Current Students

04/06/20 AMES, Iowa — On Feb. 27, 26 Iowa State University students across all colleges gathered in the Memorial Union on campus for the 2020 Innovation Pitch Competition. Among them were five College of Design students pitching their business ideas for a chance to win cash prizes. In the existing business category, industrial design graduate student Alex Dill of Grinnell won first place and $5,000 for his “Color Mold…

April 6, 2020

02/17/20 AMES, Iowa — The world of industrial design is full of possibilities. A world where fresh perspectives and a blank slate are the best tools a designer can have. What began for six Iowa State University students as an exercise in boat design became an opportunity for collaboration and innovation. Industrial design can encompass products and services as diverse as shoes and chairs, medical technology and public transportation systems, and…

February 17, 2020

02/06/20 At 10 a.m. on the first day of spring semester, 50 Iowa State University architecture students sat in rows in the College of Design’s Gallery 181, facing a projected image of the sun, burning orange against a blank wall. David Gersten and Frida Foberg had a challenge for the fourth-year undergraduates and graduate students: Design without a known outcome. During the week of Jan. 13–17, the ISU Department of…

February 6, 2020

02/03/20 AMES, Iowa — Student work reacting to the digital era will be on display Feb. 10–14 in Gallery 181 at the Iowa State University College of Design. "G00nD0ck Practice," a solo exhibition by graphic design senior Christian D’Cruz of Bettendorf, will include mixed-media paintings on Masonite, experiential monitor displays, a mural and projections created in 2019–2020. The show will also feature a collaborative painting with ISU alumnus Chris…

February 3, 2020

December 11, 2019

12/10/19 Lorena San Elias stood alone in the Ames Middle School parking lot. It was after 8:30 p.m. and she couldn’t believe she’d got herself into this situation. She had boarded a CyRide bus near Alpha Copies in west Ames, where she had been printing out images for her design portfolio — the one she had spent the last three days working on, pulling all-nighters to finish before the submission…

December 10, 2019

12/09/19 AMES, Iowa —  Emmeline Nooren of Hudson, Wisconsin, will represent the Iowa State University College of Design as its student marshal at the university’s undergraduate commencement ceremony Saturday, Dec. 21, at Hilton Coliseum. Her faculty escort will be Tejas Dhadphale, assistant professor of industrial design. Nooren will graduate summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Industrial Design with a concentration in design research. She was on the Dean’s…

December 9, 2019

10/31/19  AMES, Iowa — “Transmogrify,” a graduate thesis exhibition by Iowa State University integrated visual arts student Dan Johnson, is on display Oct. 29–Nov. 9 at the ISU Design on Main Gallery, 203 Main St. in downtown Ames. A public reception will be from 5:30–8:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8. Johnson’s process-based art involves mining his own memory and imagination to explore the possibilities inherent in spontaneously generated imagery, he says.…

November 1, 2019

10/30/19 AMES, Iowa — A group of Iowa State University College of Design students placed in the top seven in the Barbara G. Laurie Student Design Competition hosted by the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) at its annual conference Oct. 16–20 in New York City. The competition asked students to create a mixed-income residential development that included independent senior living and affordable housing as well as commercial, retail…

October 30, 2019

10/10/19 AMES, Iowa — Two Iowa State University students went from woodworking novices to chair design champions with a simple yet innovative and elegant project. Iowa State industrial design seniors Samuel Christianson of Mason City and Nathan Miklo of Arnolds Park won first place and a $1,000 cash prize in the “Design for Production – Post Secondary” category of the 2019 AWFS Fresh Wood student furniture competition. Hosted by…

October 10, 2019