Rethinking design Sept. 13 and 14

Jon Kolko and Cynthia E. Smith to launch Sam Fox School fall Public Lecture Series

Cynthia E. Smith, curator of socially responsible design for Cooper‐Hewitt, National Design Museum, will speak for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts Sept. 14. Design with the Other 90%: CITIES, which Smith organized, will open later that evening at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.” ]
Good design takes many forms.

It can be a poster or book jacket or a smart phone. Yet increasingly, designers are being asked not only to create objects, but to address large-scale social problems, from poverty to sustainability to eating disorders.

Next month, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will launch its fall Public Lecture Series with two speakers, both of whom are rethinking the roles of design and designers.

Jon Kolko

At 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13, Jon Kolko, founder and director of the Austin Center for Design, will discuss design as “A Means to An End.”His visit comes as part of the Sam Fox School’s new Interaction Design Initiative, which will bring to campus nationally known experts in this emerging, interdisciplinary practice of understanding human behaviors to design digital interfaces, products, built environments, systems, services and other tools that people use.

Then, at 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14, Cynthia E. Smith will discuss “Design Exchange.” Smith is curator of socially responsible design for Cooper‐Hewitt, National Design Museum. Her credits include Design with the Other 90%: CITIES, which collects dozens of smart, problem-solving projects from around the globe — and which will be on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum throughout the fall.

In her talk, Smith will explore how a new wave of designers, architects, engineers and philanthropists is working directly with people with limited resources, collaborating across sectors to find solutions.

Both talks are free and open to the public and take place in Steinberg Hall Auditorium. Smith’s talk will be followed at 6 p.m. by the public opening of the fall exhibitions at the Kemper Art Museum, including Design with the Other 90%: CITIES.

Interaction Design Initiative

The goal of interaction design is to develop innovation through a collaborative process of imagining things as they might be in the future. The process is relevant to fields such as architecture, engineering, business, social work, the humanities, and medicine, as experts seek strategies to solve complex, human challenges.

During the fall semester, the Sam Fox School will host a series of interaction design workshops taught by renowned professionals and academics in the field of interaction design, complemented by four public lectures.

Organized by Heather Corcoran, associate professor of communication design, the workshops are open to all WUSTL students and focus on a range of contemporary activities and methods of interaction design. Topics range from “research about people” to “rapid prototyping” to the development of an iPad app.

Limited spaces remain for the first two workshops; for more information, e-mail hcorcoran@wustl.edu.

Sam Fox School Public Lecture Series

All talks are free and open to the public and, unless otherwise noted, begin at 6:30 p.m. in Steinberg Hall Auditorium, located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. In addition, each talk will be preceded by a reception at 6 p.m.

For more information, call (314) 935-9300 or visit samfoxschool.wustl.edu.

Fall 2012 speakers

7 p.m. Sept. 13
Jon Kolko
Founder and director, Austin Center for Design
Interaction Design Initiative Lecture

5 p.m. Sept. 14
Cynthia E. Smith
Curator of Socially Responsible Design, Cooper‐Hewitt, National Design Museum
Public Reception at 6 p.m. in the Kemper Art Museum

Sept. 19
Kate Fletcher
Founder of the design for sustainability consultancy Slow Fashion; Reader in Sustainable Fashion, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion

Sept. 24
Frank Barkow
Co-founder, Barkow Leibinger Architects, Berlin

Oct. 1
Susan Rodriguez, FAIA
Founding partner and design principal, Ennead Architects, New York
AIA St. Louis Scholarship Trust Lecture

Oct. 4
Rachel Hinman
Researcher, designer and recognized thought leader in the mobile user experience field; senior research scientist, Nokia Research Center
Interaction Design Initiative Lecture, Whitaker Hall Auditorium

Oct. 8
James Siena
Artist represented by The Pace Gallery
Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist Lecture

Oct.15
Peter Stutchbury
Principal, Peter Stutchbury Architecture, Australia
Harris Armstrong Fund Lecture

Oct.17
Adriaan Geuze, IR, RLA, OALA
Founder, West 8urban design and landscape architecture, New York
Landscape Brands Lecture for Landscape Architecture

Oct. 22
Chris Sickels
Creative force behind Red Nose Studio

Oct. 24
Ed Chan-Lizardo
Chief development and partnerships officer, KickStart International
Reception 6 p.m., Kemper Art Museum

Oct. 25
Ian Curry
Interaction designer, FiftyThree
Interaction Design Initiative Lecture

Oct. 29
Hal Foster
Townsend Martin Class of 1917 Professor of Art and Archaeology and professor of architecture, Princeton University
Abend Family Lecture

Nov. 7
Anne Rorimer
Freelance curator and independent scholar
Reception 6 p.m., Kemper Art Museum

Nov. 9
Thom Mayne
Founder, Morphosis
Fumihiko Maki Lecture; Keynote Lecture, URBANISMS: Sustainable Cities for One Planet

Nov. 15
Callie Neylan
Interaction designer, researcher and writer
Interaction Design Initiative Lecture

Nov. 19
Anthony Elms
Associate curator, Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania; editor, WhiteWalls Inc.

Nov. 26
Tatiana Bilbao
Founder, Tatiana Bilbao S.C.
Coral Courts Lecture