Designmatters DESIS Lab
Designmatters DESIS Lab, Art Center, USA
Address: 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA, USA, 91103
Tel: +00 1.626.396.2418, Fax: +00 1.626.396.2339
www.designmattersatartcenter.org
Hosting Institution: Art Center College of Design
Address: 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA, USA, 91103
Tel: +00 1.626.396.2418, Fax: +00 1.626.396.2339
www.artcenter.edu
Coordinator: Mariana Amatullo, Vice President, Designmatters Department
Address: 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA, USA, 91103
Tel: +00 1.626.396.2418, Fax: +00 1.626.396.2339
Email: mariana.amatullo@artcenter.edu
Operations Manager: Elisa Ruffino, Director, Designmatters Department
Address: 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, CA, USA, 91103
Tel: +00 1.626.396.2438, Fax: +00 1.626.396.2339
Email: elisa.ruffino@artcenter.edu
Background:
Designmatters is where art and design education meets social change. Since 2001, Designmatters at Art Center College of Design has afforded the college’s degree students meaningful opportunities to apply their creativity and tool-box of skills to address some of the most pressing humanitarian and social challenges of our time with empathy, discipline, and unwavering optimism to effect change.
Through Designmatters, Art Center students, faculty and alumni participate in trans-disciplinary studio courses, special projects and international internships that are defined by aesthetic value, business acumen and an expansive agenda for social innovation. In 2010, the department launched the Designmatters Concentration in Art and Design for Social Impact. This formal course of study adds to the program’s trajectory with curricula encompassing immersive learning experiences with “real-world” outcomes that guarantee core competencies for students who wish to succeed in careers defined by social agency in the public and private sectors alike.
Objectives:
• As an education magnet and research division for the College, we conceive of projects for the curriculum, oversee the Designmatters Concentration at the undergraduate level, and partner with the Graduate Media Design program in the Media Design Matters (MDM) track
• As an agent for social impact through design, we are a guarantor for implementation and assessment of projects led by students, faculty and alumni.
• As an external relations center for strategic partnership building, we leverage art and design education as tools for positive change in the world.
Activities (past and present):
The Designmatters portfolio engages all of the disciplines taught at Art Center under the mantle of a definition for design that always presupposes an actionable, positive outcome. Projects of significance have included:
• A collaboration with GE Healthcare to design medical diagnostic equipment for emergent markets in Africa in 2016;
• The Mpala Project for rural communities in Kenya and Ethiopia, which generated a solar-powered camel saddle system to carry refrigerated vaccines and public health education products for HIV-AIDS prevention and family planning;
• Safe Agua, a multi-faceted initiative which developed prototypes and service solutions to store, utilize and conserve water for slum communities in Chile, in partnership with the NGO Un Techo Para Mi Pais;
• Project Coastal Crises with the Aquarium of the Pacific to imagine new products and services for public awareness about the impact of climate change and sea level rise.
Please see the full portfolio of Designmatters past and present projects at www.designmattersatartcenter.org
Primary research areas:
Designmatters projects and courses are aligned under four key thematic areas of inquiry: public policy, sustainable development, global healthcare and social entrepreneurship.
Future programs:
On the eve of its ten-year anniversary, Designmatters at Art Center College of Design continues to fulfill its original mission and form industrial designers and creative leaders with the aspiration and know-how to shape the futures we truly desire for a more sustainable and equitable world.
Main partner
Project partners and funders include a broad scope of international development organizations such as UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders and the American Red Cross, government agencies such as the United States Geological Survey and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, industry leaders such as GE Healthcare, and national foundations such as the Lemelson Foundation, the Surdna Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. Cross-sector academic alliances facilitated by Designmatters have involved the Engineering Department at Princeton University, the Mechanical Engineering Department at the California Institute of Technology as well as the Keck School of Medicine, the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, among others.
For more information: www.designmattersatartcenter.org
Project example
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