Designmatters

In continued partnership with Kindred Space Los Angeles, students will collaboratively further design established comprehensive multi-modal awareness campaigns with the goal of facilitating access to equitable child birthing experiences, increasing awareness around black midwifery and improving health outcomes while addressing the Black Maternal health crisis in America.

This design studio course will engage the on-going process of visioning and city-making ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games. Students will develop projects that might enhance urban life for the greatest number of Angelenos long after the 2028 Olympic torch is extinguished. Such projects might address transportation needs, housing, leisure and public spaces, education, labor and matters of inequality. This course is eligible for the Designmatters Minor in Social Innovation

Prada pulls racist trinkets. Netflix airs transphobic special. Cannes awards gender-biased ads. What do these headlines tell us? Brands are every bit as social as they are commercial. Viewed through the lens of identity, brands hold the power to exploit, marginalize, and even create social identities. Similarly, brands play a vital-and sometimes violent-role in defining the "other," blurring the line between profit and politics. In this studio, students learn how to read brands as belief systems that inscribe social codes. Lecture content and course readings draw on the fields of psychology, political theory, brand strategy, and more to underscore how brands like Prada, Netflix, Cannes (and more) affect race, gender, and class relations, among myriad other sociopolitical categories. Student teams translate course learnings into a brand identity system of their making that resists negative social stereotypes. They may also find some new identities of their own in the process. This course is eligible for the Designmatters Minor in Social Innovation.

In Designmatters' first fully developed and scoped TDS by Illustration students Racheal Chan and Constant Pearson, this course reframes education as "a process of living and not a preparation for future living", as American philosopher John Dewey stated more than a century ago. How can we transform the traditional classroom into one of vibrant community, where the growth and flourishment of all in the classroom is of utmost importance? Here, we are concerned with respecting the full potential of everyone that enters the classroom withintentional and deliberate education.  In this studio, we will define what education means to us through developing pedagogy and curriculum that is uniquely informed by our individual practices. This course will make space for students to investigate how they might embody a pedagogy that supports diverse, inclusive and accessible educational experiences by way of designing their own unique process book and serve as a basis for future educational opportunities. intentional and deliberate education.   In this studio, we will define what education means to us through developing pedagogy and curriculum that is uniquely informed by our individual practices. This course will make space for students to investigate how they might embody a pedagogy that supports diverse, inclusive and accessible educational experiences by way of designing their own unique process book and serve as a basis for future educational opportunities.

In this Design Matters TDS, students will zero in on possible futures of DEAD MALLS. We start by asking two key questions. First: Should dead, unused suburban malls be resurrected or remain ancient commercial ruins of twentieth century spatial planning? Second: If they are to be resurrected, what if Dead Malls could be turned into Healthy Space - healthy for living, learning, working, healing and play? Given the urban and suburban complexity the topic, we will learn from guest speakers, panel discussions, field trips and workshops regarding how to transforming large scale "dead" and unused architecture into viable community-centers, such as, Equity housing, Community health centers, educational centers for Green Living or Entertainment Centers. Our focus will be on healthy options - healthy for people, planet and profit. This course is eligible for the Designmatters Minor in Social Innovation

What does it mean for design to be beautiful, or to be considered "good"? How do aesthetics fit into design for social change? While aesthetics are often associated with ideas of style or beauty, the study of aesthetics has expanded to include analyzing many forms of sensory experience in relation to values, taste, and power. The Aesthetics of Power will explore the social forces shaping design knowledge and practice while examining how knowledge and resources reproduce cultural, social, and ecological imbalances. This studio course will challenge students to apply what they learn in order to build more sophisticated design and research methods. This course is eligible for the Designmatters Minor in Social Innovation

As California prepares for a ban on gasoline vehicles by 2035, and the nation is funding and building toward an increasingly electrified future, how can we ensure the wave of changes to come serve all equally, rather than some more equally than others? From the paved over Red Car rail lines to glossed over Redlining, our city has a history of development that embodies the motivations and needs of some populations more than - and at times at the expense of - others. What can we learn from this history and the electrification efforts being made today locally, nationally, and globally? To be effective, this effort will need This transdisciplinary studio welcomes perspectives and skills from across ArtCenter disciplines to design a broad range of concepts: How might we devise a charging experience inclusive of a range of languages, heights, or disabilities? How might we design a campaign that sparks awareness and advocates for all communities to share in the benefits of electrification? or is shared far beyond the region? All with a willingness to help and contribute are welcome to Join us as we survey the ever changing landscape of the electrification movement and delve into the perspectives and challenges of communities, business owners, and the dynamics of government programs and corporate interests. We will leave with a clearer understanding from those at the forefront of the movement - and perhaps work that becomes a case study for informs best practices in directing funding resources more equally, equitably, and effectively throughout Los Angeles' fabric of ethnically rich and socioeconomically diverse residents in the coming years.

BUILDING ON THE WORK DONE IN SU23 Safe Ninos TDS. Students will further develop ideas to design innovative healing environments for child burn survivors at Coaniquem's campuses across Chile. The student team will propose real world solutions: Engaging environments that are welcoming and Therapeutic, as well as fun and interactive. MISSION: Develop high impact solutions and resourceful innovations for real world implementation at Coaniquem.

This Designmatters TDS will address the concept of "kinship" and what it means to rediscover our deep connections and belonging to a world of non-human others. In this studio, students will understand, debate, and explore varied conceptual frameworks of kinship concerning the greater-than-human world; Apply class content from a range of sources-including ecological philosophy, aboriginal knowledge-ways, animism, and more-toward designed outcomes and; Design an artifice that translates kinship concepts into an event, ritual, or system.

Data shows that Pasadena's vaccination efforts have been more successful than surrounding cities, but unevenly distributed. While overall 99.7% of Pasadena residents having received at least one dose of the vaccine, Black and Latinx populations, as well as children aged 5-11 and adults aged 18-44, have lower rates of vaccination. In addition, the vaccine will soon be approved for the final group of the youngest children, aged 0-4, with the decision power resting with their parents and guardians. What can be done to support vaccination rates for all of these populations? How can people be directed to trustworthy and reliable sources about health information? What can be done to help people navigate the healthcare system and get access to the vaccines? In this studio, students will work with the Pasadena Public Health Department and on-the-ground subject matter experts such as promotoras, lay health advocates who connect Spanish-speaking communities with the healthcare system, and community clinics to develop a community-based campaign to address these questions, using traditional and non-traditional media and methods.

Native Habitat Restoration and Greening Initiatives within urban ecosystems is a primary concern to environmental justice advocates, restoration ecologists, and communities facing the increasing impacts of climate change. This studio will work within a community located along the Los Angeles Basin on concepts to advocate for and envision green spaces and native habitat restoration. The class will focus on visualizing site-specific connections between the community, plant and animal life through mapping, awareness campaigns, educational tools and other design outcomes. We will brainstorm and prototype together with community stakeholders, environmentalists, and scientists. Both in design and restoration, instructors will bring students into frameworks that practice environmental equity and justice, including indigenous land practices.

How might LGBTQIA+ communities in LA's South Bay be well positioned to advocate for health justice at the local level? This is a key question for this Designmatters transdisciplinary studio in partnership with the Cedars-Sinai Research Center for Health Equity. Tobacco use in LGBTQIA+ communities, and related health effects, is on the rise. Why? Some say aggressive advertising by tobacco corporations. Some say stress from constant discrimination. Some say less access to healthcare. We say, like others, all of the above and more. Given the systemic and intersectional nature of these issues, this project will use smoke-free advocacy and policy building as a foundation for exacting healthy change in LA's South Bay neighborhoods. Students will work with researchers, policymakers, and LGBTQIA+ community leaders to develop relevant communications strategies that will provide practical and provocative guides for policymaking. Outcomes may include branded experiences, web design, printed and digital collateral, social media campaigns, among others. All students 5th term and above are welcome! This course is eligible for the Designmatters Minor in Social Innovation.

Social movements are not just about fighting against injustice but are also about imagining alternatives to current realities. What lessons can creatives learn from science fiction and social justice movements to help them build better futures? In this course, students will study the connection between futurism, science fiction, and social justice movements. Together we will look at how past moments from Black, Brown, Queer, and other social justice movements as examples of design and world-building. Students will meet with BIPOC artists, designers, and organizers, to practice hands-on methods of "critical making" and learn how to infuse beliefs and values into the spaces, objects, and systems we design. From examining the Netflix show Black Mirror to lessons from New York Ballroom culture, students will learn foundational language, frameworks, and tools to help them bring alternative futures closer to the present. Site visits will include the archive of award-winning science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler at The Huntington Library and Octavia's Bookshelf, Pasadena's first BIPOC author-focused independent bookstore. Open to all students, all Majors, 5th term and above. This course is eligible for the Designmatters Minor in Social Innovation. Outcomes will vary and can include print and digital work, sketching, painting, product design, advertisements, etc

(1-Week Trip to Santiago, Chile, followed by a 13-week studio course at ArtCenter) Seeking 2 to 3 upper-term Entertainment Design students to join the Safe Niños team! Every year, 6 million children across South and Latin America are burned from exposure to open flames, hot objects or fireworks. COANIQUEM, a nonprofit medical treatment center that provides free holistic treatment for burn survivors across South and Latin America, is challenging ArtCenter students to create new multi-media strategies for burn prevention messaging for children. In a Spring studio, students worked to build concepts for new worlds of burn prevention messaging, creating characters, environments, rules and stories across media applications. This Fall, the Safe Niños team will continue to develop the concepts to a more complete world, informed directly by the mission of COANIQUEM and aesthetics and culture of Chile.   Students will travel to Santiago, Chile from September 4 to 9 to visit COANIQUEM's campus, meet with Chilean production companies, and explore Santiago.     After returning to campus, the Development Seminar class will meet once a week from Weeks 1 to 13 to develop concepts for an animated series and related media and materials, with the goal of getting as close to a complete first episode as possible!

(3) Studio TDS Credits + (3) H&S Research credits. Students will co-create with kids, families, and staff to design innovative healing environments for child burn survivors at Coaniquem's campuses across Chile. Interdisciplinary student teams will propose real world solutions: Engaging environments that are welcoming and Therapeutic, as well as fun and interactive. MISSION: Develop high impact solutions and resourceful innovations for real world implementation at Coaniquem. FIELD RESEARCH: 2 Weeks in Chile: Travel first to the main COANIQUEM's pediatric burn center in Santiago to understand their mission and learn first-hand from previous Safe Niños collaborations. Then travel to their new location in Chile: Conception. We will seek for opportunities to make an impact while building deep connections with people.