Monday marked the unofficial kickoff to the yearlong 25th anniversary celebration for the College of Design.

The theme of this year’s celebration is “Design from Without, Design from Within,” said Heather Sauer, communication specialist for the College of Design.

“We’re really wanting to show how the college benefits the community and the university, as well as how we’ve benefited from them,” Sauer said.

The official kickoff of the celebration begins Oct. 9 with a lecture from Susan Szenasy, editor of Metropolis Magazine, said Kate Schwennsen, associate dean for the College of Design. “We have a series of lectures and exhibits [all year],” she said.

In addition to the lectures, Sauer said Gallery 181, located on the first floor of the College of Design building, will also display artwork all year.

The purpose of the display is to show internally the art produced by faculty and staff, as well as art produced outside the department, Sauer said.

The yearlong celebration was broken into different subthemes including sustainable design practices, reflections within, material innovation, industry/design, design activism and projections without.

College of Design officials said a lot of planning went into the year’s events.

“The really heavy planning started in January and February and it’s just been going nonstop since then,” Sauer said.

The planning committee for the event included both students and faculty.

According to the College of Design Web site, www.design.iastate.edu, the college has also started a fundraising campaign in honor of the anniversary. The goal of the campaign is to raise 4 million dollars in private funds by June.

Over the years, the College of Design building has continued to grow. One recent addition is the Geographic Information Systems lab.

Schwennsen said the new lab was funded half by the college and half by enhancement money from the president and provost of Iowa State.

The design department also plans to revise the first year of their graduate program this year.

“We are hoping to have the new curriculum in place by this next catalog cycle,” Schwennsen said.