Murfi is a space-saving furniture system for kids living in crowded housing. By including storage, a bed, and a desk, it aims to provide the essentials for a kid while also offering a sense of personalization.

The degree to which children grow up in crowded housing is a neglected but potentially important aspect of social inequality. Children are particularly dependent on and influenced by their home environments, as they use the space for socialization, skill development, and identity formation. Additionally, households are becoming increasingly exposed to crowded housing conditions, with levels higher than those prior to the Great Recession, making this a growing issue that needs to be addressed, and Murfi does just that.

Lattice weaves together the thesis works of eight graduating M.F.A. candidates in Design, each probing the fragile connections between people, cultures, and environments. The projects sustain overlooked histories, reclaim informal spaces, challenge extrovert-centered norms, and imagine new ways of belonging. They navigate discomfort in air travel, explore trust in AI, and reframe human relationships with more-than-human worlds. Through cultural memory, speculative futures, and everyday artifacts, the exhibition reveals design as a latticework of resilience, critique, and care. 

Brand guidelines for Pizza Kittyz, a pet-friendly pizza shop with the intention of making their clients purr with joy. This brand was born thanks to B.F.A. Design student Luis Angeles' little sister, who scribbled a logo onto a cardboard box as they were playing pizza shop.

Becauseisms expresses emotional, societal, and personal provocations. The work is a reflection of the 2023 M.F.A. Design candidates' optimism and intention through design.

Blue Violet is a book of deeply personal and lush photographs, drawings, and writing by Cig Harvey. It was a labor of joy for Design Professor Jeanette Abbink to interweave Harvey's lush, color-saturated photography with a motley of textual forms on French-fold style pages bound within the moody printed cloth hardcover.

Created by undergraduate Design students Zac DeLane and Caroline Silva, the Austin Parks Wayfinding project aims to help park goers navigate Austin's outdoor spaces with ease. Using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Dimension, they created a holistic mapping system that will allow patrons to find their way without disruptions.

Get a glimpse of the SDCT's Spring 2023 Showcase. For the first time, the Department of Design joined forces with the Department of Arts and Entertainment Technologies for a unique gathering of Austin’s creative community.

For the first time in school history, the UT Tower was transformed into an interactive video game screen through projection mapping produced by an Arts and Entertainment student in collaboration with faculty.

"Morphology" is a project developed by students Eriane Austria and Em Dryer through a partnership with Gensler design firm. This project showcases on a large media wall at Gensler's Austin office and explores the theme of interconnectedness, focusing on the relationships between Gensler, UT Austin, and the students themselves.

Every researcher had mentors who helped assimilate them into a life of scholarly work, and the process continues with their future mentees. These comprise the roots and branches of the academic tree of a single researcher. If we let these ancestors’ and descendants’ genders affect these trees like a “wind,” most curl nearly to the earth. To set these trees growing upright again we visualize giving differential weight to male and female researchers.

Premiering at Fusebox Festival, Entangled Intelligences invited visitors to experience a unique exhibition that challenges anthropocentric thinking and embraces the diverse forms of intelligence found in the natural world. Featuring works by the Ecocentric Future Lab directed by Design Professor Jiabao Li and other renowned artists.

Seismic Dance Event Poster Series is a project by undergraduate student, Gabriela Rivera. The series depicts headliners of the Seismic Dance Event: Fat Boy Slim, Jamie XX, and Shiba San. Traditional screen printing techniques were used in the design lab to achieve the final pieces.