News
Josh Owen

Jacob Irizarry, a fourth-year 3D digital design student from Skokie, Ill., has been managing a new project at the Vignelli Center for Design Studies using the 3D digital design skills gained from his major to create a virtual presence for the gallery in the center.

Tiree Walker '21 (Industrial Design) created a pedestal that collects suggestions from the community that drive informed discussion and decisions on monument construction. His process work will be preserved and studied by future generations.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 48: Design must play a critical role as society faces difficult discussions and works to create a new balance in a troubled world. Josh Owen, director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, and Seth Eshelman '06, founder of sustainable design firm Staach, discuss their Metaproject collaboration.

Eric Avar ’90 (industrial design), Nike’s vice president and creative guide of innovation design, has been selected as a 2021 commencement speaker on May 14 and 15. Avar, who was honored with the College of Art and Design Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016, joins Andrea Ghez—a 2020 Nobel Prize winner in physics—as the university’s first-ever dual commencement speakers during a two-day celebration of the Class of 2021.

Design Milk highlights the Vignelli Center’s Design Conversations Lecture Series.

Beginning with next week’s inaugural lecture on Sept. 16, the Vignelli Center’s Design Conversations Lecture Series presented by Design Milk will feature a wide variety of diverse designers whose compelling work has made important impacts on the design world.

For Metaproject 11, senior industrial design students will spend the semester designing products for Staach, which focuses on functional sustainable design. Founded by Seth Eshelman '06 (industrial design/graphic design), the company designs and domestically manufactures sustainable products including furniture, interiors, and built structures.

Design Milk features Josh Owen, Distinguished Professor and director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies.

Josh Owen, an internationally renowned designer, author and faculty-researcher who has led RIT’s industrial design program to national prominence since coming to the university a decade ago, has been named the new director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies and the Massimo and Lella Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design.

While he’ll soon step away from the day-to-day at the university to which he has dedicated nearly six decades, R. Roger Remington wants people to know, “I’m not going anywhere.” The Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design and longest-serving faculty member at RIT will retire in May after 57 years at the university.

The New York Times features a match striker designed by Josh Owen, distinguished professor and director of the industrial design program.

As part of an interactive games and media course, 12 RIT students made cardboard and digital pinball machines designed around themes of their own choosing. For the final exam, students brought their creations to The Strong National Museum of Play and had visitors give their physical and virtual pinball machines a test drive.