SUNY New Paltz Hosts 9th Annual Design Week 

From Nov. 11-15, SUNY New Paltz hosted their ninth annual Design Week. Those five days were chock full of guest lectures, senior thesis presentations and workshops. The week was dedicated to showcasing a wide selection of design in its various disciplines from both on campus and within the Hudson Valley region.

According to the Design Week website, the events were “organized by the new Department of Design, including the Graphic Design Program, the Digital Design and Fabrication Program and the School of Fine & Performing Arts with support from Campus Auxiliary Services, Inc., the Office of Graduate Admissions, the Hudson Valley Additive Manufacturing Center, T-Source and Friends of Design Week.” 

Additionally, there are sponsorship opportunities for Design Week available, including the Friends of Design Week. This group is made up of supportive alumni, students and friends, for a tax-deductible donation of $25. 

The branding for Design Week 24–25 was created by Bryce Walsh, a third-year graphic design major.  

On Nov. 11 the workshop, Mini Me Magnet with 3D Scanning and Printing was held at 10 a.m. in the Smiley Art Building (SAB). Scenic Design Professor Dan Daly of the Theatre Arts department hosted an Immersive Design lecture at 2 p.m. in the Old Main Library (OLB). Daly’s lecture navigated the vast field of immersive design, and how it can consist of theater performance, theme parks design, escape rooms, virtual reality video games and more. 

PechaKucha BFA Graphic Design Thesis I Presentations were at 6:30 p.m. in Lecture Center 102. PechaKucha is a rather quick and visually driven process. According to the NP Design Week schedule of events, “the Graphic Design BFA Senior Thesis is a two-semester exploration of a topic or issue that uses design to inform, engage and communicate. Each year, Thesis I students give four-minute presentations about their in-progress work, inspired by the PechaKucha method, a storytelling format created by architects in Tokyo in the early 2000s as a way for designers to ‘talk less, show more.’” 

Fourth-year graphic design major Celina Sciuto was one of many students presenting a senior thesis. Sciuto’s thesis, titled “Threading Together,” discovers ways in which people can upcycle and reuse their clothing, allowing the time to love those articles of fabric for longer. 

“Although many of us didn’t follow this exactly, it was an interesting challenge! In class, we’ve been doing writing exercises to extrapolate the methods, audiences and outcomes of our projects. Along with self guided research, I slowly gathered a base knowledge of my topic and what I wanted to ultimately make,” Sciuto said. “My thesis is about visible mending and how to take care of the clothes we already love to keep them longer. Before I knew what it was called, I would mend my clothes that got holes or rips because I loved them so much. This seemed a natural extension of my love for fashion and hand sewing.” 

On Nov. 12, Alethea Schaeffer held the Usheco lecture at 10 a.m. in the Student Union Building (SUB). Schaeffer has 23 years of experience within the industry of manufacturing, and got her start at her family’s custom plastic manufacturing business, Usheco, Inc. Since then, Schaeffer held the title of Vice President of Sales and Engineering and as of this year, she acquired Form-All Plastics Corporation. Schaeffer is now a member of “the engineering board for SUNY New Paltz, co-chairing the steering committee for the Hudson Valley Pathways Academy and serving on the board of the SPE Thermoforming Division. Through these roles, she advocates for industry-driven education and career development opportunities.” 

Later that day, the event titled Alumni Chat: Pizza & Portfolios was hosted at 4 p.m. in OLB. The talk featured the following alums: Tim Brown (‘03), Lauren Gay (‘20), Kristy Jados (‘20), Casey Labatt-Simon (‘18) and Jojo Turano (‘18).

On Nov. 13 the Design Society hosted a pop-up shop in the Sojourner Truth Library Lobby from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Walsh explained that as the design society, they are here to sell bookmarks, prints, pins, stickers, cards and more that they designed for class assignments or in their free time. The Photograms workshop with Allie O’Connor was held at 10 a.m. in OLB.

The Student Art Alliance hosted guest lecturer Karen Ingram at 11 a.m. in Lecture Center 108. According to her website, “Ingram is an artist, designer and educator whose unconventional career path has led her work to be presented in a variety of places—from apparel, construction scaffolding and books to microbes, surfboard fins and Times Square. A recognized emerging leader in synthetic biology, Ingram co-authored 2015’s ‘BioBuilder: Synthetic Biology in the Lab,’ and is an emerging tech fellow at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design — also known as the d.school — at Stanford University, where she has been working to build synthetic biology teaching tools for K-12 and beyond. Ingram, who lives in Rockaway Beach, NY, currently teaches at Brooklyn’s Community Biotech lab Genspace and is a professor for the School of Visual Arts’ MFA program in Interaction Design.”

The Digital Design & Fabrication MA Open House event offered free pizza at 1 p.m. in SAB. Later on in the evening of Nov. 13, Walsh and the Design Society hosted the 3D Lettering workshop at 7 p.m. in OLB.

On Nov. 14 “Stay Small” lecture by Dinah Fried and Joe Marianek ran from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. in the SUB. Fried and Marianek founded the Small Stuff design studio in New York City in 2014. Following this lecture, Fried and Marianek also hosted the workshop Big Words: Miniature Books at 12:30 p.m. in OLB. 

The Mycelium Design workshop with interior designer Kim Kedem was held at 3:30 p.m. in SAB. Later that evening, the workshop No Code, Open-Source Portfolio Site was held at 6:30 p.m. in OLB.

On Nov. 15 Jocelyn Bergen, a book artist from Kingston, hosted a Book and Zine Structures workshop at 9 a.m. in OLB. Creative director of Art and Anthropology, Jason Otero hosted the Lego Letterpress workshop at 1 p.m. in the OLB Letterpress Studio. 

The Slide Slam / ConnectHV meetup was hosted at 6:30 p.m. in the College Terrace with digital design and fabrication professor Aaron Nelson. The presentation featured works by various students including Sciuto and fourth-year graphic design and business double major Faith Wilson along with local, Beacon-based graphic designers Jesse Ragan and SUNY New Paltz alum Brianna Rascoe (‘15). 

To learn more about Design Week for the upcoming semesters and to stay up to date on design-related events, check out @npzdesign on Instagram.