designmatters | Where art & design education meets social change.

Welcome to Designmatters at ArtCenter College of Design
Where art & design education meets social change.
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Designmatters Project Archive
List of all Designmatters Case Studies in Chronological order.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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

Designing Democracy: The Future of Civic Engagement

Spring 2018 - Host Department: Humanities & Sciences

A Future Vision for the Aquarium of the Pacific

"This class strengthened my work by helping me express my personal voice through content with meaningful impact."
Ashley Pinnick Illustration, Designmatters Concentration, Student

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

"As artists and designers, we are in a unique position. What we choose to say with this voice that defines us as human beings."
Patrick Hruby Illustration, Student

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

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"Socially conscious designers can inject new ways of thinking into the world to help deal with pervasive social and environmental problems (such as inequity and the hyper-production of wasteful and harmful things)."
Mari Nakano, Grad Media Design '09, Visual Design Lead, UNICEF Innovation Unit