During my junior year of college, I took a class called Design Process by professor Carol Sogard. During this class, Carol's curriculum incorporated design with environmental issues. She then taught a class called Sustainability in Design this past spring for the first time. In the class, we were taught about the designer's place with the controversial subject of a degrading environment across the globe.
By tracing the process backwards, you begin to see that it is not completely the consumer at fault. As a designer, our goal is to catch the audience's eye through our designs in order to sell the ideas. Many times, these ideas are products. By thinking of this subject in this way, you begin to see that you play a large role in the problem. We focused on finding our place in this, as well as solutions for how we can help, through intensive research, "field trips", and design projects.
We got the opportunity to have our projects in the class featured in an exhibit at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. The projects could be on a related topic of our choice, and we were able to decide how we wanted to represent our information and research. Some students chose installations, some interactive pieces, etc. I was also given the opportunity to help Carol put the show together for my required internship credit for my degree. Being a part of the production of putting together the exhibit was great. It opened my eyes to some of the issues that you face putting artwork in a museum, the work that goes into it, and how each and every aspect helps to determine the show's success. The show has been up since September and will continue until July 2014.
If you are in the Salt Lake area, go take a look at the show! And if any of you readers are design students at the University of Utah, I highly recommend taking Carol's Sustainability in Design class, it is held during spring semester.
Artist Credits:
Photo One // Jonathan Gracey
Photo Two // Michelle Mann
Photo Three // Alex Douangdara
Photo Four // Kris Sovereen
Photo Five // A compilation of process of students by me.
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