makela commissioned type designer Matthew Carter to create a radically new display typeface for the museum, appropriately named Walker.
[4][5] During this period, Haycock Makela collaborated with Ellen Lupton to pen “Underground Matriarchy,”[6] a fax discussion published in Eye Magazine.
As co-chairs, the Makelas continued McCoy's legacy of innovation by focusing on visual and technological explorations that examined the roles of new media and digital print design.
In a statement to prospective students they promised to create “new interplays between reader, writer, and text,”[10] The couple also jointly ran their design studio, Words + Pictures for Business + Culture.