CDes MEMO Archives

A bi-weekly electronic newsletter for the faculty and staff of the College of Design.

The deadline for submissions is noon on Wednesday prior to Thursday of publication. Send submissions to Michael Fraase <mfraase@umn.edu>. The next issue comes out September 28.

Read CDes Memo online on the College of Design Web site.

December 7 , 2006

Editor: Michael Fraase, mfraase@umn.edu

From Dean Fisher

With this, the last CDes MEMO of the fall semester, I wanted to thank you, our faculty and staff, for making it through the first six months of the new college. Like all births, this one had a few painful moments, but all in all, this "baby" of ours, the college, has great promise and real potential to make a significant contribution toward designing a better world. In many ways, the last year has focused on creating the staff infrastructure to help the college become operational. We are almost fully staffed, and that work, of course, will continue to evolve.

I see the next year as one focused on our intellectual mission, on what design education needs to be in a rapidly changing world and what design and its related fields have to contribute to some of the key challenges we face, such as environmental sustainability, the digital revolution, affordable housing, K-12 education, and social justice, among others. I look forward, in the retreats we have planned for January, to engaging in those discussions with you. In the meantime, we have planned some get-togethers for faculty and staff next week, on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 13 in McNeal and the afternoon of Thursday, December 14 in Rapson, to celebrate the end of the semester and to thank you for the work you have done to give life to our new college. Cheers!

Next two weeks

Today
DHA Undergraduate Honors: Capstone Presentations
22 McNeal Hall

2:30-3:15 p.m.
Ashley Lademann
Retail Merchandising
"Appearance Management Behaviors: The Effect on Body Self-Esteem and Body Self-Objectification"

4:00-4:45 p.m.
Grace Eelkema
Graphic Design
"Paper & Computer: Exploring the Creative Processes of 10 Graphic Designers in the Twin Cities"

The presentations are open to the public.

December 8, 12:15 p.m., 31 Rapson Hall
Architecture dual-degree program information session
The School of Architecture, beginning in fall 2007, will be offering a unique dual degree program, combining the M.Arch and the M.S. in architecture-sustainable design track (M.S.-SD), for students interested in combining professional architecture studies with a focus on sustainable design theory and practice. Both degrees are completed concurrently as a full-time student within 3.5 years (100 credits). Students are able to obtain an M.Aarch professional degree concurrently with an M.S. in architecture -- sustainable design track, in less time and with more academic support, and potentially more financial support, than if they pursued the two degrees separately.

December 15, 7-9p.m., Q.arma Building (see below)
And We're Off
Fall senior graphic design show.

Join the graphic design seniors and check out the new talent at their show. There will be great work -- and music as well! The Q.arma Building is located in northeast Minneapolis, just west of the corner of Broadway and Central. (1224 Quincy St. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413).

Future events

February 4-June 3, 2007
Building Ties: Culturally sensitive housing designs for the Hmong and the Ojibwe people
The exhibit "Building Ties: Culturally sensitive housing designs for the Hmong and the Ojibwe people" by interior design students under the direction of Tasoulla Hadjiyanni will be at the Hennepin History Museum February 4-June 3, 2007. An opening reception is Sunday, February 4, 3-6 p.m. All are welcome.

April 27-28, 2007
Design and Its Publics: Curators, Critics, and Historians
The Design Institute will co-host the symposium "Design and Its Publics: Curators, Critics, and Historians" April 27-28, 2007, in Minneapolis. The symposium is being co-organized with CLA's Department of Art History and will be moderated by Janet Abrams and Tom Fisher, with a stellar roster of speakers; further details will be announced in the new year.

News and announcements

Want to stay in touch with important CDes announcements? Consider setting your Web browser's home page to the College of Design Announcements page. Updated frequently, this page has timely information that didn't make the CDes MEMO deadline.

News from the Mississippi River Design Initiative
Information and results of the "Making River Connections" workshop's efforts are available on the Mississippi River Design Initiative's Web site.

In the spring, several more events are planned including a panel discussion, "The Mississippi River Over Time," on April 12 as part of the Institute for Advanced Study's "Thursdays at Four" series.

Faculty: do you need research help?
The spring semester review of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) will occur in early March for students wanting to participate in a May session, summer session 2007, or fall 2007 research project. We are compiling a faculty list to put on our Web site to guide students interested in working with a faculty member on a UROP project.

If you are a faculty member with a possible UROP project, please e-mail your project to Kim Hindbjorgen (CDes Student Services), khindbjo@umn.edu, for inclusion on the College of Design UROP page. Please let us know the following:

Nature of your research
How a student could participate
Best way to contact you

What is UROP?
UROP provides grants of up to $1,700 for undergraduate students either to carry out a project of the student's own design in close collaboration with a faculty sponsor or to work with a faculty member on her scholarly or creative project. To find out more about the application process, visit the University's UROP Web site.

Metropolitan Design Center faculty programs
As the semester comes to a close, the Metropolitan Design Center would like to remind CDes regular faculty of two programs. The Visiting Critics program can provide support for visiting studio critics focused on urban design. The Faculty Minigrant program provides funds for a variety of small projects in urban design and community engagement, both in courses and outside them. Applications are accepted at any time.

Professional development and conference grants
Grants of up to $1,000 are available for faculty (full and part-time) and instructional staff to attend conferences on educational technology and to undertake professional development training for the use of educational technology. While both programs have due dates of March 27, 2007, applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis. If you are interested in attending a conference or in receiving training in the use of technology in teaching, this is a great opportunity. Please contact Brad Hokanson, brad@umn.edu, for additional information about these programs.

New five-day deadline for Grants.gov proposals
The Vice President for Research announces a new five-day deadline for grant proposals requiring submission through the new federal mechanism, Grants.gov, to Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) effective January 30, 2007. Frequently asked questions about SPA deadlines are available.

The front door for businesses
The Vice President for Research has announced that the University's Academic and Corporate Relations Center (ACRC) is open for business. The new "front door" to the University offers the business community access to resources and information through ACRC's concierge service, relationship managers, and Web site. For more information, see the ACRC Web site or contact ACRC at 612-626-3438 or frontdoor@umn.edu.

CDes in the media

The following CDes activities and expertise have been featured in the media. Contact Laura Weber, communications director, at l-webe@umn.edu if you have news to promote through the media.

"New ideas for an old south Minneapolis movie house" -- By Linda Mack, StarTribune, November 24, 2006
Working with the Parkway Theater's new owner, University of Minnesota interior design students showed how the south Minneapolis movie house could become a neighborhood destination, with banquet space and live-theater productions.

"Extreme makeover: neighborhood theater edition" -- By Rick Moore, UMN News, November 28, 2006
Caren Martin's interior design students unveil ideas for renovation of Parkway Theater in Minneapolis (also featured for several days on the University's Web site home page).

"'Project Runway' inspires local knockoffs" -- By Sara Glassman, StarTribune, November 26, 2006
Retail management student displays in lobby of Bachman's flagship store.

"Design apparel study searches for better-fitting jeans" -- By Heather L. Mueller, Minnesota Daily, December 1, 2006
For women, a good-fitting pair of jeans is a wardrobe staple, much like a little black dress. But, it might also be the most troublesome garment to shop for. CDes doctoral student Ellen McKinney says jeans designers miss the connection between body shape and pattern.

"Vote on holiday runway entries" -- By Staff, Fox 9, November 29, 2006
University of Minnesota design students have teamed up with Bachman's for "Project Holiday," a design competition using items found in the store. Check out the entries and vote on your favorites!

Kate Daly (DHA) appeared on the Cities 97 morning show today, December 7, talking about her retail merchandising course's participation in Project Holiday at Bachman's.

Congratulations and kudos

John Comazzi (Architecture) is the recipient of a grant-in-aid of research, artistry, and scholarship award for the development of a manuscript on the career and work of Balthazar Korab, one of the most prolific photographers of 20th century architecture. The grant will assist Comazzi in travel for interviews and the assembly of work spanning 50+ years of photography from around the world.

Barbara Martinson (DHA) has been awarded a grant-in-aid from the Graduate School for her proposal titled "Good work in craft and design: Exploring ethical issues in creative production." Martinson will conduct research to explore ethical issues faced by crafts persons, graphic designers, and craft and design educators in their day-to-day work.

Marilyn Bruin (DHA) received a grant from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency to conduct and evaluate home ownership pre-purchase workshops for Latino communities in Faribault, Mankato, and Rochester.

Three works from Barbara Martinson’s (DHA) current series “Housing After the Turn of the Century” have been selected for juried exhibitions. “Greenspace=Bluespace” is in the 28th Contemporary Craft Exhibition at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona. “Where do you live?” is in Quilts=Art=Quilts at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center. “East Bank/West Bank” will be in Form, Not Function: Quilt Art at the Carnegie Center for Art & History in New Albany, Indiana.

Lance Neckar (Landscape Architecture) is co-principal investigator and will write the summary synthesis report for a $1 million dollar interdisciplinary grant to the University's Center for Transportation Studies from the American Institute of Architects. This grant, managed by the Federal Highway Administration, will document cases that explain how several aspects of design of transportation projects enhance communities. CDes investigators on this grant include Ann Forsyth (Metropolitan Design Center) on visual/scenic/aesthetic values, John Carmody (Center for Sustainable Building Research) on environment and sustainability issues, and Neckar. Other faculty principal investigators include John Adams (Geography), Barb VanDrasek (Geography), Carissa Schively (Humphrey Institute), and Gary Davis (Civil Engineering). Robert Johns (Center for Transportation Studies), principal investigator for project management, has organized the project and helped Neckar assemble the winning team.

Janet Abrams (Design Institute):

Served on the futures committee reviewing The University of the Arts' Graphic Design program, in Philadelphia on December 5-6, with Meredith Davis (NC State University).
Has joined the Brain Trust of Art Center College of Design's graduate media design department, at the invitation of Ann Burdick, its new chair. The Brain Trust includes former Xerox PARC director John Seely Brown, UC Irvine computer science professor Paul Dourish, AIGA Executive Director Ric Grefe, science fiction author Bruce Sterling, gameLab co-founder Eric Zimmerman, and other national design and media leaders.
Steps down at the end of the year as a trustee of Van Alen Institute: Projects in Public Architecture, New York, in December, after a cumulative decade of service.
Has recently joined the board of trustees of The Soap Factory non-profit contemporary arts venue in Minneapolis.

Presentations

Peter Hall (Design Institute) presented a peer-reviewed paper, "From Mainland to Island: an ongoing experiment in participant-driven education and short-term, intensive research as an alternative to the design conference" at "Design Frontier: graphic design education in small programs and non-urban regions," an AIGA Design Education Conference held at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design, December 2-3.

Wendy Friedmeyer (Design Institute) participated in the Learning by Design Conference on school design in Minneapolis, October 11-13. Friedmeyer joined the American Architectural Foundation (AAF) and the Chicago Architecture Foundation, October 27-28, for the Architecture and Design Education Network (A+DEN) meeting in Chicago. Friedmeyer presented Design Camp at that meeting's expo.

Janet Abrams (Design Institute):

Can be seen debating "The Future of Design Education" with Stanford University d.school founder and IDEO founder and CEO David Kelley, on the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum's Web site.
Will speak on MCAD's "Site/Life Mapping" panel on January 24, 2007.
Will speak on "The Future of Design and Design Education" on March 10, 2007, in Philadelphia at University of the Arts' "GD40" symposium, on a panel featuring IDEO's Bill Moggridge, Walker Art Center design curator Andrew Blauvelt, and Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design president Ron Burnett.
Will give a keynote at the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) midwest region 2007 annual conference in Kohler, Wisconsin, in mid-April, 2007.

Transitions

The Design Institute welcomes Donald Haney, executive office and administrative assistant, and Scott Christensen, research fellow working on the new product design degree program, both of whom joined the DI in November. Haney, hane0001@umn.edu, previously served as as office manager of the Upward Bound education program in General College. A graduate of Pratt Institute, Christensen, scotto@umn.edu, is a practicing product designer who has most recently taught in the University of Wisconsin-Stout's industrial design program.

Colophon

CDes MEMO is published by the College of Design at the University of Minnesota bi-weekly, every other Thursday, September through May, on the Web. Please send comments, questions, or submissions to Michael Fraase, mfraase@umn.edu.

Submissions are due by noon Wednesday prior to Thursday publication. Spring semester publication dates are: January 25, February 8, February 22, March 8, March 22, April 5, April 19, and May 3.

This e-mail was sent by: University of Minnesota, College of Design. 32 McNeal Hall, 1985 Buford Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA.