Design

“The Great Botanic Panic” took place on June 1st and engaged 28 teams of riders from the Davis, Sacramento, and Bay Area communities. 

UC Davis design students in DES187 Narrative Environments taught by Professor Tim McNeil conceptualized, planned, designed, and implemented 9 activity stations around the city. Each station was one of the clues on the hunt and celebrated plants that existed in the Mesozoic Era.

Filmmakers and professors Glenda Drew (of Design) and Jesse Drew (of Cinema and Digital Media) have completed a project decades in the making — a documentary about the roots of American Country Music titled Open Country.

Associate Professor Beth Ferguson will give two upcoming talks centering on her recent work on climate adaptation and sustainable mobility at the UC Santa Cruz and a WTS Advancing Women Advancing Transportation event in Sacramento.

Congratulations to MycoTextile Futures for their 3rd place award (in the research category) in the Future is Fungi global competition hosted by a European consortium aiming to promote research and start-ups using fungi to solve major environmental challenges. The team includes UC Davis Design Lecturer Alejandra Ruiz, Design faculty Christina Cogdell, and Engineering Professor Valeria La Saponara. There were 260 ideas from 70 countries (and the UC Davis team was th

The online publication Blooloop named Professor Tim McNeil among the top 50 museum influencers for 2023. McNeil recently published The Exhibition and Experience Design Handbook, and also was the principal designer of the recent exhibition, “Deborah Butterfield: P.S.

Professor Emeritus Gyöngy Laky published a book in 2022 titled Gyöngy Laky: Screwing with Order. Assembled Art, Actions and Creative Practice, which provides insight into her sustainable art, philosophy and innovations.

Professors Jae Yong Suk and Michael Siminovitch—through the California Lighting Technology Center and the Center for Mind and Brain at UC Davis have—received $200k jointly from Toyota Boshoku America and Seoul Semiconductor to investigate the potential mitigating effects of discrete color in light on human mood and stress. The research is now in its second phase.

Professors Jae Yong Suk and Michael Siminovitch at the California Lighting Technology Center received $100K in funding from Seoul Semiconductor—one of the largest LED manufacturers in the world—to support the research of full-spectrum LEDs for human-centric lighting. Full-spectrum LEDs provide a visible light spectrum similar to natural light.

The 2023 de Young Open, the second triennial of the juried community art exhibition, features submissions by artists from the Bay Area including the work of lecturer Rose Kelly.

Recent alumna Sarah Sy (B.A., design and cinema and digital media, ‘23) has received a scholarship through The Gotham EDU Film and Media Career Development Program. The six-week summer program covers development, pitching, marketing, distribution, and more. Sy’s funding is supported through The Questlove iHeart Scholarship.

Recently Sy’s film “Customer Service” won several awards at Film Fest at UC Davis.

“Nicrocosms: Studies on Scavenging and Renewal,” a group show sponsored by the Bilinski Fellowship, features the work of design graduate students Ofelia Viloche Pulido and Alejandra Ruiz Suárez.

Alejandra Ruiz Suárez was awarded the 2023 Savageau Award for a Master of Fine Arts design student at the opening celebration of the annual Arts and Humanities Graduate Exhibition at the Manetti Shrem Museum. Her work focuses on sustainable pathways for reducing textile waste. 

Quinessa Stibbins, an apparel designer whose research explores the role apparel design can play in protest and nonviolent civil disobedience, was honorable mention. 

SeaNails, a team of UC Davis design students, will be competing as finalists with their project at the Biodesign Challenge Summit 2023, June 22-23. This year’s summit will be held in person at the Museum of Modern Art and Parsons School of Design in New York City.

Design students from DES187 Narrative Environments, taught by Professor Tim McNeil, created the 2023 City of Davis Bike Scavenger Hunt that took place on June 3. The student team designed the event identity, clues, and activities. Clues guided 13 teams to 12 stops around the City of Davis where participants were challenged to compete in a range of specially designed, accessible sport-related activities.

A new book by Professor Timothy J McNeil, director of the UC Davis Design Museum, is an insightful guide for creating successful museum and gallery exhibitions, and themed environments.