Stories

Carly Burton writes about her experience teaching a 5-week module on Design and Artificial Intelligence, with the objective to demonstrate how to use design as a tool for solving real-world problems—as AI becomes increasingly integrated into our everyday lives. The class was offered by the Center for Integrated Design in the School of Design and Creative Technologies at The University of Texas at Austin.

Natalie Campbell (B.F.A., Design, 2017) is a visual designer at the Design Institute for Health, a partnership between the Dell Medical School and the College of Fine Arts dedicated to applying a creative design-based approach to the nation’s health care challenges. Campbell interned at the Design Institute as a communication designer after excelling on a class project for the organization in a Design classes taught by James Walker. Shortly after graduating from UT, she joined the team full time as a visual designer, and in that role, she focuses on creating visual design assets on projects where digital or physical interactions are critical components of the user journey. We caught up with her recently to learn more about her work and interest in designing for health care.

Fast Company explores the "Radical Collaboration @ IBM Design" class for undergraduates on Co.Design. Reporter Harry McCracken interviews School of Design and Creative Technologies Assistant Dean Doreen Lorenzo IBM designer Doug Powell on how IBM's is educating a new generation of designers and non-designers in their studios in Austin.

Doreen Lorenzo, who served as a judge at the Fast Company Design Innovation Awards, talks about the state of the design industry, where it's going and how the Center for Integrated Design is offering curriculum to meet the needs of the industry.

Rachel Downs is a senior Management Information Systems major and Marketing minor at UT who is currently enrolled in the Design Strategies class “Radical Collaboration @ IBM Design.” The course, taught by Lecturer Brooks Protzmann, hosted off-campus for three hours one evening a week at the IBM Design Studios in North Austin. We recently caught up with her to discuss her experiences in her “Radical Collaboration” class. 

IBM and UT have formed a classroom collaboration to teach design thinking to University of Texas undergraduates. The partnership is part of a broader mandate at the UT School of Design and Creative Technologies at the College of Fine Arts to transform creative education for 21st-century careers.

Associate Professor of Design Carma Gorman's article "The Role of Trademark Law in the History of US Visual Identity Design, c.1860–1960" was published in the Journal of Design History.

The College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin announced that it has appointed Jan Ryan to the newly created position of Director of Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation. A successful entrepreneur and passionate advocate for professional women in Texas, Ryan has joined UT to create a new entrepreneurship program for students in the College of Fine Arts. Ryan will work closely with Dean Doug Dempster of the College of Fine Arts, Doreen Lorenzo, assistant dean of the School of Design and Creative Technologies and the Fine Arts Career Services office to develop new courses and co-curricular programs that prepare students for 21st century creative careers.

Jan Ryan recently joined the College of Fine Arts in the newly created role of Director of Creative Entrepreneurship and Innovation. As an entrepreneur, software tech executive and investor, Ryan has been focused on building expansion stage companies for 28 years, resulting in four successful acquisitions and one IPO. Ryan is currently a strategic advisor and angel investor in some of Austin’s most innovative young companies. She serves as partner at Capital Factory, an Austin-based accelerator and mentoring program for startups, as well as TechStars, an international accelerator where she frequently shares her founders story and funding advice. We caught up with her recently to learn more about her new role in the college.

In a move aimed to support the need for creative professionals in the business, nonprofit and government worlds, The University of Texas at Austin has created the School of Design and Creative Technologies. The school is the fourth major academic unit in the College of Fine Arts.