Detroit Design Festival gets a new look for 2013.

A WUI is a frequently used term for those in fire science and management, and stands for the “Wildlife/Urban Interface,” or the borders where urban environments and the wild landscape mingle. This campaign puts forth the concept of a person as a “WUI” or an individual living in a community that is situated on the edge of wildlife—in other words, an area that is at high risk of wildfires. The WUI campaign is designed specifically for these communities, and envisioned as a grassroots effort to foster community pride in WUI residents and build collaboration around mitigating wildfire devastation in these most-vulnerable communities.

Materials created include a brochure, newsletter and an “Are You A Wui?” bumper sticker. An interactive mobile application provides wildfire tips, reminders, contacts and news. This makes for a very personalized experience, which can be modified for individual neighborhoods.

In the summer and fall of 2011, USGS commissioned graphic design alumna Shane Xian to further develop her “Are you a Wui” campaign. The Designmatters and USGS teams, with faculty mentorship from Gloria Kondrup, worked closely with Xian to produce several updated additional outcomes of her original idea, including: WUI bumper stickers, buttons, a brochure and a website landing page for the campaign. Plans to implement these outcomes are underway with USGS over the next several months.

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On the edges of our cities and towns, there is a living, dynamic relationship between our man-made environments and the omnipresent forces of nature. A peaceful, symbiotic existence exists when this relationship is thoughtfully and carefully nurtured—yet a potentially destructive, and even violent, environment can quickly emerge if not.

Understanding how to successfully manage these shared boundaries between mankind and nature is crucial to preventing full-scale fire emergencies. Maintaining a peaceful relationship between urban development and the unique natural environments so treasured as part of the Southern California landscape is a necessity.

For this studio, the U.S. Geological Survey charged students with establishing an identity system for their Wildfire Scenario, a compendium of scientific knowledge to address wildfire prevention and education through research and governmental advocacy.

Detroit Design Festival (“DDF”) will take place on Wednesday, September 19th - Sunday, September 23rd. DDF is powered by Design in Detroit, an online platform that allows individuals and institutions across Southeast Michigan to engage, connect and partner with Detroit’s creative, entrepreneurial community to encourage social-economic change in the city of Detroit.

Presented by the Detroit Creative Corridor Center (“DC3”), DDF is a community curated and supported design festival developed to showcase the talents and abilities of Detroit’s creative communities.

DDF will be Concentrated in Detroit’s Creative Corridor, as well as several other Detroit neighborhoods. Official Design Happenings will include studio tours, panel and roundtable discussions, lectures, product and fashion shows, product launches, retail happenings and design battles to name a few.

The DC3 established DDF to connect creatives with one another, expose them to new markets and consumers, and expose Detroit’s creative talent and collective design aesthetic to national and global audiences.

It is a call to action for the community to solicit, support and execute ideas using retail, technology and design to improve quality of life in and around Detroit.

This is an user interface concept for vintage Playboy in an e-publishing format.

a 3D infographic piece about energy drinks

This publication is a collection of juxtapositions of two types of minimal environments: traditional Japanese environmental design, and America's Southern natural landscape. Texts come from Kenya Hara's book, White, and Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.