See all of the current news in Design, including faculty publications, job openings, research and grant news, study abroad programs, graduate and alumni honors and awards, and more.
James Housefield will speak as part of the Campus Community Book Project on “Design and the Play Instinct: Paul Rand and Joy in Modern Art.”
The talk will take place on January 30 in Cruess Hall, room 220. The event is free and open to the public.
The 2018-2019 book project features a year-long program around “The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World” by the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Douglas Abrams. For a complete listing of events, visit ccbp.ucdavis.edu.
Susan Taber Avila, professor of Design, recently participated in the World of Wearable Art competition, held in Wellington, New Zealand. Her “In Bloom” creation was a finalist in the awards competition and was included in all of the 2018 30th anniversary performances for this annual event.
A team of students representing UC Davis took the Biodesign Challenge for the first time and came away with the Outstanding Science Award and was runner up for the top prize at the event. Team Sorbit from UC Davis, which included design and economics double major Julie Xu, created a diaper of bacterial cellulose with enhanced absorbency and biodegradability. The event was recently held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Design and Art History double major Jennifer Place has received national attention for winning the LEDvance Student Design, an annual competition in which students are tasked with designing, developing and producing a lighting fixture prototype.
The UC Davis Design booth featured a range of interactive, bio design, product design and wearable projects. The Design for Diversity interactive showcase presented a series of creative interaction browser-based projects that contribute to thinking about diversity in design. Other projects included 3D printed solar changing stations, recycled street sign furniture, new design materials grown from mushrooms, kombucha leather fashion, multisensory virtual reality and thermochromic display-based wearables.
This year’s “Arts and Humanities Graduate Exhibition at UC Davis” showcases the work and research of graduate students across seven disciplines — art studio, design, art history, music, theatre, creative writing and French — at the Manetti Shrem Museum.
Design’s Jennifer Cadieux, Alice Decker, Justin Goldwater, Emily Harris, Lauren Kelly, Christine Knobel, Rachel Max, [george slavik], Lanwei Su, Daria Taback, Sheena Tu and Corey Wolffs will be featured in this interdisciplinary show.
Join Jennifer for the installation event of her MFA thesis project: LUMENroute! For one night only the Walnut Park Tunnel in South Davis will come alive as a series of motion-activated light fixtures surround participants with color and light. Then take a moment to enjoy a beautiful evening in the park at the LUMENroute seating area, glowing with light, color, music, and laughs! This project has been created with the support of the City of Davis Arts and Culture Affairs Fund Award and the CITRIS Connected Communities Initiative Mini-Grant.
Kausalya Raman, a second-year Design and Economics double major at UC Davis, has received a scholarship from the Donald A. Strauss Foundation for her project, English Kadhavu, which helps students in India to become more proficient in English and better prepare them for university.
Based on a yearlong reporting project by Capital Public Radio and developed in collaboration with the California Museum in Sacramento, ”Passion and Perseverance: A Year at Encina” explores how the school reflects California’s shifting demographics, education policies, and residential segregation. Through photographs, videos, Instagram posts, and school artifacts, the exhibition challenges the narrative of low-income schools by highlighting the work of tireless teachers and staff who create a safe and supportive campus culture.
Two graduates of UC Davis Design, Kat Fukuii and Maggie Yee, visited DES 157-001, Intermediate Interactive, to talk about their lives and work post college. Kat, a designer at Github in San Francisco, inspired students with her talk about design empowerment through code and teamwork. Maggie, a designer at Open Table in San Francisco, summarized her experiences with successful job hunting using projects started in DES 157.
Beth Ferguson, assistant professor of design, has won an Austin Green Award for the creation of a solar charging station in the city of Austin. Ferguson’s firm Sol Design Lab was the driving force of the project.
The completed project, Electric Drive: The Future of Renewable Energy Mobility, is located on West 2nd Street in Austin.
Design innovation in the Product Design Lab recently found students re-purposing recycled campus street signs into furniture. Under the guidance of Beth Ferguson, assistant professor of design, the students in the new course, DES165 Studio Practices in Industrial Design, created tables, chairs, lighting fixtures and bike racks out of the discarded signs.
Damon Rich, an urban designer and visual artist, and Rosten Woo, an artist, designer, and writer, are the featured speakers in the Alberini Family Speaker Series in Design at UC Davis on May 30. The pair discuss “Building Power: Designing for Democracy Involving Communities in Design.”
Presented by the UC Davis College of Letters and Science’s Department of Design, this second lecture in the annual series will take place in the Ann E. Pitzer Center. The free talk will begin at 4:30 p.m., followed by a reception. Please RSVP: @ucdavisbuildingpower.eventbrite.com
Katia Vega, assistant professor of design, was part of the team whose project, The Dermal Abyss: When Tattoos meet Biotechnology, won an Interactive Innovation Award. The collaborative project included team members from MIT Media Lab and Harvard Medical School.
Each February The Red Dress Collection uses fashion to raising awareness of heart disease as the leading killer of women. Students from the UC Davis Department of Design are at the forefront of this awareness campaign.
A UC Davis design student team was selected as one of six national finalists in the SOFA Chicago CONNECT Competition in November 2017. UC Davis was the only California school among the prestigious design program finalists.
The UC Davis design team consisted of Victoria Chau, Sierra Kennedy, Jessica Jade Lam and Sandra Bae.
Here are some samples of work by Professor Susan Taber Avila which are includes in the “Artistry in Fiber” series. The images are courtesy of Schiffer Publishing.
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