The Graduate Program in Design regards the designer as a thinker as well as a maker, working conceptually and strategically across the fading boundaries of traditional design disciplines. We challenge students to create work that fuels the evolution of design and demonstrates the power of design thinking in today’s world.

The graduate thesis project is where philosophy and practice meet, serving as a demonstration of the designer’s process and promise. The work embodies research and vision, strategy and craft, beauty and function. This year’s graduating class has explored transdisciplinary perspectives that engage issues from sustainability and consumerism to new concepts aimed at creating delight in everyday urban experience. Their visionary work provokes us to acknowledge design as both personal and public, innovative and experimental.

For more information about the Graduate Design program, please visit: http://design.cca.edu/graduate/index.php.

Please join us in celebrating the work of the next generation of design leaders.

Design Thesis Presentations
May 6-8
Timken Lecture Hall
1-5 p.m.

Exhibition
May 6-15
Graduate Design Studio
11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
415.551.9352

Thesis Presentation Schedule: 
Opening reception for Grad Design Thesis Events
Wednesday, May 6, 5-9 pm, Grad Design Studio

Grad Design Presents: Celebrating Our First Graduating Class
Friday, May 8, 5-9 pm, Grad Design Studio; 5:30 pm Presentation of the Program by the Chair

Wednesday, May 6 
1:00pm Ebony Dallas: “Painted Bridges: Reconnecting Africa and the Diaspora through Art and Interaction” 
1:30pm Robyn Waxman: “Design's Role in Social Movements, Dissent, and Civil Disobedience” 
2:00pm Clyde Yu: “DIY Urban Farming” 
2:30pm BREAK: signings and toasts; exhibits open 
3:30pm Alexis Petty: “Proximity Portraits: Studies on Memory and Space” 
4:00pm Viviana Ponton: “Permission to Play” 
4:30pm Shagane Barsegian-Launey: “Screen Society” 
5:00pm Signings and toasts; exhibits open 
 
Thursday, May 7 
1:00pm Hye-Min Kim: “The Interactive Yoga Mat: An Educational System for Improving Mental and Physical Health” 
1:30pm Choong Kim: “Making Inspirational Objects for Seven Year Olds” 
2:00pm Lindsay Bazos: “An Exploration in Designing Breaks and Absences into Brand Communication”  
2:30pm BREAK: signings and toasts; exhibits open 
3:30pm Aaron Goeth: “This Will Happen Again: Rethinking Housing in Hurricane Country” 
4:00pm Zakary Zide: “Grammar of the In-Between: Designing the Urban Biophilic Interface” 
4:30pm Melissa Martin: “Cooking Sense: Visual Explorations of Perception and Memory in Domestic Cooking” 
5:00pm Signings and toasts; exhibits open 
 
Friday, May 8 
1:00pm Jonathan LaCour: “Reducing Jet Lag through In-Flight Experience” 
1:30pm Joel Stillman: “Design with(in) Trace” 
2:00pm Kaz Nakanishi: “Crafting Hand Gestures into Digital Text” 
2:30pm Christine Todorovich: “Magic Inspired by Magic” 
3:00pm BREAK: signings and toasts; exhibits open (NOTE only 30 min.) 
3:30pm Matthew Baranauskas: “Designing with Difference: New Tools for Disabled Artists” 
4:00pm Molly Ackerman-Brimberg: “Super Normal Abnormalities” 
4:30pm Dana Ragouzeos: “The Form of Functional Care: Design for the Dementia Caregiver” 
5:00pm Signings and toasts; exhibits open