Product Design Program Professor Susan L. Sokolowski will be the keynote speaker April 29 at the “2016 Symposium: Fashion And the Body” presented by the University of Minnesota College of Design in St. Paul.
Sokolowski, who is helping establish the new UO Portland sports product design masters program set to launch September 2017, will give a talk titled “Fashioning the Athletic Body.”
Product design, sustainability, and entrepreneurship all come together permanently under one roof May 10 when the Downtown Innovation Launch Lab officially opens in Eugene. The festivities begin with a ribbon cutting at 3 p.m. and remarks by Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and UO President Michael Schill, followed by tours including featured work by building occupants.
Students in the adaptive design studio had a specific vision and goal: to enable the USA wheelchair rugby team to compete at its highest potential using innovative products designed just for them.
Refining and redesigning athletic wear for adaptive athletes is becoming a noted specialty at the UO in Portland thanks to the unique curriculum launched four years ago in the Product Design Program. The studio—Adaptive Products: Enabling Athletes with Disabilities—was first offered to fifth-year bachelor of fine arts product design students in winter 2012.
Designers and engineers interested in cutting-edge research in sports product design will welcome the University of Oregon’s proposed new Sports Product Design (SPD) master’s degree, due to begin fall 2016 in Portland. Prospective students can register their interest online to receive information about upcoming workshops and the application process.
A ceramic product line designed by Product Design Program Assistant Professor Trygve Faste and Department of Art Instructor Jessica Swanson is featured in designboom’s Top 10 Reader Submissions of 2015 in the product design category. Their project, Intertidal Deployment Object Series 2, is a collection of ceramic products adorned with barnacles.
As a freshman at UO, Collin Lafayette lost interest in his stated major, business, fairly quickly. Instead, he found himself regularly helping out his roommate with his Product Design Program homework. Lafayette taught his roommate about line weight—for example, how a thicker line could distinguish a border—and how subtle use of shading can offer 2D drawings depth and realistic detail.
Competing against more than 1,700 entries from around the world, a University of Oregon graduate of the Product Design Program and a team at Intel won the silver award for computer equipment in the 2015 International Design Excellence Award competition.
The 2015-16 academic year introduces new faculty members to several A&AA departments and programs. The professors new to the school bring a wide spectrum of expertise and creativity in architecture, the history of art and architecture, arts and administration, and product design. They come to UO from schools including Istanbul Technical University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Denver, Stanford University, and the University of Minnesota.
Architecture
What do Hasbro toys, Scandinavian Airlines service trays, John Deere lawn mowers, virtual reality headsets, Eli Lilly medical devices, and MGM Las Vegas water features all have in common?
Trygve Faste worked on their design.
Liz Zarro, a 2015 Product Design Program BFA graduate, wants to develop "products that are more than just products" and use design to improve people's lives. She designed an exoskeletal back support, called Origin, for Portland's wheelchair basketball team. The product reduces athletes' dependence on their hands for core stability and body repositioning. For her honors thesis project, Zarro designed a biomimetric shelving unit that she has titled Pinicola Shelves.
