On Saturday April 2nd, the Industrial Design Faculty welcomed over 100 guests, including 50 program alumni, to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the major. Assistant Professor Michael Rall organized the event which included several presentations by alumni, open studio tours, a networking break and the IDSA Student Merit presentation. There was work from several classes on display in the main hall outside of the wood shop. In addition, a new alumni gallery was debuted on the top floor of Katherine Harper Hall. The gallery is a visual display of the incredible accomplishments the design alumni have achieved so far in their careers. The faculty plan on expanding the gallery over the coming years to reflect new alumni.
Among the many alumni that returned to campus for the daylong event, four provided insight about their professional experience in fifteen minute presentations that were followed by an open Question and Answer forum. The presenters were Ryan Klinger, class of 2010 from GoWorx®, Seth Teeples, class of 2012 from Trig Innovation®, Spencer Price, class of 2010 from LIAT® and Joe Palmer, class of 2011 from Kikkerland®. Each shared particular aspects of their design career, from tips on how to navigate studio courses to running your own business. Michael Rall said, “The presenters did a wonderful job sharing stories and realities about finding and keeping a design job. It was great to hear from many in the audience on how the presentations reached alumni and current students alike.”
The evening culminated with the IDSA Student Merit Presentations. IDSA (Industrial Designers Society of America) is the professional organization of Industrial Design and hosts 5 district conferences annually. Each school in the district sends one student to represent their program and present their work at the annual conference. On this evening, four seniors competed to be the Appalachian State University’s IDSA merit representative. Brandon Stambaugh was chosen by a panel of professional judges (Jim Kershaw STX®, Ryan Klinger GoWorx®, Claire McRoberts Hunter Fan® and Spencer Price LIAT®) and will travel to Auburn on April 15th and 16th to the IDSA Southern District Conference.
For more images from the event, visit the photo gallery.
For more information about the Industrial Design Major, please visit industrialdesign.appstate.edu.
To donate to the Industrial Design Program, please visit industrialdesign.appstate.edu/alumni and navigate to the “how to give” section.
Alumni photo after the events and presentations