Starting this spring, Iowa State is introducing a series of lectures from the College of Design. These lectures were chosen from a nominated committee coming from each of the College of Design departments.

“We tried to create a lecture series that was engaged across multiple disciplines in the college,” said Shelby Doyle, co-chair of the college’s lecture and exhibition committee and assistant professor of architecture.

These lectures were strictly chosen to help spread design diversity among the students and the staff that attend them. With these lectures, the College of Design is hoping to bring more people into the college and share the effects of different art styles and where they come from.

The overall goal of this lecture series is to allow students and faculty to diversify their design techniques and show students the different types of futures they can have.

The lecture series presenters are:

• Behnaz Farahi, creative technologist and assistant professor of design at California State University
• T.J Dedeaux-Norris, artist and assistant professor of painting and drawing at the University of Iowa
• Quardean Lewis-Allen, founder and CEO of the Youth Design Center
• Wei Dong, Vilas Distinguished Achievement professor in design studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Together, these people were chosen by the College of Design to show others different aspects of design.

The lecture series is completely online. Signing up beforehand is mandatory to attend the lectures.

In the future, the College of Design is hoping to grow the lecture series into both online and in-person lectures.

“I would like to see a mix,” said Olivia Valentine, co-chair of the college’s lectures and exhibition committee and assistant professor of art and visual culture. “I think having people come to campus is excellent. It’s important for the visitors to be able to see what we do at Iowa State, and that is really hard over virtual platforms.”

As the College of Design continues their lecture series, they’re hoping to bring in more students and show them what it means to be an artist and how you can be an artist in your own way.