Product Design

A&AA professors receive Idea grants

Two very different research projects driven by A&AA faculty members have been awarded grants from the UO Idea awards program. While one project delves into the relationship between barnacle growth and ceramics, the other seeks to answer the microbial problem of poor indoor air quality.

Both the “Barnacle Project” and “Office Oasis” received $5,000 through the UO Idea grant program. The Product Design Program matched the funds.

Students refine cup design for campus

A student-designed and created drinking cup from the ARTC 410 “Prototyping and Manufacturing” course may end up on a table in Carson Dining Hall or the A&AA Willcox Hearth in the future.

The experimental course, under way in winter 2014, combines the disciplines of product design and ceramics and introduces students to social practice, design, and manufacturing. The class instructs students to formulate a design for a cup that is suitable for UO campus food vendors.

Class takes on challenge of condom design

Bulging bags of used condoms adorned tables less than an hour after students arrived. Comments including “Oh wow, that is really gross, it looks like a worm,” and “That’s, like, no lubrication, it’s already dry” could be heard as forty-five students clustered in small groups, laptops open to spreadsheets, iPhone stopwatches primed, cobalt blue plastic phalluses upright on tables before them.

Track Town Studio combines product design with architecture

The eighty-five flags gracing the ceiling in the “Track Town Studio” this term aren’t mere decoration. They set the tone for the product design and architecture students collaborating beneath the banners, helping them gauge how and where to display 175 flags from participating countries in the 2014 International Association of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) World Junior Championships.

Faste recognized as Sony Scholar for outstanding work

Assistant Professor Trygve Faste of the Product Design Program was honored recently with a Sony Scholar award.

The annual award recognizes outstanding junior faculty who have shown promise or demonstrated achievement in instruction, research, or both. The faculty selection committee also factors in the potential impact of the award on the faculty member's ability to further demonstrate achievement in teaching and/or research.

Product design major balances football, career classes

Fifth year BFA major Daryle Hawkins leads an intense dual life, packing in training and games as a Duck receiver with product design studios in Portland three times a week. GoDucks.com Editor Rob Moseley spent a day with Hawkins to get an idea of how his passion for both design and football coalesce. Read the full story at goducks.com.