Speakers
Workshop leaders
Katherine and Michael McCoy,
High Ground
The McCoys are internationally recognized for their unique
multi-disciplinary design education methods that give designers the tools
and methods to collaborate in creating compelling and satisfying design
experiences.
As Directors of Design at Cranbrook for 24 years, Distinguished Visiting Professors at London's Royal College of Art, Senior Lecturers at IIT's Institute of Design and Partners in High Ground Design Workshops they have developed effective methods for professionals to work together to develop visions for the future of design.
They have received over 200 awards for their work in graphic, product, furniture, signage, exhibit and interior design including the IDSA Gold Award, ID Magazine's Best of Category, Interior Design Magazine's Best Office Design, The IBD Award, and The European Ergo Design Award. Michael's work includes Knoll's best selling Bulldog Chair, Details Accessories for Steelcase and electronics for Philips and NEC. Katherine's graphic design work includes "Graphic Radicals" for Chronicle Books, "Cranbrook Design/The New Discourse" for Rizolli and many posters and publications for Cranbrook Academy of Art. Their work and writings have been widely published and exhibited and they lecture on design theory at conferences around the world.
Their pioneering methods in design education have earned them the Chrysler
Award for Innovation in Design, The Industrial Designers Society of America
Education Award, The American Center for Design Education Award, The
American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal (for Katherine) and Honorary
Doctorate Degrees from Kansas City Art Institute.
www.highgrounddesign.com
Chair of Design, RMCAD
Fred Murrell is the Chair of Design at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and works as a design consultant to major corporations. He left Sapient in 2002 where he was vice president of experience design in the Denver, Colorado office. Partnering with Clement Mok, he helped build a global design leadership team that created design communities, creative design strategy, and experience design initiatives for Sapient worldwide.
For over 20 years Fred has been providing senior management for major corporations a new understanding of the value of strategic design programs by implementing integrated identity systems, interactive web experiences, information design environments, and user centered design programs. He has held the position of director of design worldwide at Texas Instruments, Corning Incorporated and Tenet Healthcare where he managed internal design teams that worked closely with design consultants like Doblin Group, IDEO, and Meta Design, to produce integrated communications programs, user interactions, and product experiences that created breakthrough design solutions to business problems.
Fred has served on the AIGA National Board, American Center for Design
National Board, Design Management Institute Advisory Board and the
AIGA National Experience Design Steering Committee and was the first
President for the New York AIGA Chapter (Rochester, NY). Design awards
for his work have been awarded from the AIGA, ACD, Graphis, New York
Art Directors Show, Print, Communications Arts, United Way, and
Creativity. He has lectured at the IIID (International Institute for Information
Design) in Schwarzenburg, Austria; UIAH (University of Art & Design),
Helsinki, Finland; AIGA National Conference, Seattle, WA; AIGA Business
Conference, New York, NY; Design Management Institute, Corporate
Identity Conference, Montreal, Canada; Rochester Institute of Technology
and SUNY Fredonia, New York. Fred was also the first Director for the
School of Design at the Kansas City Art Institute as well as the Joyce C.
Hall Distinguished Professor, and Chair of the Design Department.
Previously he has taught at Alfred University, Rochester Institute of
Technology and Carnegie Mellon University. Currently Fred is President of
AIGA Colorado and on the Board of the Design Council for the Denver Art
Museum. He is a graduate of the University of Washington, in Seattle,
Washington and the College of Design in Basel, Switzerland. He presently
lives in Englewood, Colorado with his wife and three daughters.
www.rmcad.edu
Workshop speakers
Ayse Birsel,Olive 1:1
Ayse Birsel is the principal of Olive 1:1, a New York-based product design consultancy. Her methodology takes its cue from the name of her company: on every project—large or small—she explores design challenges and opportunities in full scale, demonstrating her ideas through true-to-life product experience.
Her user-centered philosophy, mixed with instinct and alchemy, ensures solutions that are both vital and humanistic. Her work often takes long-established paradigms and turns them on end: Reinventing the cubicle for Herman Miller in the Resolve System, reinterpreting the common toilet seat for TOTO Japan—with both she was able to recognize long-standing problems in commodified products, bringing award-winning, feasible solutions that were previously unimagined.
She is the recipient of numerous design awards, including the Brooklyn
Museum of Art/Modernism Young Designer Award for 2001. Her work has been
extensively published around the world, and is included in the permanent
collection of the Museum of Modern Art.
www.olive1to1.com
Dubberly Design Office
Hugh Dubberly is a principal in Dubberly Design Office which focuses on communications systems, interaction design, and information design. At Apple Computer in the mid 80s and early 90s, Hugh managed cross-functional design teams and went on to manage creative services and corporate identity for the entire company. While at Apple, he served at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena as the founding chairman of the computer graphics department. He later moved to Netscape and became Vice President of Design. Hugh has also taught classes in the Graphic Design Department at San Jose State University, at the Institute of Design at IIT, and in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University.
www.dubberly.com
University of Denver
Rafael Fajardo teaches at the University of Denver in three degree programs: Electronic Media Arts Design, Digital Media Studies, and Game Development. He is part of an emerging group of artists and designers who are exploring the potential of digital video games to express serious and complex subject matter. Through his collaborative, SWEAT, Fajardo has published two video games that comment on the game-like nature of (il)legal human traffic at the US/Mexico border. These games have been exhibited in Holland, Turkey, Canada, and the US.
Before coming to Colorado, Fajardo spent six years living, teaching, and working on the border. There, he challenged the canons of design education and attempted to locate a visual expression that was “of the region” and not imposed from outside. His students created ideosyncratic works that have been recognized for their excellence by Millia, the international competition for new media; Walt Disney Imagineering; and, MexicArte, a nationally reknown cultural space in Austin, Texas.
For over twelve years Fajardo has been investigating cultural identity and cultural representation through his visual and intellectual work. His early explorations, completed while receiving his MFA from RISD, garnered recognition from the American Center for Design. More recently, his critical practice has earned him recognition by I.D., The International Magazine of Design. Fajardo is on the steering committee for the AIGA Center for Cross Cultural Design, and is co-Director for Experience Design of AIGA Colorado.
Craig Holden Fienberg,Fabrica, Italy
Craig Holden Feinberg began studying design/visual communication at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he received his BFA in graphic design with a minor in Typography/Studio Photography with honors including the Thesis Citation Award and the Faculty Award. After graduation, Craig moved to Denver, Colorado and worked as a design consultant on integrated design projects for major corporations. Since June 2003 he has been part of the design team for Fabrica, Bennetton?s Communications Research and Development Center in Treviso, in Northern Italy, where as a multi-disciplined designer he is solving global design problems in video, graphics, music and photography. Applying new forms of international design communications to his work, he has recently been published in COLORS magazine, VORN magazine, and selected for the 2004 Reporters Without Borders campaign. Clients include: World Health Organization, International Council of Nurses, Fabrica Features, Fab Magazine, United Colors of Benetton, Krvkurva Laga bag, Strukt Visual Network, Arte Fiera, La Ghirada Health Center, Cameroon Wildlife Aid Fund, and the Warsaw Children's Hospital. He will be returning to Denver in August and plans on traveling the world and teaching at the university level.
Karin Fong,
Imaginary Forces
Karin Fong directs and designs at Imaginary Forces, an internationally recognized design studio and production company. Prior to joining Imaginary Forces (then known as RGA/LA) in 1994, the California native studied art at Yale and worked as an animator at WGBH Boston. Her work includes title sequences for numerous feature films, including Hellboy,The Haunted Mansion, Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat, Daredevil, Bedazzled, Dead Man on Campus, The Truman Show, The Avengers, and Charlie’s Angels. She has also created teasers for the films 8mm, 102 Dalmatians, and The Fifth Element. Broadcast projects include promos for MTV and the Cartoon Network. Her titles for the PBS series Masterpiece Theatre’s American Collection won an Emmy in 2001. Recently, Karin led a team that created tour visuals for DJs Sasha and Digweed. She has also directed commercials for Janus Mutual Funds, Honda, andChevrolet. Other work includes a short film for Herman Miller, a music video for the Power Puff Girls, an installation at Artists Space gallery in New York, and video + print projects with Malcolm McLaren. Karin loves to travel and take pictures in her spare time. Her numerous influences include Saul Steinberg, Roald Dahl, Schoolhouse Rock, and her many talented collaborators.
www.imaginaryforces.com
Digital Story Tellers, Denver
Hugh Graham is a former Director of User Experience for Sapient Corporation and Director of Content Strategy at iXL. In addition to his work in interactive content development, Hugh has extensive experience in film, video, music and theater, including projects for MGM/Universal, Paramount, Viacom, and the Guthrie Theater. For the past dozen years Hugh has focused on creating digital solutions, including work for Universal Studios, US West/Qwest, Janus, Aspen Ski Company, the Limited Express, Broadband Living, Maytag, Virgin, the Colorado Rockies, Budget Rent A Car, and the Heifer Foundation. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the American Institute of Graphic Arts Colorado Chapter, and is the principal of Production Arts, an interactive strategy consulting firm.
An award winning performance and video artist, including awards from the
Denver Mayor’s Office of Art Culture and Film and the Colorado Council
for the Arts, Hugh focuses on creating rich media stories that engage,
entertain, and educate.
www.productionarts.net
Morla design, Inc.
Jennifer Morla is President and Creative Director of Morla Design, San Francisco. With over 500 awards for excellence in graphic design, her work has been recognized by virtually every organization in the field of visual communications. Jennifer’s work is represented in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Library of Congress. In addition, she has had solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and DDD Gallery in Japan. In addition to teaching Senior Graphic Design at California College of the Arts, She lectures internationally and is a selected member of The Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).
Ms. Morla served on the National Board of Directors for AIGA, was past president of SFAIGA, and currently is on the Accessions Board for Architecture and Design at SFMoMA. She studied conceptual art at Hartford Art School/University of Hartford and received her BFA in Graphic Design from Massachusetts College of Art. Prior to opening her studio in 1984, she worked in television at PBS San Francisco and as Art Director of Levi Strauss & Co. Morla Design’s work is currently on exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Rick Robinson, PhD.Global Director, NOP World
Rick E. Robinson is the Global Director for NOP World’s observational and ethnographic practice. For nearly 15 years, Rick has been a leader in developing and applying observational research as a basis for new product, service and strategy solutions. Rick is an interdisciplinary social scientist who holds a Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Chicago. He was a co-founder of E-Lab, a research and design consultancy, which pioneered ethnographic and observational research approaches for understanding the interactions between people and products. In 1999, E-Lab was acquired by Sapient, where Rick became Senior Vice President & Chief Experience Officer. Among his clients have been leading companies in many different business sectors, including BP/Amoco, BMW, Ford, General Mills, General Motors, Hallmark, Intel, McDonald's, Nabisco, Samsung, Schick, Sony, Tropicana, Unilever, Warner-Lambert and Wells Fargo. His contributions to the development of business applications for ethnography have been written up in academic and marketing publications, profiled in Business Week, Fast Company, Business 2.0, The Financial Times and many others, as well as on CNN’s Business Unusual.
Dr. Robinson publishes and lectures widely on ethnographic practice and design research methodology, the value of understanding everyday life, and the role of social theory in design. He is the co-author of The Art of Seeing with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He is on the editorial board of Design Issues and the advisory boards of the Design Management Institute and the California College of Arts and Crafts.
Nancy Skolos and Tom Wedell,Principals, Skolos/Wedell, an interdisciplinary design and photography studio
Husband and wife, photographer and designer, the two work to diminish the boundaries between graphic design and photography—creating collaged three-dimensional images influenced by modern painting, technology and architecture. With a home/studio halfway between Boston and Providence they balance their commitments to professional practice and teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design where Skolos is Head of the Department of Graphic Design Wedell is an adjunct faculty member. Skolos teaches core couses in Graphic Form and Visual Systems as well as electives in Poster Design and Type in Motion. Wedell teaches Communication Theory and Type, Image and Motion.
The studio’s work has received numerous awards and has been widely published and exhibited. Skolos/Wedell’s posters are included in the graphic design collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem and the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich, Switzerland. Skolos is an elected member of the Allliance Graphique Internationale.
www.skolos-wedell.com
Antenna Design, New York Inc.
Masamichi graduated from Chiba University in Japan, then joined the Yamaha Product Design Laboratory in 1987. There he designed electronic musical instruments, including the award winning YS200 synthesizer. After receiving his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1991, he worked at Emilio Ambasz Design Group in New York. From 1992 to 1995 Masamichi was a senior designer at Apple Computer Industrial Design Group in Cupertino, CA, where he designed a number of products such as the PowerBook 5300/3400 series. He was also working closely with Apple’s research laboratory, Advanced Technology Group, on research projects addressing novel user experiences. From 1995 to 1997, he ran a New York satellite studio of Ideo Product Development.
Masamichi is the recipient of numerous design awards including IDEA Gold Awards, ID Magazine’s Best-of-Category and First Prize of Japan’s Good Design Award. His designs as well as his essays have been widely published in design magazines internationally. Masamichi has an extensive experience in the field of product development with focus on a user-centered design approach. He has consistently been exploring the relationship between new technology and its meaning in mass-society, where new technology alters our environment and our perception.
He has also been involved in design education since 1993. Currently, he teaches user-centered design process at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program as an Associate Professor.
After studying industrial design in Austria, Switzerland and the US, Sigi graduated from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, then joined Ideo Product Development in San Francisco in 1991. There, she worked on projects for clients such as NEC, Matsushita and GM/Hughes. The work included development of new corporate product design languages, user-centered design for consumer products and future scenarios for new technology products. After receiving a Masters from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program in 1996, Sigi worked as an Interval Research Fellow at NYU and at Interval in Palo Alto. Her research work centered around the creation of “hybrid” objects, encompassing both the physical and the virtual realm. In particular she explored the narrative qualities physical and tactile interactivity can provide in order to evoke compelling experiences.
Sigi has received many design awards including IDEA Gold & Silver Awards, ID Magazine Awards and a German IF Award. Her experimental projects have been featured at various venues like the Digitale in Cologne, Germany, the CHI conference in Atlanta, and the Thread Waxing Space in New York City.
She is also an Associate Professor at New York University’s Interactive
Telecommunications Program teaching interaction design.
www.antennadesign.com
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