Article Content
This story originally appeared in the fall 2026 issue of UC San Diego Magazine as “In Living Color.”
Sometimes, it only takes a pair of broken sunglasses on a bright summer day to change your life. This is exactly what happened to Adam Moyer, MFA ’08.
In July 2005, Moyer had newly arrived in La Jolla. He had traveled some 3,000 miles from Northern Virginia to attend the Visual Arts Master of Fine Arts program at UC San Diego. “At the time, Southern California seemed so exotic,” says Moyer. “So for me, going west represented freedom. It was an opportunity to start new things, to start fresh.”
He previously studied printmaking and collage as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia and chose UC San Diego for a chance to work alongside faculty such as Haim Steinbach, a conceptual installation artist and theorist, and Kim MacConnel ’69, MFA ’72, a contemporary artist whose colorful, pattern-driven work was already influencing Moyer’s practice.
As a California transplant, he quickly learned that sunglasses weren’t just an accessory, but a necessity. One day, he broke a pair of sunglasses, and in the moment afterward, a familiar word emerged from deep in his memory. Growing up outside Washington, D.C., Moyer’s dad kept a pair of old shoes in the garage for lawn mowing and all the other jobs that needed to be done around the house. He called them his “knockarounds.” They were the things you could count on. They were built for living.
Whether inspired by the broken sunglasses, the memory from home or the beaming sunshine, Moyer decided to start an affordable sunglasses company and call it Knockaround. He didn’t waste any time. He designed the logo in Photoshop, built a website and ordered his first shipment of sunglasses, all before his first quarter at UC San Diego had started.