Senior Shows: Spring '09

The week before finals, the seniors in Graphic, Industrial, Interior, and Multimedia Design held their senior shows. Studios and galleries were filled with family, guests, and students as the seniors displayed their semester-long projects.

Prometheus 2009

The Furlong Gallery and the Prometheus editorial team hosted a reception April 17, to launch the 2009 edition of Prometheus magazine .The reception featured student readings of poetry and prose and an opportunity to view this year's art exhibition.

Fashion Without Fabric - "Philias and Phobias"

Hundreds turned out to join students from the Department of Art and Design as they worked the runway in this year’s Fashion without Fabric show Saturday, April 18, in the Great Hall of the Memorial Student Center. The annual event featured works by 3D design students and was one of the highlights of Family Weekend. Close to seventy-five fashion-forward creations were constructed with lots of imagination from anything but fabric. First place and best of show were awarded to the team of Daniel Kanitz and Fue Vang, second place to Diana Witcher and Emily Brownson, and third place to RT Vriese and Erik Gordon. The winner of the award for working the crowd was Cody Pinnow.

Laura Short recently discussed a collaborative project among UW-Stout industrial design students, St. Thomas engineering students, and DesignWise Medical with Noah Norton, assistant professor of industrial design.

Laura Short: Can you tell me more about your collaborative project with DesignWise Medical and St. Thomas engineering students?
Noah Norton: The idea behind this project was to create designs for an alternative way to deliver oxygen to children ages 0-6 while they slept. The current way is either taping hoses to their faces or strapping masks to them. Both of these are undesirable solutions that create bad experiences for the children and parents. Ann Gettys, founder of the chILD Foundation (children's interstitial Lung Disease) came up with the idea of a hood that would deliver oxygen to the child in a less obtrusive way. She created a prototype out of a kid’s tent and some hoses; the OPOD idea was born. She has been working with Brad Slaker, founder of the non-profit company DesignWise Medical. They have been engineering solutions with St Thomas since September. We were mainly concerned with the experience-end of things: interaction, cleaning, piece of mind. The students came up with a wide array of solutions that really pushed the boundaries of what was expected. We figured out a way to eliminate the wasteful use of many feet of disposable tubing, among other things.


LS: How many industrial design students were involved?
NN: Eight. Linnea Londborg, Hans Neilsen, Steve Lambert, Grayson Smith, Jennifer Seward, Jenny Byrd, Ben Heard, and Dave Keyes










LS: What were the ID students’ role(s)?
NN: Make the product easy to use for parents: easy to assemble, disassemble, clean, access bed sheets, tell that it is working correctly; make it fool proof. For the children: make it "non-medical,” take the fear away, give them piece of mind and relief. We were also looking at ways to make it more efficient.

LS: What was the result of the project?
NN: The prototypes are now being considered for further refinement and eventual production. One will be chosen and worked on more, engineered, etc.

LS: Will a prototype be available at the senior show?
NN: I am not sure yet. This is a junior project and I do not want to step on toes...








LS: Who started the collaboration? DesignWise Medical?
NN: Brad Slaker from DesignWise Medical contacted us over Xmas Break. We had a few meetings and came to an agreement.

LS: How did Stout become involved?
NN: Brad came to a design senior show in the fall and decided to contact us.

LS: What is the possibility the product will go to market?
NN: Positive thus far. There is still refinement, but I believe that is the plan.

Stout Students Attend AIGA Portfolio 1-on-1

Over the past weekend graphic design students from UW-Stout spent the weekend at the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Portfolio 1-on-1 event at Solera in downtown Minneapolis. The two-day event allowed students to visit a variety of design studios and firms in the surrounding area, network with professional designers and other university students from the Upper Midwest, and have their portfolios reviewed by design professionals.

A UW-Stout student’s experience.

Department of Art and Design Brown Bag Lunch Talk

James Bryan, assistant professor of art history, recently presented his
paper "Carriage Makers in the American South: 1700-1820" at this year's
joint annual conference of the Popular Culture Association and American
Culture Association, held in New Orleans. The paper covers the history of
the trade in the Southern states, describing where its major centers of
production were, what related occupations were pursued by the
craftsmen/businessmen involved, and what their social status was. For those
interested, Dr. Bryan will present this paper again on Tuesday, April 21,
from 12:30-1:30, in Applied Arts 201. Feel free to bring a lunch if you
wish to attend.

Student reflects on Hildesheim Exchange Program

Allison Meshnick on Hildesheim

Though it may sound incredibly cliché, studying abroad in Germany was truly a life-changing experience for me. By staying the entire year, and not just studying a single semester abroad, I was able to truly immerse myself in German culture. Germany literally became home, and over time I felt less and less like a visitor or outsider and began to feel at home in my surroundings.

While there I lived with three German students. Living with natives allowed for a lot of exposure to interesting mindsets and different views of politics and cultures and opened the door for many conversations. One of my favorite memories is having long and leisurely breakfasts on the weekends while discussing the current topics in the newspaper that had been delivered that morning. Living with Germans also allowed me to learn the language much quicker than I believe I would have, had I been living alone or with other exchange students.

I was fortunate to be one of the students who went to Hildesheim during the 20th year of the program being in existence. This meant that shortly after I returned to the States, there was a reunion conference held in the end of September at UW-Stout. This was a great way to network with fellow colleagues that had previously completed the program and the perfect compliment to returning from Germany. Although virtually strangers at first, it was remarkable to witness the ease and comfort in which we could all communicate and discuss our experiences, regardless of how far apart we were in age, or when we completed the program. It was so interesting for me to hear different perspectives from those who had completed the program long before me, and to see where they were currently and how it had affected their lives.