04/11/22

Updated 05/04/22

 

AMES, Iowa — Darbi Shaw, from Waukee, will represent the Iowa State University College of Design as its student marshal at the university’s Spring 2022 Evening Undergraduate 3 Ceremony Saturday, May 14, at Hilton Coliseum.

Shaw will graduate summa cum laude with a bachelor of fine arts in graphic design. Her faculty escort will be Cheri Ure, associate teaching professor in graphic design.

A George Washington Carver Scholar, Shaw was a member of the Dean’s List and the top 2 percent of her class every semester at Iowa State. She received scholarships from the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, ISU Design Ambassador Club, Conservation Districts of Iowa and National Merit Scholarship Program, and was selected by the ISU graphic design faculty to receive the ADAI (Art Directors Association of Iowa) Harry Watts Scholarship during her junior year.

Shaw received the 2022 Janice Peterson Anderson Medallion Award, presented annually to an outstanding senior in graphic design, interior design or integrated studio arts who “shows the greatest potential for distinguished work in design.”

While at Iowa State, Shaw served as the Graphic Design Social Club community outreach chair, a Destination Iowa State team leader, a Larch Hall resident advisor and a BUILD (Building Up Inclusive Leaders in Design) learning community peer mentor. She was honored as Resident Advisor of the Year for 2021-22 by the Iowa State Inter-Residence Hall Association.

With the Graphic Design Social Club, she was a team lead and primary designer on an 20-foot-by-8-foot vinyl mural banner project in collaboration with the Ames History Museum. Displayed on the museum’s exterior, the “Know History. Serve a Better Future” mural highlights nine illustrious Black individuals and their significance in Ames’ history. It also incorporates an interactive augmented reality feature.

Shaw completed internships as a communications coordinator and graphic designer for the ISU Margaret Sloss Center for Women and Gender Equity and as a creative marketer at Workiva in Ames. She also worked pro bono as a lead graphic designer for AmesBLM (the Ames Black Liberation Movement) and volunteered with the Overflow Thrift Store and Reiman Gardens. She won the Student Best of Category and Student Best of Show awards in the 63rd ADAI Design Exhibition in 2021 and Board’s Choice, Best of Category and eight Awards of Excellence in the 64th ADAI Design Exhibition in 2022.

Shaw chose Cheri Ure to be her faculty escort because Ure “has been a great source of knowledge and inspiration in connecting work from the past of graphic design to contemporary approaches,” she said.

“In her studios, [Professor Ure] fostered an environment to explore design for social good and pushed ideas to further consider how an identity may involve itself in a variety of applications.”

After graduation, Shaw will join 3M as a full-time graphic design intern and pursue pro bono opportunities with community organizations and mutual aid groups in central Iowa.

She is a 2018 graduate of Waukee High School and the daughter of Bonnie and Chris Shaw of Waukee.

Contacts

Darbi Shaw, Graphic Design graduating senior, dnshaw@iastate.edu
Cheri Ure, Graphic Design, deak@iastate.edu
Heather Sauer, Design Communications, 515-294-9289, hsauer@iastate.edu

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