External Recognition

Mary Hauser prepares for the Halloween Bash at the College of Design alongside fellow students.

Jul 7, 2023

Back to the Pack: Mary Hauser

Mary Hauser is the Associate Director and Registrar at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design. Hauser earned her Bachelor of Industrial Design in 2001, and her Master of Industrial Design in 2004 at the College of Design. She shared her story from her time as a student to her time with NC State as a professional in the second installment of Back to the Pack.

Jun 15, 2023

Chuck Flink Recognized as One of ASLA’s 2023 Awardees with LaGasse Medal

Charles A. “Chuck” Flink, FASLA is the 2023 recipient of the LaGasse Medal, named for Alfred B. LaGasse, past executive director of the American Institute of Park Executives and executive vice president of the National Recreation and Parks Association. This national honor recognizes notable contributions by individuals to the management and conservancy of natural resources and/or public landscapes.

Brooks Hall at NC State's College of Design, with an old postcard depicting the building during the 1920s.

May 30, 2023

Celebrating Our 75th Birthday Through Community and Collaboration

The online 75th birthday celebration for the NC State College of Design was filled with nostalgia, joy and connection with the institution's rich legacy. Throughout the day, alumni and community partners took to social media to share their recollections of the college.

May 10, 2023

College of Design Faculty win NC State Awards in Teaching and Research

Six College of Design faculty were recognized with awards from the Alumni Association, Graduate School, Libraries and Office of the Provost this spring.

Apr 17, 2023

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Selects María Bellalta as New Head of Department

After conducting a national search, the College of Design at North Carolina State University has selected María Bellalta to serve as the head of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, effective July 1. María is currently dean and faculty at the Boston Architectural College (BAC) School of Landscape Architecture, where she directs both graduate and undergraduate programs and teaches design theory and practice as well as interdisciplinary studios on social urbanism.

Mar 6, 2023

2023 Winners of the Designlife Award

To celebrate the college’s 75th anniversary, Dean Hoversten chose to award two significant Designlife awards – one to signify a lifetime of achievement, and one to honor a new and emerging professional. Both awardees are alumni of the college, which had a formative impact on their career trajectories. Two individuals will be recognized for their unique contributions to the profession. Edwin F. “Abie” Harris [B.Arch. ‘57], artist and former university architect for NC State, and J. Stacy Utley [BEDA ‘01, B.Arch. ‘06], public artist and educator, embody significant contributions to the College of Design, their respective professions, and the design profession.

Feb 14, 2023

Meg Calkins selected for LAF Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership

The Landscape Architecture Foundation chose Meg Calkins, professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning, as one of 6 fellows for 2023-2024.

Feb 8, 2023

Landed Internationals, by faculty member Burak Erdim, wins the On the Brinck Book Award

The On the Brinck Book Award and Lecture Series is created in honor of J.B. Jackson and is awarded by the University of New Mexico School of Architecture + Planning. Three winners were announced for 2023, including Associate Professor of Architecture Burak Erdim for his book, Landed Internationals: Planning Cultures, the Academy, and the Making of the Modern Middle East.

Dare Coulter in front of book illustration

Feb 3, 2023

Joy and Pain

Artist Dare Coulter ’15 depicts both in a new picture book about the trauma of slavery.

Russell Flinchum and Henry Dreyfuss: Designing for People book

Feb 2, 2023

Russell Flinchum, College of Design faculty, authors new book on pioneer of industrial design Henry Dreyfuss

Russell Flinchum, associate professor of industrial design, is the co-author of a new book: Henry Dreyfuss: Designing for People. Henry Dreyfuss: Designing for People reveals the work of Dreyfuss's talented, hand-picked staff and explores how together they influenced nearly a century of industrial design.

Jan 25, 2023

Media Arts, Design and Technology Department Embraces Name Change to Highlight the Future of Design

The Art + Design Department in the NC State College of Design will now be known by a new name, the Department of Media Arts, Design and Technology, affectionately known as MADTech. “This name change reflects a shift in the future of our department towards the emerging trends in digital media production" says Department Head Derek Ham. "It aligns with our academic content, our faculty expertise, and focuses on the areas of the profession that use emerging technology for creative use.”

Design students in Buckminster Fuller's class design a geodesic cotton mill or textile mill

Jan 18, 2023

75 Years of Leading by Design: College of Design Celebrates a Momentous Milestone

The College of Design celebrates its 75th anniversary throughout 2023 with a series of lectures, events, alumni weekends, and more.

Jan 13, 2023

Alumna Abigail Happel Featured in Madame Architect

Abby Happel [BEDA '22] pursued her undergraduate degree in architecture at NC State's College of Design. She is interested in the study of biophilic design principles and their influence on human health and the environment. She recently spoke with Madame Architect on studio culture, transparency and embracing complexity.

Dec 15, 2022

College of Design and ITRE partner on $50,000 grant to design innovative approaches to encourage walkable development along decaying multilane suburban highways.

Associate Professor Celen Pasalar received the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s 2022 Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) Stage 1 grant in support of the project "Catalyzing Walkable, Sustainable, and Equitable Urban Development Using Innovative Transportation Strategies."

Dec 7, 2022

Design For ImpACCt Promotes Design Innovation To Solve Social Problems

Students from NC State College of Design, Boston College, Clemson University, and Virginia Tech partner each year for design summits as part of the Design for ImpACCt program to develop creative solutions to real-world social problems.

Turan Duda at the 2022 College of Design Leaders Council Meeting

Nov 21, 2022

Turan Duda, FAIA Receives NC State’s Distinguished Alumni Award

As an internationally renowned architect, Turan has designed notable regional, national and international projects including the North Carolina State University Talley Student Union, 405 Colorado in Austin, the Center for Health & Wellbeing in Winter Park, and Ikon Tower in Monterrey, Mexico.

Nov 18, 2022

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies Expands Strategic Partnership with NC State through Initiative for Community Growth and Development

FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies expands its strategic partnership with North Carolina State University (NC State) to create future innovation opportunities through new research projects, sustainable facility design, and bioprocessing advancements at the future Holly Springs cell culture biomanufacturing site. The strategic partnership will focus areas of research and facility design to support FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 for its new $2 billion site in Holly Springs.

collage of student and alumni winners from AIA NC

Nov 14, 2022

Faculty, Students and Alumni Win AIA NC Design Awards

Faculty, students and alumni were the recipients of numerous design awards from AIA NC.

Oct 11, 2022

Putting the user first: two alums explore how their heritages shaped their work as UX designers

We took time to sit down with two graduates of the Master’s of Graphic Design program, Laura Rodriguez [MGD ‘11] and Luis Zapata [BID ‘11, MGD ‘17] to ask them about their experiences as students, as well as how their cultural identity has shaped their careers.

Oct 4, 2022

Uniting Design and Art

The North Carolina Museum of Art’s rebranding efforts encapsulate the museum’s collection through leading efforts by two College of Design alumnae. Christin Hardy and her colleague Allison Maslow are both graduates of the graphic design program at NC State, and their education has been formative in the current rebranding efforts for the NCMA.

Oct 3, 2022

Students and Coastal Dynamics Design Lab Team Take Top Honors in ASLA National Awards

Students in the College of Design's Master of Landscape Architecture program received four of the 19 national student awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects this year. The Coastal Dynamics Design Lab won their third award in the last five years for their commitment to delivering world-class technical assistance at no direct cost to low-resource, historically underserved rural communities.

Sep 27, 2022

Student Projects win AIA ASPIRE Awards

Three of our student teams won AIA South Atlantic Region Aspire Awards. NC State students won three of the five awards this year, and have won 10 out of 15 awards in the last three years.

Sep 26, 2022

Students showcase work in ASIFA-Hollywood Educators Forum

In spring 2022 the Department of Art+Design launched a Senior Capstone Animation Studio. In the studio, students worked individually and in groups on a year-long project to complete an animated film. The films ranged in form from hybrid 3D animation to traditional 2D animation and in length from 4 to 7 minutes. The films were screened as part of the ASIFA Hollywood-sponsored 2022 Student Animation Showcase with other animation programs from around the country.

Sep 21, 2022

Industrial Design Graduate Wins Gold at 2022 IDEA Awards

Master of Industrial Design graduate, Abby Scheer, recently won Gold in the Student Category for the 2022 IDSA IDEA Awards. The award is considered by many to be the most prestigious product and industrial design award in the United States.

Sep 15, 2022

Meet our newest members: College of Design Leaders Council

The College of Design is excited to welcome four new members to its Leaders Council. Members of the Leaders Council support the college’s strategic direction, assist in securing financial resources to achieve its long-range goals and actively advocate for the college’s vision to become the leading public interdisciplinary design college in the country.

JMark Scearce composes music for Carolina Ballet

Sep 6, 2022

Designing for Dance

“Designing for dance is the ultimate act of design,” says Professor of Art + Design J. Mark Scearce, Ph.D. For the ballet’s 25th anniversary, four of Scearce’s ballets will be produced, giving design students a rare front row seat in the art of meeting client expectations.

Jul 18, 2022

Landed Internationals wins IPHS Special Mention

Burak Erdim’s book, “Landed Internationals: Planning Cultures, the Academy, and the Making of the Modern Middle East” recently received special mention for the International Planning History Society (IPHS) first book prize. The First Book Prize is for the most innovative book in planning history, written in English and based on original new research.

Jul 14, 2022

Student Brings Home 2022 IDSA Top Prize

Master of Industrial Design student Maggie Jarrett has been named the 2022 IDSA Graduate Student Merit Award winner for the South District.

Jun 17, 2022

Can We Reverse the Rise in Maternal Mortality?

Two Ph.D. students from the College of Design joined a team of UNC-Chapel Hill doctoral candidates and won the 2022 Map the System Competition in Chapel Hill. Now, they are headed to Oxford University to compete against research teams from around the globe.

Jun 16, 2022

In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss

Robin Vuchnich, a new media artist, user experience designer, and an assistant professor of practice in the College of Design, leveraged digitized specimens from the Harvard University Herbaria to craft an immersive experience in the gallery theater of the Harvard Museum of Natural Science. In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss is an immersive multidisciplinary experience that marries art and science through a modern artistic interpretation of Thoreau’s preserved plants.

Video still from group one demonstrating how emergency services could be designed for AVs.

May 20, 2022

When Graphic Design Meets Big Tech: Red Hat Sponsored Studio Tackles Autonomous Vehicles

Graphic design students recently partnered with Red Hat to create solutions for a world dominated by autonomous vehicles. Students then had to design for a variety of human factors such as family needs, career specializations and security concerns.

Barnstormers: Determined to Win to be shown at CannesXR

May 12, 2022

Art + Design’s Derek Ham to be Featured at Cannes

Department Head of Art + Design, Derek Ham, will have his most recent completed VR title, “Barnstormers: Determined to Win” shown in one of the world’s most well-known and prestigious film festivals - the 2022 Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes.

May 12, 2022

NLI Director Joins 80 Researchers Worldwide to Create Parameters for Healthy and Sustainable Cities

Director of the Natural Learning Initiative Dr. Deepti Adlakha’s latest research work was published as part of The Lancet Global Health Series on Urban Design, Transport and Health. Urban design and city planning influence how we can travel, the quality of the air we breathe, our access to essential facilities and services, our participation in social events, and our enjoyment of green spaces. All this is vital to our physical and mental health. In 2016, a series of papers in The Lancet highlighted the myriad links between cities and health and proposed a set of city planning indicators. In this follow-up series published in The Lancet Global Health, authors show how the indicators can benchmark and monitor progress to guide urban policy to achieve population health and sustainability targets. They provide tools that other cities can use to replicate the indicators and explore “where to next” to create healthy and sustainable cities, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

The Alton Great Streets project, located in the St. Louis region, employed drone technology during the pandemic to build 3-D models and quickly iterate and visualize alternative plans for virtual public workshops (image courtesy of Design Workshop).

May 4, 2022

A New Way To Measure: Bringing Drone Technology to Landscape Architecture

With the help of NC State’s Institute for Transportation, Research and Education (ITRE), Emily McCoy, associate professor of practice in landscape architecture and environmental planning, has been flying drones across campus for the past five years. But she’s capturing more than the beauty of the landscape. McCoy and the students in her landscape performance class have been using tools such as drones with thermal cameras to evaluate how different landscapes across campus perform from a sustainability standpoint.

May 4, 2022

Designlife Magazine: Drones, Automated Vehicles, 3D Ceramics and More

The spring 2022 issue of Designlife magazine is here! Our feature story celebrates the end of the Think and Do the Extraordinary campaign, and most notably, the many faces that not only made it our most successful campaign to date, but shaped the college and its direction, laying the groundwork for years to come.

Apr 22, 2022

Coastal Dynamics Project Awarded Part of $2 Million Grant for Environmental Justice

The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) has named the NC State College of Design's Coastal Dynamics Design Lab as one of 15 climate-focused projects to receive an Environmental Justice for Climate grant. The CEC’s first $2 million EJ4Climate grant program is aimed at supporting efforts made toward environmental justice and climate resilience for communities across North America.

Coastal Dynamics Design Lab proposed networks

Apr 19, 2022

New state partnership to support local planning for community resilience

The N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency (NCORR) has committed funding to the NC State Coastal Dynamics Design Lab (CDDL) for the development of five North Carolina community floodprint reports over the next three years. A valuable tool for building future community resilience, a floodprint is a landscape planning approach developed by CDDL to address land and water relationships. The floodprint development process incorporates issues such as flooding, recovery and equity into the planning process.

Apr 11, 2022

Frank Lee Craig: Near Distance Exhibit at the Gregg Museum

Excerpt from the Gregg Museum of Art and Design’s exhibition description: Frank Lee Craig: Near Distance February 10 – August 20, 2022 Of the many forms of visual art that have emerged the last two centuries, collage and its three-dimensional sibling, assemblage (found-object sculpture), probably come closest to representing the process of human memory. While…

Apr 9, 2022

Students design in-home mold detection device; win third place in Stanford Design Challenge

Industrial Design Senior Lindsey Dotson is part of a winning team that designed an in-home mold detection device to help people maintain healthy homes.

Mar 22, 2022

Meg Calkins Elevated to Fellow of CELA

Meg Calkins, department head of landscape architecture and environmental planning, was recently inducted into the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Academy of Fellows. CELA only has 70 fellows throughout North America, and the organization comprises over 120 institutions and 11 regions that cover North America, Australian, New Zealand, Europe and the Pacific Rim.

Mar 22, 2022

Alumni and students create experimental immersive light experience at Crabtree

To help celebrate 50 years of community engagement, Crabtree partnered with award-winning team, Mike Cuales [MID ‘00] and Robin Vuchnich [MGD ‘14], to create an experimental immersive light experience for guests while supporting local artists, including students from NC State’s College of Design. The works were created using different techniques and technologies from virtual reality painting, procedurally generated art, artificial intelligence (AI), computer vision and neural networks.

Feb 22, 2022

Interdisciplinary Collaboration: World Risks and Design Philosophy

When professor Mark Beasley wanted to present a more innovative approach to risk management, he enlisted the help of JMark Scearce, professor of art and design in the College of Design. Scearce, a professional composer and a former chair of NC State’s Department of Music, teaches design thinking to his students, and he applied that perspective to risk management in his summit presentation.

Prasad Joshi Portrait over blueprint graphics

Dec 20, 2021

Learning Beyond the Classroom: An Alumnus Celebrates a Patent Award Milestone

Prasad Joshi is a 2018 graduate from the Master of Industrial Design program at the College of Design, and was recently awarded a patent along with fellow student Charity Kirk for their work on a bassinet design. He shared his experiences with applying an interdisciplinary approach to a new design, the importance of collaboration and how a student project became a patented product.

Dec 16, 2021

Dr. Traci Rose Rider releases new book on health-focused building standards

Traci Rose Rider, assistant professor of architecture and member of the Doctor of Design and PhD faculty, has recently released a new book titled "Building for Well-Being: Exploring Health-Focused Rating Systems for Design and Construction Professionals" with co-author Margaret van Bakergem.

Dec 15, 2021

First Year Experience Paper Project is featured in Walter Magazine

NC State first-year design students study form, function, and movement through inventive garments made of paper. Republished from Walter Magazine

Carter Avayou with Shelton Vineyards the Brickyard wine bottle

Nov 3, 2021

Graphic Design Student Creates Winning Label for Shelton Vineyards

Junior graphic design student Carter Avayou designed the winning label for the Hallowed Places collection from local winery Shelton Vineyards. Shelton Vineyards partnered with NC State to create a series of officially licensed North Carolina wines, and a portion of all sales will support student scholarships at NC State.

AIGA Worldstudio Scholarship Banner Image

Oct 26, 2021

Two Students Bring Home AIGA Worldstudio Scholarships

First year Art + Design student Olivia Santangelo and Art + Design sophomore Ajane "AJ" Lawrence each won awards for their bodies of work in the fields of graphic design and illustration, respectively.