designmatters | Where art & design education meets social change.

Welcome to Designmatters at ArtCenter College of Design
Where art & design education meets social change.
More About Us
Designmatters Project Archive
List of all Designmatters Case Studies in Chronological order.
View Page
Socially Engaged Art
As a field that blurs the lines between art and life, the Spring 2018 studio, Socially Engaged Art, emphasized participation, dialogue, and action from a place of shared concerns. The class was formatted to encourage collaboration to foster skills of negotiation, while holding space for individual voices and unexpected innovation within art production.
View Project
Seeing the Unseen: Visualizing Flow Patterns of Mesopelagic Ocean Eddies
ArtCenter students design interactive data visualization projects based on the elusive underwater movement patterns of ocean eddies.
View Project
Safe Niños Development Studio: Charity Retail Pop-Up
ArtCenter students worked with COANIQUEM to design and implement a pop-up structure/system on site at the Lollapalooza Music Festival in Santiago, Chile.
View Project
The Designmatters Minor in Social Innovation
The Designmatters Minor in social innovation is a course of study for ArtCenter undergraduate students who want to master a toolkit of design skills and strategies to navigate the complex dynamics of working with communities and designing for social change.
Read more
Fellowship Program
The Designmatters Fellowship Program embeds top ArtCenter students in host organizations for one full 14-week academic term to work on high-level projects and explore the mission, model and meaning of the host organization’s work.
Read more
Engage + Envision + Empower: Creating a Safe Sex Culture in the City of Long Beach
ArtCenter students were challenged to develop a comprehensive transmedia awareness campaign about safe sex practices for the City of Long Beach which has seen a dramatic increase in the rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) during the past two years.
View Project
A Future Vision for the Aquarium of the Pacific
Packard Fellowship invited ArtCenter students, faculty to develop concepts for a new wing at Aquarium of the Pacific!
View Project
Designing Democracy: The Future of Civic Engagement
In partnership with California Common Cause, ArtCenter students created campaigns, collateral and experiences aimed to increase voter participation and citizen empowerment.
View Project
Imagining the Future of the Barbie Dreamhouse
Students teamed up with Mattel & Barbie to envision innovative forward-thinking ways of reimagining the iconic Barbie Dreamhouse for 2022!
View Project

Introduction

The Designmatters educational platform at ArtCenter College of Design joins collaboration with experimentation, experience with reflection, problem-solving with problem-discovery, and purpose with action.

Our Mission

Through research, advocacy and action, Designmatters engages, empowers and leads an ongoing exploration of art and design as a positive force in society.

Recent News

A Future Vision for the Aquarium of the Pacific

ArtCenter and VentureWell: Design, Innovation and Sustainable Impact

"The chance to work with real people with real needs is an invaluable learning experience for students."
Simon Johnston, Graphic Design, Faculty

ArtCenter Faculty & Students Awarded 2018 Sappi Ideas That Matter Grant

Sappi Ideas that Matter / September 2018

RECAP: Dawn Hancock’s A Workshop About Workshops

Seeing the Unseen: Visualizing Flow Patterns of Mesopelagic Ocean Eddies

Spring 2018 - Host Department: Interaction Design

“When I see really powerful student projects happen it’s because the students have genuinely become interested in and care about who will be using, seeing or encountering their design. It’s an exercise in empathy.”
Arden Stern, Humanities & Sciences, Faculty

The Es Tiempo Campaign

Summer 2009 - Host Department: Advertising

Engage + Envision + Empower: Creating a Safe Sex Culture in the City of Long Beach

Imagining the Future of the Barbie Dreamhouse

View all projects

“The two-week experience on the ground in Chile was instrumental. We all felt the same thing; we all saw and experienced the same realities together. We all lived the same moments. And that really helped us later as a design team, as we related our ideas and concepts back to our shared experience.”
Andres Zavala, Student, Environmental Design