Welcome to Designmatters at ArtCenter College of Design

Where art & design education meets social change.

Congrats Fall 2019 Designmatters Minor Graduates

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).

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.

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.

PACIFIC RIM: Eco Research Lab Costa Rica

ArtCenter students collaborated with Tama students and faculty for two weeks to study, explore and be inspired by the rich biodiversity of the Costa Rica ecological landscape to later design sustainable spaces, materials innovations, furnishings and experiences.

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.

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.

Designmatters Project Archive

List of all Designmatters Case Studies in Chronological order.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.