2025 Designlife Magazine

Jun 10, 2025

Spring 2025 Designlife Magazine

The spring issue of Designlife magazine is here! Explore this issue for stories on the magazine’s new look and feel, the incredible work done by faculty, students and alumni and more. Explore the Issue Dean’s Message: Designing for Impact The College of Design continues to design for impact – to positively impact the human experience…

Jun 10, 2025

Scaling with Empathy: AI Solutions for Urban Planning

As cities and towns incorporate the use of artificial intelligence (AI) into urban planning, Lee Cherry is asking an important question: how can they best ensure AI is used fairly and ethically? The concept is at the heart of Cherry’s research as he pursues his Doctor of Design from NC State’s College of Design.

Jun 10, 2025

Designing Dignity: Jabria Oliver’s Fight Against Period Poverty

Period poverty, defined as the lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, safe facilities and adequate education, is a global issue affecting millions of people. For women experiencing homelessness, this often-overlooked challenge exacerbates an already precarious situation, forcing them to make impossible choices between basic needs. In an industry crowded with consumer electronics, automobiles and medical devices, Jabria Oliver, a recent graduate of the Master of Industrial Design program, is working to create a prominent space designing for social impact.

Jun 10, 2025

At the Forefront: Making a Place in Virtual Production

A giant talking octopus in a lab nestled in the South American jungle. Actors and Hollywood filmmakers working to complete a Sci-Fi short over just four days. Off screen, technicians, camera operators and support staff create the immersive world displayed on the giant LED wall, using 3D printed props, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine and generative AI. This is just another day in the Virtual Production Lab, where students and educators innovate and learn within this burgeoning field.

Jun 10, 2025

Global Perspectives in Design: How NC State’s Duda Program Shapes Design Students

Partnering with renowned Mexican architect Gabriela Carrillo, architecture and landscape architecture students explored the urban and environmental complexities of a metropolis rich in Indigenous history and modern challenges as part of this year’s Duda Visiting Designer Program.

Jun 10, 2025

Bringing Visualization to Education: Designing an Out-of-This-World Museum Experience

Olga Njai, a student in the Master of Graphic & Experience Design program, is an experienced graphic designer. But her first studio in the program presented a challenge unlike any other she’d taken on before. The instructor, Associate Professor Deborah Littlejohn, tasked Njai and her classmates with creating a visual data story on the topic of their choice for the Durham Museum of Life and Science using NOAA's Science on A Sphere display.

Jun 10, 2025

Mindful Design: Students Create Shade Structures for Raleigh Skate Park

For architecture students in the Design + Build program, completing four shade structures for the Conlon Family Skatepark in just eleven weeks was a triumph. The second crowning achievement: spray-painted tags appeared soon after the artfully perforated, white panels were hoisted up and secured. For the team of four instructors and 15 students, it meant they had ensured that the design connected culturally with the intended community — a principle that lies at the heart of Design + Build.

Jun 10, 2025

Embracing a New Look: Designlife Magazine Visualizes the Art of Making

This year, the Designlife magazine has a bold new look, envisioned by a group of students in the graphic & experience design program. Working with faculty advisor Jarrett Fuller, the students conceptualized and helped execute a creative refresh of the magazine in just

Mar 19, 2025

Demarcus Williams ‘03 Creates Scholarship in Kermit Bailey’s Honor

Demarcus Williams [BGD '03] embodies the NC State spirit of think and do – driven, passionate and committed to giving back. His journey from an undergraduate student navigating college life to a successful marketing and communications professional was supported by a host of faculty in the graphic design program, particularly Kermit Bailey. Now, Williams is establishing a scholarship in Bailey's name, hoping to provide the same support he received to future generations of designers.

Oct 21, 2024

College of Design Chooses Matt Checkowski ‘98 as 2024 Distinguished Alumnus

The College of Design is proud to recognize Matt Checkowski [BGD ‘98] as this year’s distinguished alumnus. Checkowski, vice president of multisensory brand innovation and strategy at Mastercard, will be honored at the Wolfpack Boards Luncheon in October and serve as the College of Design spring 2025 commencement speaker.  Matt Checkowski’s work explores the intersections of design, narrative and technology, working across boundaries to elevate and expand storytelling.