Tag: design thinking

New Director of Peer Reviews, Chair and Director at Large

Welcoming Cat Normoyle, incoming Director of Peer Reviews, and Camila Afanador Llach as Chair, Director-at-Large

This 2024 academic year has been busy and productive at Design Incubation. We have had many activities this fall, including the Design Educators Awards, currently accepting nominations and entries until December 31, 2024. In October, we had our first fully in-person colloquium since the onset of the pandemic and our largest one to date at Boston University with four sessions and more than 20 research presentations. This year, we celebrate our 10th year with new members and ongoing development. We continue to host the series, Design Your Research Agenda (DYRA), the latest one in November. We will be publishing this episode online shortly. 

Starting this September 2024, we welcomed Cat Normoyle, Associate Professor at East Carolina University as the incoming Director of Peer Review. In spring 2025 she will be taking over this role from Camila Afanador-Llach, Associate Professor at Florida Atlantic University, who has held the position since fall 2021. 

Normoyle is a designer, writer, and educator whose research and creative activities focus on community engagement, interactive and immersive experiences, and design pedagogy. She has a strong record of contributions to design scholarship and community engagement, evidenced by publications, presentations, and grants. Notably her writing appears in articles and book chapters published by AIGA Dialectic, Design Research Society, AIGA Design Educators Community, Routledge, and others. She is a recent grant recipient of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium for her work on the project, Our Story: The LGBTQ Stories of Eastern North Carolina, which is preparing for a fall 2025 exhibition of work. She is currently working on a book project, “Community-based Practices in Action.” We are excited to welcome her as the new Director of Peer Reviews at DI. 

Afanador-Llach has made tremendous contributions to the peer review process at DI over the last 3 years. She has further developed the peer review process, ensuring the double-blind process is objective, anonymous, rigorous, and fair and that it offers the benefits of the peer review to our members by offering feedback to all who have participated in our colloquium submission process. 

Afanador-Llach will be staying on as a Chair and Director-at-Large as she segues into other DI initiatives. We would like to thank her for her three years of service as Director of Peer Review and we are excited to be working with her in new capacities.

Afanador-Llach was promoted to tenured Associate Professor at Florida Atlantic University, and is currently researching and writing about the history of graphic design in her home country Colombia. She recently completed a three-year NEH-funded project cataloging and translating metadata, developing an online resource. With her experience with metadata and from her role as DI Director of Peer Review, we hope to further the development of keyword analysis and implementation at DI.

Designing Your Research Agenda (DYRA) 4.1

Design scholars and researchers discuss various aspects of their research agendas

Friday, November 8, 2024
1:00pPM Eastern / 12:00PM Central
Virtual Event

Designing Your Research Agenda is a panel discussion and open forum for design scholars and researchers to discuss various aspects of their research agendas. We aim to open a dialog regarding multiple challenges of discovering one’s design research inquiry. Designing Your Research Agenda is an ongoing design research event series.

Register on Eventbrite

Some of the questions we will discuss with panelists include:

  • How did you determine your research agenda (high-level timeline of your career/trajectory)
  • How do you define research and why do you think it matters/for society, the field, and yourself?
  • How do your department and institution define and support the work you do?
  • How would you describe/categorize your department and institution?
  • If you were going to position your work within a category, would you say your research addresses: design theory, design history, design practice, design research (traditional graphic design, speculative design, UXUI, typography, AR, VR, creative computing, design solutions, etc.), design pedagogy, or something else?
  • What barriers (if any) exist at your institution or in the field for creating and disseminating your research?

Moderators

Jessica Barness
Kent State University

Heather Snyder Quinn
DePaul University

Biographies

Jason Alejandro

Jason Alejandro is a Puerto Rican graphic designer and Associate Professor of Graphic Design at The College of New Jersey. His academic research explores intersections of cultural identity, design history, and critical pedagogy, with a focus on how these topics shape visual communication. Alejandro is particularly interested in using graphic design to address social and cultural narratives, including underrepresented communities in design education. His work spans writing, publishing, and visual projects, including contributions to both academic and professional design discussions on identity and collaboration in design practice. He is horrified at how well ChatGPT generated this bio, even if it is somewhat generic.

Yoon Soo Lee

Yoon Soo Lee is a Professor of Art and Design. She has been teaching at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth since 2001, and also at Vermont College of Fine Arts since 2011.

Yoon Soo’s practice moves around three core areas of study: the art of pedagogy, how to work in dialogue cross-discipline, and how to create art and design that is based on self-knowledge. These investigations have led to presentations at the AIGA Educators Conference, UCDA Design Educators Conference, grants from the National Institute of Health, presentations at the Cognitive Science Society and papers such as “Functional Criticism in the Graphic Design Classroom” published in “Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal”.

Yoon Soo studied at Seoul National University where she received her BFA and MFA, and she also studied at Western Michigan University where she received her second MFA in graphic design.

D.J. Trischler

D.J. Trischler is an Assistant Professor of Communication Design for the University of Cincinnati’s Ullman School of Design in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. He teaches typography, design research methods, and an introduction to design lecture. His research addresses the “dis-placed” sentiments familiar to the contemporary human experience, experimenting with possibilities to use design to “place” people in their surrounding ecologies. Through his research, he aims to increase place attachment, a sense of community and belonging, grow neighborliness and community engagement, and ultimately strengthen quality of life and well-being. D.J.’s work in this niche originated from his graduate thesis research into Neighborhood-Centered Design.

Designing for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Integrating Mental Health Support into UI/UX Design Course

Collaborative work, peer feedback and positive psychology were integral to the whole process, fostering a supportive learning environment.

Ting Zhou
Assistant Professor
University of Connecticut

The mental health crisis is a significant challenge currently affecting college students. According to data from the Healthy Minds Study, which surveyed 76,406 students across the country, 41% of college students experienced depression, 36% experienced anxiety, 14% experienced eating disorders, 14% had suicidal ideation during the 2022-2023 academic year. The main barriers to help-seeking are “no need for services” (35%) and “not enough time” (24%).  (HMS National 2022-2023 Data Report) Given that 97% of Americans ages 18-29 own a smartphone (Pew Research Center, 2021), the mHealth (mobile Health) application has been one of the primary tools for wellness management, especially during COVID-19. It expands accessibility to support mental health and coping skills, helping students flourish on college campuses. Design thinking (DT) is the fundamental theory in UI/UX design that helps people to become more innovative and creative (Brown T., 2009).

This study aims to explore the integration of mental health support into design education by teaching students to design mHealth applications. The focus is on utilizing human-centered design principles to address mental health challenges among college students. Design students were guided through the design thinking process (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test) to develop mHealth applications targeting mental health and wellness. Projects were based on students’ personal interests and experiences in mental health, addressing conditions such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, anxiety, sobriety, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and dissociative identity disorder (DID).  Collaborative work, peer feedback and positive psychology were integral to the whole process, fostering a supportive learning environment.

Through the human-centered design process, students gained profound knowledge of mental health issues on campus and developed innovative solutions tailored to specific user needs. The collaborative approach promoted a culture of empathy and understanding, making students more comfortable discussing mental health and recognizing the importance of self-care. This method normalized help-seeking behavior and integrated positive psychology into their daily lives. It not only prepares future designers to create accessible mental health support tools but also promotes their own mental well-being and professional development.

References

  1. Pew Research Center. (2021). Mobile fact sheet. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/ on 6th of August, 2021.
  2. Brown, T. (2009). Change by design: how design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation. [New York], Harper Business.

This design research is presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 11.1: Boston University on Friday, October 25, 2024.

Design Incubation Colloquium 11.1: Boston University

Friday, October 25, 2024
9:30AM – 2:30PM
Boston University
808 Commonwealth Avenue

Hosted by Mary Yang and Kristen Coogan, College of Fine Art, Boston University. Design Incubation Colloquium is a part of BUGD’s Design Week.

Keynote: YuJune Park

Thursday, October 24, 2024
5:00PM
808 Commonwealth Ave
Room 410

Colloquium 11.1

Friday, October 25 , 2024
9:30AM–2:30PM
808 Commonwealth Ave
Room 409 and 410

9:30AM–10:00AMCoffee and Refreshments
(4th floor lobby)
Welcome/opening remarks
10:00AM–11:30AMSessions
Design + Translation (Room 409)
Design + Subversion (Room 410)
11:30AM–1:00PMLunch break
1:00PM–2:30PM Sessions
Design + Performance (Room 409)
Design + Methodology (Room 410)

MFA Open Studios

Friday, October 25, 2024
5:00PM

Register on Eventbrite

Design Incubation Colloquium Sessions

Design + Translation

Moderators: Kelsey Elder & Liz Deluna

The Design + Translation panel aims to recenter perspectives and prioritize inclusivity by representing a wider range of voices that build design community.

Typography as Racialization: Euro-American Craft and Asian Labor
Chris Lee
Associate Professor
Pratt Institute

Visualizing Faculty Salary Inequity: A Study of Salary Compression and Inversion and Its Impact in Higher Education
MiHyun Kim
Associate Professor
Texas State University

Design + Visual Translation and Cultural Bridging
Shuang Wu
Assistant Professor
Virginia Tech

Drawing Water: A Multi-disciplinary Approach to Representing Water Performance
Eugene Park
Associate Professor
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Jessica Rossi-Mastracci & Matt Tierney
University of Minnesota

A Sequence of Multiplicity
Moon Jung Jang
Associate Professor
University of Georgia

Kaithi Script’s Revival: An Intersection of Design and Cultural Inheritance
Anmol Shrivastava
Assistant Professor
Illinois State University

Design + Subversion

Moderators: Ash Yuxuan Wei & Dan Wong

The Design + Subversion panel is a space to critique the status quo through forms of intervention, disruption, subversion, and truth-telling.

Drawn Together: Exploring the Intersection of Image-Making and Community-Building
Grace Preston
Lecturer
Texas State University

Advancing Design Practices: Assessing the Impact of New Technologies and Sustainable Innovation
Caitlin Lu & Maidah Salman
Graduate student
Boston University

Designing for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Integrating Mental Health Support into UI/UX Design Course
Ting Zhou
Assistant Professor
University of Connecticut

Exploring Identity through Curatorial Practices: Gráfica Latina
José Menéndez
Assistant Professor
Northeastern University

Tatiana Gómez
Assistant Professor
Massachusetts College of Art and Design

In Search of Feminism and Identity in Asia
Wanjing Li
Designer and Artist
Boston University

Design + Performance

Moderators: Halim Lee & Cat Normoyle

The Design + Performances panel engages the senses through action and experience. It encompasses activities that unite communities and ideas.

Design + Computation + Performance + __________
James Grady
Assistant Professor
Boston University

Sensory and Ambient Interfaces
Jonathan Hanahan
Associate Professor
Washington University in St. Louis

Accessibility and Creative Authorship in Design Theory Through Multimodal Learning and Metacognitive Reflection
Molly Haig
Adjunct Professor
University of Europe for the Applied Sciences
Berlin, Germany

Dr. Till Julian Huss
Professor
University of Europe for the Applied Sciences

Pedagogical Workshops and Collaboration
Chen Luo
Lecturer
Boston University

Design + Methodology

Moderators: Claire Bula & Camila Afanador Llach

The Design + Methodology panel presents insights on new design tools, systems, and processes found through innovative research frameworks.

User-Centered Design + Generative AI Research Tools: Usability Testing and Implication
Yi-Fan Chen
Assistant Professor
Farmingdale State College

Design + History Methodology Slam
Brockett Horne
Lecturer
Boston University

A New Framework and Database for Exploring Works of Experience Design
Nicholas Rock
Associate Professor
Boston University, School of Visual Arts

Emotional Engagement in Design: Traditional vs. Art-Based Approaches
Violet Luczak
Associate Professor
McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, IL

Design + Cultural Heritage: The Guano Rug, A Cultural Heritage Under Extinction
Maria Isabel Paz Suarez
Assistant Professor
Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Design + Co-Creation: Engaging Audiences through Cross-Disciplinary Co-Curation
Bei Hu
Assistant Professor
Washington University in St. Louis

Faith and Fiction — The Impact of AI on Spirituality and Design
Nika Simovich Fisher
Assistant Professor
Parsons / The New School for Design

CFP: 2024 Design Incubation Communication Design Educators Awards

Call for Nominations and Entries for the 2024 Design Incubation Educators Awards Competition.

Design Incubation announces a call for nominations and entries for the 2024 awards for communication design educators in the areas of scholarship, teaching, service. The aim of the awards program is to discover and recognize new scholarship (creative work and publications), teaching, and service in our broad and varied discipline. We hope to expand the design record, promote excellence and share knowledge within the field.

Nominations and Entries

We ask colleagues and mentors to identify outstanding creative work, publications, teaching, and service being created by design educators in the field communication design and to nominate these individuals for an award. Nominations will be accepted until December 15, 2024.

Entry Guidelines

Entries will be accepted until December 31, 2024. Nominations are not required to enter in this scholarly competition. Complete the online entry form (https://designincubation.com/design-incubation-awards-competition-entry-form/) with the following:

Title: Description of project and outcomes (not to exceed 500 words.)
Supporting Materials: (limited to 5-page medium resolution pdf of artwork; web links to websites, videos, other online resources; published documents or visual documents.)
Biography of applicant/s (150 words per applicant.)
Curriculum vitae of applicant/s.
Entry fee: $20.

2024 JURY

Steven McCarthy (Chair)
University of Minnesota

Douglas Kearney
University of Minnesota

Doug Barnett
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Basma Hamdy
Virginia Commonweath University—Qatar

Kali Nikitas
University of Southern California in Los Angeles

Douglas Kearney is an acclaimed poet, librettist, performer and book designer. His work is widely awarded and anthologized, and his book Sho was a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry. He is a professor of creative writing at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities where he is a McKnight Presidential Fellow. Kearney earned a BA from Howard University and an MFA from CalArts. 

https://www.douglaskearney.com

Doug Barrett is a professor of graphic design at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who has over 20 years of professional graphic design experience. His practice combines client-oriented commercial work, community-focused “design for good,” and experimental design authorship. Barrett has received an Alabama State Arts Fellowship in Design and a Sappi: Ideas That Matter grant. He has an MFA from the University of Florida.

https://www.dougbarrett.com

Basma Hamdy is a professor of graphic design at Virginia Commonwealth University–Qatar campus where she teaches across the undergraduate and graduate curricula. Her scholarship ranges from visual documentation of socio-political activism in Egypt to exploring Arabic typography and calligraphy. Hamdy has an MFA from MICA and is currently a candidate for a PhD at Leiden University and The Royal Academy of Art in The Netherlands. 

https://qatar.vcu.edu/news/our-faculty/basma-hamdy/

Kali Nikitas serves as MFA Design Academic Program Manager at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She is a former Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Northeastern University and Otis College of Art and Design. Kali served as the Chair of the design departments at MCAD, NEU, and Otis making administration her main focus. Her designs and curatorial projects have been widely awarded and published. In addition to her academic role, she is a “Curator of Moments” designing happenings and events in the creative sector. Kali received an MFA in graphic design from CalArts and a BFA in graphic design from the University of Illinois, Chicago. 

https://www.tumblr.com/kali-nikitas

Steven McCarthy is a professor emeritus of graphic design at the University of Minnesota. His scholarship has led to lectures, exhibits, publications and grant-funded research on six continents. McCarthy has published in the field’s leading academic journals and he has been in over 135 juried and invitational exhibits. He has an MFA in design from Stanford University and a BFA in art from Bradley University. 

http://stevenmccarthy.design

Design Incubation Colloquium 10.3: Tenth Anniversary, St. John’s University

Friday, June 7, 2024
Time: 1:00pm–5:00pm EST
St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus
101 Astor Place, New York, NY

Hosted by Liz DeLuna, Professor, St. John’s University

Presentations will be published on the Design Incubation YouTube Channel after May 29, 2024. This hybrid conference will be held on Friday, June 7, 2024 at 1pm EST at St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus.

Eventbrite Tickets, in-person and virtual attendance:

Register on Eventbrite

Agenda

1:00pmLiz DeLuna: Welcome
Evolution in Content Creation: 10 years of The Design Writing Fellowship
Aaris Sherin, Professor, St. John’s University
Cultures of Excellence: Lessons Learned from Eight Years of the Communication Design Educators Awards
Steven McCarthy, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota
10 Years of Design Incubation’s Colloquium Presentations
Camila Afanador Llach, Peer Review Director, Design Incubation
Associate Professor, Florida Atlantic University
1:45pm– 2:45pmResearch Presentations
Navigating Web Accessibility: Lessons Learned from a Community of Practice 
Dannell MacIlwraith, Assistant Professor, Kutztown University 
Mining for Ideas: Collaborative Collages as Spaces of Opportunity 
Anna Jordan, Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology 
Data in Motion: Storytelling with Data and Motion Graphics through a Graphic Design Practice & Pedagogy 
Eugene Park 
Associate Professor 
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 
2:45–3:15pmBREAK
3:15pmOn the Consideration of a Black Grid
Keynote Presentation
Silas Munro, Partner at Polymode, Artist, Design Author, and Design Educator
Practical Tips for Research Success and Remaining Sane
Robin Landa, Distinguished Professor, Michael Graves College, Kean University
3:45pm – 4:45pmResearch Presentations
Federico: Embracing Outside Influences 
Kyla Paolucci, Assistant Professor, St John’s University
Fuzzy Modes, Clear Communication – Radio as a Process, Tool, and Language for Graphic Design 
Matthew Flores, Graphic Design Fellow, School of Design, University of Tennessee-Knoxville 
Revitalizing Symbolic Urbanism: Digitalizing the Vernacular Visual Language of Detroit’s Urban Landscape 
Dho Yee Chung, Assistant Professor, Oakland University 
Old World, New Forms: Extrapolating 19th Century American Wood Type 
Javier Viramontes, Visiting Lecturer, Rochester Institute of Technology

Design Incubation Colloquium 10.2: Annual CAA Conference 2024 (Hybrid)

Presentations and discussion in Research and Scholarship in Communication Design at the 112th Annual CAA Conference 2024

Recent research in Communication Design. Presentations of unique, significant creative work, design education, practice of design, case studies, contemporary practice, new technologies, methods, and design research. A moderated discussion will follow the series of presentations.

The colloquium session is open to all conference attendees.

Design Incubation Colloquium 10.2: Annual CAA Conference 2024
Thursday, February 15, 2024
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Hilton Chicago – 8th Floor – Lake Michigan (Hybrid)

CHAIRS

Camila Afanador-Llach
Florida Atlantic University

Heather Snyder Quinn
DePaul University

Discussants

Jessica Barness
Kent State University

Liz DeLuna
St John’s University

Dan Wong
New York City College of Technology, CUNY

PRESENTATIONS

A Plural Pedagogy for Graphic Design History
Kristen Coogan
Associate Professor
Boston University

Design Is Not Neutral
Grace Hamilton
Assistant Professor
Baruch College City University New York

From Bricks to Pixels: The Evolution of Banna’i Kufic
Sajad Amini
Assistant Professor
DePaul University

Convergence of Science and Art to Support Climate Resilience in Central American Smallholder Communities
Qiuwen Li
Assistant Professor
Santa Clara University

Sara Wheeler
Undergraduate Student
Santa Clara University

Designing Dialogue: Leveraging Technology for Cultivating Inclusion and Belonging in Classroom Critique
Jenny Kowalski
Assistant Professor
Lehigh University

Abby Guido
Associate Professor
Temple University

Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in an Interdisciplinary, Experiential Course
Denise Anderson
Assistant Professor
Kean University

Analyzing Local Graphic Design History: A Pedagogical Approach
Christina Singer
Assistant Professor
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Uncanny Ways of Seeing: Engaging AI in Design Practice and Pedagogy
Drew Sisk
Assistant Professor
Clemson University

CFP: 2023 Design Incubation Communication Design Awards

Call for Nominations and Entries for the 2023 Design Incubation Educators Awards Competition.

Design Incubation announces a call for nominations and entries for the 2023 awards for communication design educators and graduate students in the areas of scholarship, teaching, service. The aim of the awards program is to discover and recognize new scholarship (creative work and publications), teaching, and service in our broad and varied discipline. We hope to expand the design record, promote excellence and share knowledge within the field. 

Nominations and Entries

We ask colleagues and mentors to identify outstanding creative work, publications, teaching, and service being created by design educators in the field communication design and to nominate these individuals for an award. Nominations will be accepted until January 15, 2024 

ENTRY GUIDELINES

Entries will be accepted until January 15, 2024. Nominations are not required to enter in this scholarly competition. Complete the online entry form (https://designincubation.com/design-incubation-awards-competition-entry-form/) with the following:

  • Title: Description of project and outcomes (not to exceed 500 words)
  • Supporting Materials: (limited to 5-page medium resolution pdf of artwork; web links to websites, videos, other online resources; published documents or visual documents)
  • Biography of applicant/s (150 words per applicant)
  • Curriculum vitae of applicant/s
  • $20 entry fee donation

2023 JURY

Steven McCarthy (Chair), University of Minnesota

Helen Armstrong
Professor
North Carolina State University

Anne H. Berry
Associate Professor
Cleveland State University

Warren Lehrer
Founding Faculty
School of Visual Arts, MFA Design

Ana Raposo
Lecturer
ESAD – Escola Superior de Arte e Design
Porto, Portugal

Neeta Verma
Associate Professor
University of Notre Dame

BIOGRAPHIES

Helen Armstrong

Helen Armstrong is Professor of Graphic & Experience Design at North Carolina State University. She has an MFA in Graphic Design from The Maryland Institute College of Art. Armstrong has authored several books including her latest: Big Data, Big Design: Why Designers Should Care About Artificial Intelligence. Armstrong is a past member of the AIGA National Board of Directors and she served on the editorial board of the journal Design and Culture.

Anne H. Berry

Anne H. Berry is Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Design at Cleveland State University. She has an MFA in graphic design from Kent State University. Her research focuses on race and representation in design, and ethnic and racial disparities within the field of graphic design. Berry was managing editor of the book The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression, and Reflection, which was included in Fast Company’s “Best Design Books of 2022.”

Warren Lehrer

Warren Lehrer is a founding faculty member of SVA’s Designer as Author/Entrepreneur MFA program and Professor Emeritus at Purchase College, SUNY. Lehrer has an MFA from Yale University, is a writer and designer known internationally as a pioneer in the fields of visual literature and design authorship. His artists’ books and multimedia projects have been widely exhibited and are in many collections including MoMA, The Met, Pompidou Centre, and Tate Gallery. Among many honors, he is a 2019 Ladislav Sutnar Laureate, and 2016 Center for Book Arts Honoree.

Steven McCarthy (Chair)

Steven McCarthy is Professor Emeritus of graphic design at the University of Minnesota. He has an MFA from Stanford University. He authored the book The Designer As… Author, Producer, Activist, Entrepreneur, Curator and Collaborator: New Models for Communicating. McCarthy’s creative work has been in over 135 juried and invitational exhibitions and has been honored by the AIGA, STA 100 and Graphis Poster. He has published in the journals Design Issues, Message, Visible Language, Design and Culture, She Ji, and AIGA Dialectic, and occasionally writes for Eye magazine.

Ana Raposo

Ana Raposo is Lecturer at art and design academy ESAD (Escola Superior de Arte e Design) located in Porto, Portugal. She is a graphic designer, educator and design researcher who has a PhD from Central Saint Martins / University of the Arts, London. Raposo has published a number of journal articles about punk rock music graphics, facism and politics and has presented at the Design History Society conference and the Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association national conference.

Neeta Verma

Neeta Verma is an Associate Professor of Visual Communication Design at the University of Notre Dame. She has an MFA from Yale University. Verma’s areas of research and teaching explore the critical use of design as a tool for social equity and justice. She has been the recipient of numerous awards. Her professional design work includes clients such as the American Red Cross, Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, Liberty Science Center, The New York Botanical Garden, The New York Public Library, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Wildlife Conservation Society.

Designing Your Research Agenda (DYRA) 3.1

Design scholars and researchers discuss various aspects of their research agendas

Friday, November 17, 2023
12pm Eastern / 11am Central
Virtual Event

Designing Your Research Agenda is a panel discussion and open forum for design scholars and researchers to discuss various aspects of their research agendas. We aim to open a dialog regarding multiple challenges of discovering one’s design research inquiry. Designing Your Research Agenda is an ongoing design research event series.

  • Ayako Maruyama (RISD)
  • Nate Matteson  (DePaul University)
  • Johanna Mehl (TU Dresden)

Some of the questions we will discuss with panelists include:

  • How did you determine your research agenda (high-level timeline of your career/trajectory)
  • How do you define research and why do you think it matters/for society, the field, and yourself?
  • How do your department and institution define and support the work you do?
  • How would you describe/categorize your department and institution?
  • If you were going to position your work within a category, would you say your research addresses: design theory, design history, design practice, design research (traditional graphic design, speculative design, UXUI, typography, AR, VR, creative computing, design solutions, etc.), design pedagogy, or something else?
  • What barriers (if any) exist at your institution or in the field for creating and disseminating your research?

Moderators

Jessica Barness
Kent State University

Heather Snyder Quinn
DePaul University

Biographies

Ayako Maruyama
Rhode Island School of Design

Akayo

Ayako Maruyama (she/her) is a Filipina-Japanese designer, educator, and illustrator whose practice revolves around intentional collaboration, reflection, collective recovery, maintenance, and repair within the design domain. Working with organizers, artists, designers, students, and planners, Ayako’s involvement with the Design Studio for Social Intervention commenced in 2012. Notably, she recently co-authored and co-illustrated the published book, “Ideas Arrangements Effects: Systems Design and Social Justice.”

Ayako and her team at the Design Studio for Social Intervention focus on creating public engagement strategies that prioritize community development without displacement, along with reimagining public spaces at the Design Gym. With a rich background, Ayako has conducted numerous zine workshops, contributed as a faculty member at Boston University’s City Planning and Urban Affairs program since 2013, and initiated the annual Experience of Public Engagement studio at RISD in 2017.

Having served as an Urbanist in Residence and currently being part of the Collective Recovery Team at the University of Orange, Ayako holds a position as a Board Member at the institution. Additionally, she serves as an Assistant Professor in the Industrial Design department at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she imparts knowledge through teaching graduate thesis studio, foundational, and advanced design studios.

Nate Matteson 
DePaul University

Nathan Matteson is an Associate professor at DePaul University’s School of Design; a co-director of DePaul’s ‘Scandinavia: design, landscape, and society’ study abroad program; a researcher with the Center for robust decision-making in climate and energy policy at the University of Chicago; and a principal and designer at Obstructures. He is a ruthlessly collaborative designer whose work merrily ignores the perceived boundaries among disciplines, and is currently engaged with dead Swedish architects, guitars, the US energy sector, obstacles, and objects in the distance. His practice situates itself at an intersection amongst intersections, dead ends, superhighways, and goat paths, wringing its metaphorical hands over the relationships among computation, intention, materiality, and immateriality.

Johanna Mehl
TU Dresden

Johanna Mehl (she/her) is a designer, scholar, and educator interested in the politics and relations that take shape through and around design practices. She holds a B.A. in Communication Design and an M.A. in Art and Design Studies. Besides her artistic and curatorial practice, she has taught in the fields of digital media, culture studies, and design theory at different design schools across Europe. She is an editorial board member of the Design+Posthumanism Network and part of the research group Against Catastrophe. She holds research fellowship at TU Dresden where she is a  PhD candidate at the Chair for Digital Cultures. Her dissertation is about design responses to the climate crisis and stems from critiques of design that acknowledge its entanglements not only with the material realities, but also the geopolitical, psychological, and social conditions of climate change.

https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/slk/germanistik/digitalcultures/forschung/research-projects/the-world-as-a-design-problem

Sustainable Design Pedagogy: A Fifteen-Week Case Study of Sustainable and Climate Design Methodology and Outcomes

A look at foundational systems thinking.

Maria Smith Bohannon
Assistant Professor
Oakland University

Graphic design as a profession often perpetuates rampant consumerism through the art of persuasion, which is directly at odds with working toward sustainable and ecological discourse. To explore the possibilities of sustainable capitalism and foundational sustainable and environmental design themes, I developed a special topics course to understand and investigate the designer’s role as a climate design activist and sustainable designer. The emphasis of this course will focus on sustainable design thinking, praxis, and ideation with the investigation of green or recycled materials as part of the prototyping process—both print and digital—all in the pursuit of reimagined design futures. 

 This course study will look at foundational systems thinking from environmental design pioneers, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and how designers can successfully implement sustainable methodologies and utilize environmentally friendly materials to craft sustainable solutions today. By identifying and framing complex problems plaguing the world, we can examine the possibilities and challenges in addressing these issues broadly or within local communities. 

As sustainability and eco-friendly solutions are imperative for future generations’ ability to prosper, sustainable pedagogy must become foundational in graphic design education. By adopting sustainable design pedagogies, educators provide future designers with the tools—and understanding of sustainable design history, process, methodologies, and materials—to question capitalist tendencies and develop sustainable solutions.

This design research was presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 9.2: Annual CAA Conference 2023 (Virtual) on Saturday, February 18, 2023.