PROJECTS

Featured Courses

Safe Agua Chile: Using Design to Improve Life

Develop new tools, products, systems and methods of storing, utilizing, transporting and conserving water in order to help break the cycle of poverty in “campamentos” (known as slums are known in Chile) and transitional housing communities built by Un Techo Para Mi Pais (UTPM) . At the root of the collaboration is the short-term intent to enhance the utilization of one of life’s most basic resources; long-term the vision is to effect social change throughout these communities and to expand students’ view of the power of design to impact society.

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Vato Verde

Students were challenged to create public awareness through a provocative and multimedia campaign aiming to reach a generation of children and young teens who are at risk for gun violence, and often over-exposed to the glamorization of guns in mainstream media.

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Es Tiempo:

A multi-faceted campaign raising awareness and support for prevention and treatment of cervical cancer

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UNFPA: A Campaign Celebrating Population and Development ICPD+15

With half of the world’s population under the age of 25, the focus of the class was to generate a call to action that would be youth-oriented and capture fresh perspectives about the interconnectedness between population dynamics, reproductive health rights, and economic and social development.

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The Ark Project: A Winter Storm Campaign for USGS

In a culture of alarm fatigue, how to find innovative ways to provoke readiness without causing fear or panic? How to turn preparedness for a natural disaster of large scale into a broad-based cultural value?

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The Organization of American States: Rebranding Project

Development of a logo and indentity system for the the Organization of American States (OAS) and the OAS' Art Museum of the Americas for internal and external communications.

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Research for a Gender-Based Violence Prevention Campaign in the Asia-Pacific Region

A study in branding solutions for materials to support a positive role modeling campaign to counteract gender-based violence in the Asia-Pacific region.

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MEDIA

Featured PSA

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ABOUT DESIGNMATTERS

"Social impact projects that come into the classroom and burst out into the field are thrilling. When you experience them up close, it becomes about the rush of creativity that results from the synergy of many minds and one joint purpose: generating tangible solutions that make a lasting difference in people’s lives." - Mariana Amatullo, Director, Designmatters Department

In a global environment shifting at rapid pace, a profound paradigm shift is underway which is transforming the way we lead our lives, relate and communicate with others, acquire and communicate knowledge, and engage in the larger world. We are also at a tipping point when global inequalities, unprecedented economic complexities and intractable social problems are demanding multidisciplinary and collective solutions and new entrepreneurial models that can turn obstacles into opportunities.

Through Designmatters at Art Center College of Design, students are invited to apply their talent, creativity and tool-box of skills to address some of the most troubling humanitarian and social challenges of our time with empathy, discipline, and unwavering optimism to effect change.

Designmatters is an educational department that partners with every discipline at Art Center to focus on art and design education with a social impact agenda and “real-world” outcomes that are implemented through a series of unique partnerships and alliances with global development agencies, government groups, academic institutions, local and national non-profits, and leading industry

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OUR MISSION

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

The common goal of all Designmatters projects is simple: take art and design education as a catalyst and change agent. And imagine and build a better and more humane future for all.