Design

The California Lighting Technology Center at UC Davis has received a new grant to establish “The Color Lab” in collaboration with the Center for Mind and Brain. The project’s goal is to explore the impact of discrete color spectra on stress, mind, and alertness.

Graduate student Edward Whelan and students from his first-year seminar Make an Exhibition: First-Generation College Students have created a colorful installation in the UC Davis Arboretum. The exhibition titled “Reflections & Connections” is on display through June 20. 

Professors Glenda Drew, design, and Jesse Drew, cinema and digital media, and lecturers Alexa Bonomo and William Mead, design, have created work that is featured in the installation “memory.unshift( )” at the Axis Gallery in Sacramento.

The four artists/designers’ work exhibits their contemplations, memories, thoughts and meditations on the shifting and tenuous relationship between electronic technology and human consciousness.

Congratulations to Sarah Grimes (art history and design double-major) who is among the winners of this year’s Norma J. Lang Prize for Undergraduate Research.

The Savageau Award in the Department of Design is presented to a graduating Master of Fine Arts student in Design selected by the Design faculty to encourage, recognize and celebrate creative and original contributions to the discipline of design.

Gale Okumura, retired lecturer in design, was among the collaborators who helped in the creation of a ceramic mosaic mural for the new Pollinator Garden at Explorit Science Center in Davis. 

A number of families participated in an art class to make ceramic tiles that are part of the mural which depicts local plants and their pollinators. The finished art piece was unveiled on April 30 at the science center.

Design major Eduardo Landicho recently gave a TEDx talk on “What Defines Normal? Designing Accessible Architecture.” Eddie’s talk was part of the TEDxUCDavis symposium Metamorphosis. A 4th-year design major with a focus on architecture, Landicho discussed how we can design more inclusive standards in our architecture and set a new understanding within society to include access for all.

The Christina Eichler Bullock Sustainable Design Award Competition is now accepting applications. This award supports Design graduate and undergraduate student research and creative production in sustainable design. Awards can be used to fund publication costs, conference registration, travel for workshops and conferences, or materials for research and design.

A new site-specific exhibition in Sacramento is bringing together over thirty artists to explore issues of urban space and community.  “Coordinates: Ice Pac” is a series of temporary installations located in the former Pacsat Headquarters on S Street in Sacramento. Molly Stroud, Liv Moe (B.A. art studio, ‘05), Genesis The Mayor” Torres and Faith McKinnie curated this project as a chance to reclaim the use of land and space for artistic activiation.

Under the supervision of Professor Tim McNeil and curator Dan Nadel, graduate student Edward Whelan designed the floorplan, environment and graphics for the exhibition “All on the Line: William T. Wiley and the Slant Step” at the Jan and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. This exhibition highlights Wiley’s influence as an artist and educator, as seen through recent contributions from world-famous artist Bruce Nauman.