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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COANIQUEM: Safe Niños: Co-creating Innovative Healing Environments for Children
Student teams co-created playful and therapeutic environments that will welcome young burn patients and their families at COANIQUEM’s two satellite campuses spread far across the expansive country: Antofagasta (in the north) and Puerto Montt (south).
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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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Adaptive Design Planning: Sea Level Rise in Long Beach Communities
This DesignStorm challenged transdisciplinary ArtCenter students to address the impact of rising sea level on the Long Beach communities of Belmont Shore, Naples Island and the Peninsula.
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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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Design Smarter: Reimagining Electronics for Repair & Recycle
ArtCenter students explore the economics, systems and processes of e-waste to create an innovative product or system that efficiently utilizes materials, processes, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, repair, reuse, recycling and end-of-life.
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Designmatters Project Archive
List of all Designmatters Case Studies in Chronological order.
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Building Trust, Bridging Divides: Visual Communication/Branding Programming for the LBPD
This studio challenged transdisciplinary students to develop a visually compelling and technology-infused awareness campaign and branding program, to build understanding and empathy between the LBPD and the diverse communities of Long Beach.
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Smart Image/Social Impact: Myth vs. Reality in the Immigration Debate
Illustration students worked with United We Stay (UWS), a nonprofit immigrant advocacy organization, on their final projects to debunk the myths surrounding immigrants in America.
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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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Socially Engaged Art: Art in Urban Community Green Spaces
Sponsored by the Mary Pickford Foundation, this Designmatters studio teamed ArtCenter students with high schoolers from the Ramona Gardens public housing development to create an art-filled event at Alvarez Park.
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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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Guest Lecture: Ezio Manzini
Design for Social Innovation as an agent of collaborative city making: The Barcelona case as a living laboratory March 9, 2020 / 4pm ArtCenter South Campus /Wind Tunnel Gallery
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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

Guest Lecture | Ezio Manzini – Design for Social Innovation as an agent of collaborative city making

Adaptive Design Planning: Sea Level Rise in Long Beach Communities

"As designers we need to remain accountable, with measureable outcomes and ways of making small moves to create big impacts."
Stephanie Dhillon, Environmental Design, Student

Research & Practice: Accessibility Design Workshop with Google

Jennifer May – 2020 Impact Maker to Watch

Stratiscope / January 2020

Designing Democracy: The Future of Civic Engagement

Spring 2018 - Host Department: Humanities & Sciences

"The practical foundation that underlies this program is that even the most amazing design solutions need to be supported by a strong business model in order to be implemented and sustainable."
Adlai Wertman, Professor, Marshall School of Business, USC

Socially Engaged Art: Art in Urban Community Green Spaces

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

“Where’s Daryl?” Interaction Design Studio

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“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