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Interior Design in a Pandemic

Art & Design, Interior Design, ,

Interior designers routinely face specific challenges when designing for particular spaces, but when the concern is viral transmission, the stakes are high: even life or death. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that to lower the risk of infection from COVID-19, individuals “socially distance” – maintain at least six feet/2 meters apart. So rearranging many interior spaces to more safely facilitate in-person interaction has become vital.

“Our role in designing new and adapting existing interior environments will be essential as we begin to plan for healthy interior spaces,” said Marsha Cuddeback, director of the LSU School of Interior Design. “It is too soon to know the extent of the impact this pandemic has brought to bear on our interior environments, but we do know we must be ready for change.”

“It is too soon to know the extent of the impact of this pandemic, but we know we must be ready for change.”

Buildings, communities and organizations play a leading role in supporting our health and well-being, as well as our collective ability to prepare for and respond to global health challenges like the one we’re experiencing now, according to the Strategies From Well Building Standard to Support in the Fight Against COVID-19, by the Well Building Institute.

“The way we design interior environments, the materials and furnishings we specify, the arrangement of spaces to meet program requirements, and the spatial characteristics of our designs have a critical impact on health and wellbeing, productivity, comfort and satisfaction. Designers are responsible for creating interiors that improve the quality of our lives while protecting our natural environment.”

“We serve as agents for change, in part accomplished by understanding the interrelationship of people and the built and natural environments,” she said.

sketch of LSU Design Building courtyard

“A Place to Wait” by Amelia Hernandez Aleman, BID 2021. From tiny look book.

Interior designers will face many new challenges in a post COVID-19 environment. “We have learned a lot about how a pandemic impacts our lives and we are still learning,” Cuddeback said. “Designers will be challenged to foreground evidenced base design and rethink the theory of proxemics and the boundaries of personal and social space.”

In preparation for the return to in-person learning for the fall 2020 semester, interior design faculty worked on facility modifications to keep students, faculty, and staff safer on campus. It was an exercise in using interior design methods for improved healthcare outcomes – right at LSU.

“It made me realize how important interior design is now, more than ever before,” one BID candidate said.

Even prior to the pandemic, the School of Interior Design had a curricular emphasis on healthcare design that included interior design students working directly with local healthcare facilities to propose improvements. These design projects go beyond aesthetic considerations, critically examining hospital rooms and assessing functionality.

The pandemic has emphasized the critical need for intelligent design. “The pandemic is prompting and accelerating conversations about the importance of health considerations when designing interior spaces,” said Julie Elliott, interior design instructor, who has decades of experience in healthcare design.

The School of Interior Design curriculum also focuses on universal design, which has an emphasis on accessibility and inclusion throughout the design process.

ID 3777 Design for Health and Wellbeing introduces systems thinking as an approach to understanding how the interior environment impacts human health and wellbeing. Students examine the principles and practices of indoor environmental quality, including thermal comfort, acoustic control, and indoor air quality, and explore design theories and processes for improving the quality of life through design.

Jill Traylor

Jill Traylor

Interior design alumni are adapting to the fast-changing world, too. Health and safety is now a key part of the design planning conversation, said Jill Traylor (BID  1998), Director of Interiors at EskewDumezRipple design firm in New Orleans.

“Clients are looking to us for how they can alter their spaces in response to COVID-19 and the post-COVID world,” she said.

“It has involved a lot of research on our part into all aspects of interior environments including spacial layouts, circulation, furniture, materials, and air quality,” Traylor said. “Since information changes daily as more is learned about the virus, we have to stay on the pulse of best practices. I foresee some of these adaptations being the new standard in the future.”

To the Moon & Beyond: LSU Students Design Tiger Eye I Mission Logo

Art & Design, Students, Research, Art, Graphic Design, Faculty, Publicity, , ,
Katie H

Katie Hostetler, BFA 2021, graphic design concentration

When LSU art and religious studies senior Katie Hostetler was in fifth grade, she entered an art competition to design a flag that would be sent to the Moon for a space mission.

“I ended up coming in second place and was devastated that my artwork wouldn’t be going into outer space,” she shared.

Katie, who has loved art since she was young, went on to study graphic design in the LSU School of Art. When she had another chance to design for a space mission to the Moon, this time the patch logo design for the Tiger Eye I mission, she jumped at the opportunity.

“I knew that this would be possibly a once-in-a-lifetime chance to design something like this,” she said. “It was awesome to be chosen.”

The Tiger Eye I mission logo that Katie designed will be etched onto LSU-made technology that will travel to the Moon next year on IM-1, the first commercial research mission to the lunar surface in cooperation with NASA. This will be the first time the U.S. astronauts land on the Moon since the Apollo program in 1972. The logo has been displayed at the International Space Station, as seen in photos by astronauts:

Tiger Eye 1 logo in space station, Earth in space out window

Tiger Eye 1 logo in International Space Station

The interdisciplinary collaboration that led to this galactic mission brought together faculty and students from across LSU’s campus, spearheaded by Jeffery Chancellor, assistant professor of physics.

Chancellor’s research investigates astronaut health and performance during future long-duration missions beyond low-Earth orbit. His research team at Space Radiation Transport & Applied Nuclear (SpaRTAN) physics laboratory developed a sensor that will measure cosmic radiation levels on the surface of the Moon, to help protect astronauts and equipment.

Read more about Professor Chancellor’s project.

The project, dubbed the Tiger Eye I mission, was in need of an emblematic space flight mission logo design, to artistically communicate the groundbreaking technology developed by LSU researchers. Who better to design the mission patches than LSU art & design students?

Courtney Barr, associate professor of graphic design, introduced the project to the Graphic Design Student Office (GDSO), a team of graphic design undergraduate and graduate students. With creative direction from Barr and professors of graphic design Lynne Baggett and Luisa Restrepo, and direct feedback from the SpaRTAN lab, the graphic design team developed a series of design solutions inspired by the decades-long historical precedent of space mission patches.

This project presented a design challenge that was completely new to the GDSO team, Barr said.  “Jeff Chancellor gave us an idea of what visual direction he would be interested in, and he also explained that these mission patches often have a great deal of symbolism,” she said. “There’s a great opportunity with this sort of challenge to integrate messaging that the average person might not even be aware of, but it makes it meaningful to the mission team.”

The final selected design that Katie created combines the iconic LSU brand tiger eye with a retro-inspired rocket illustration.

Tiger Eye 1 Logo with purple and gold eye looking over moon, rocket ship, LSU

Tiger Eye I logo design by Katie Hostetler.

The mission logo serves as an identifying emblem for all mission team members, as a way of encouraging camaraderie, Barr said. The design functions as an embroidered patch on garments and as a logo to be used in across a range of mediums to promote the mission and inform the public.

“My inspiration for the Tiger Eye I patch design was quite simple,” Katie said. “I wanted the design of the patch to give a straight-forward depiction of what the mission is about and who it represents. I used LSU’s iconic purple and gold colors all throughout the patch to let people know that this is an accomplishment of LSU.”

Since the mission entails sending a device to the Moon that detects radiation that may be harmful to astronauts, the tiger eye in the design not only represents LSU and the mission name, but also symbolizes a protective force. “In a way, the tiger is looking down on the mission. The position of the eye over the moon represents an ‘all-seeing eye’ that is overlooking the mission and protecting humans from potential harm,” she said.

Katie has worked as a design intern for LSU Creative Services, creating designs for LSU athletics. She said that while she was thrilled that her design concept was chosen for the project, the graphic design creative process was a collaborative effort. “I really enjoyed working with the other students in GDSO, seeing the different concepts that they came up with, and sharing ideas.”

There are endless ways to create with graphic design, she said. “To me, graphic design is a form of art that allows people to express themselves with very few limits. I love seeing what each person in the graphic design community has to offer with their uniqueness, creativity, and imagination, and seeing other people’s work inspires me to be a better designer and artist.”

Drawing has always been a hobby of Katie’s, but when she learned about graphic design, she realized that there are so many digital tools and programs that can be used to make things that one couldn’t easily create on paper. “When I was little I didn’t really know what graphic design was, but I enjoyed art. I liked playing on the computer and I would go on Microsoft publisher and make graphics – not knowing this would be my career one day.”

And what would young Katie have thought if she could know that one day she’d be designing for a real space mission? “This project would have made fifth grade me proud.”

Read more about the Tiger Eye I mission.

 

LSU Graphic Design Team

Faculty/Staff: Courtney Barr, Lynne Baggett, Luisa Restrepo, Derick Ostrenko, Kitty Pheney

Graphic Design Student Office:

Undergraduates: Katie Hostetler, Coby Naquin, Samantha Smitley, Morgan Lewis

Graduates: Hernan Andres Gonzales, Jerry Lockaby, Nhu Nguyen

Read more about GDSO.

Read more about the LSU School of Art.

Art History Professor Allison Young on Exhibition Team Honoring Breonna Taylor

Art & Design, Research, Honors & Awards, Events, Community Outreach, Art History, Art, Exhibitions, Lectures, Faculty, Publicity, Doctor of Design, , , ,
Allison Young

Allison Young, assistant professor of art history

Allison Young, assistant professor of art history, is on the National Advisory Board of exhibition Promise, Witness, Remembrance at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY. The exhibition is a tribute to Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old medical worker killed in her home by police in a no-knock raid there almost a year ago. Curator Allison Glenn, of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR, guest coordinated the collaborative project, which brings together work by Black contemporary artists to honor Taylor and her legacy.

Promise, Witness, Remembrance has been named one of the best art exhibitions of 2021 by the New York Times.

The hope, Glenn told the New York Times, is to show “museums can get it right” to respect Taylor and her family, disenfranchised communities, and truly listen to those who have been excluded by art institutions in the past.

Glenn and Young met in 2017 in the lead-up to the fourth edition of Prospect New Orleans, a city-wide art triennial for which Glenn served as Curatorial Associate and Manager of Publications. The two have worked with one another in various contexts since then: Young was a contributor to the catalogue of Glenn’s 2018 exhibition “Out of Easy Reach” in Chicago, IL, while Glenn has been an invited guest speaker for Young’s LSU art history classes.

In Fall 2020, Glenn spoke about her curatorial practice and professional trajectory to students in Young’s upper-level seminar entitled “Sites of Contemporary Art: Curatorial Theory and Social Practice” which explored issues around site-specific, community-engaged and public art. Earlier this year, she invited Young to join the Speed exhibition’s National Advisory Panel, which brings together artists, art community members, and other colleagues who are sensitive to representing in an artistic context BIPOC individuals and those impacted by police brutality and gun violence.

The National Advisory Panel helped shape the exhibition development and advised throughout the planning stages. The panel includes artists Theaster Gates, Amy Sherald, and Hank Willis Thomas, as well as Baton Rouge native Raymond Green, a retired military officer and cousin to Alton Sterling, who was fatally shot by police officers in Baton Rouge in 2016. Glenn aimed to include many voices in challenging conversations about how the arts community – including museums, arts workers, and artists – can responsibly engage with local and national communities around an issue that has been at the forefront of recent political discourse.

“I’m honored to be included as one of the voices in the room for this discussion,” Young said. “This project has been a testament to the importance of collaboration in every sense: The Speed included Breonna’s mother, Tamika Palmer, and local community stakeholders in the conversation from the start, and Glenn’s sensitivity to all involved parties and her belief in art’s reparative capacity has been a model to the field.”

Promise, Witness, Remembrance will reflect on the life of Breonna Taylor, her killing in 2020, and the year of protests that followed, in Louisville and around the world. The exhibition “explores the dualities between a personal, local story and the nation’s reflection on the promise, witness, and remembrance of too many Black lives lost to gun violence,” according to Speed Art Museum.

BreonnaTaylor portrait by AmySherald

“Breonna Taylor” by Amy Sherald.
Amy Sherald (b. 1973)
Breonna Taylor
2020
Oil on linen
137.2 x 109.2 cm / 54 x 43 inches
© Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Joseph Hyde

Among the many goals of the exhibition are to stand witness to the trauma that the city of Louisville has gone through, and to stand with communities who have been hurting for a long time, Young said. The artists featured, including painter Amy Sherald, whose portrait of Taylor will anchor the exhibition, bring together a poignant and moving collection near the anniversary of Taylor’s death.

Hanging canvas suspended, colorful splattered paint on cloth

Sam Gilliam (American, born 1933)
Carousel Form II, 1969
Acrylic on canvas
120 x 900 in.
Collection of the Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
Gift of the artist.

nari ward

Artist Nari Ward

Contributing artists include Nari Ward, New York sculptor and the 2013–14 LSU College of Art & Design Nadine Carter Russell Chair, who worked with LSU art students and donated an installation to the LSU Sculpture Park made during his residency. Read about Ward’s residency at LSU in the Quad magazine.

The project provides for an emotional space of healing, both personal and collective, for organizers and viewers. “In light of both the realities of racially motivated violence and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, we are experiencing a collective moment of grief, and the included works will hold space for a range of personal responses to the art and attendant issues,” Young said.

Man shouting into amplifier at street protest, crowd in city background.

“Open Up the Cells” by Jon P. Cherry.
(Photograph taken September 24, 2020) printed 2021
Courtesy of the artist and Getty Images.
LOUISVILLE, KY – SEPTEMBER 24: A protester shouts through a megaphone to release jailed demonstrators on September 24, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. Protesters took to streets after Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s announcement to indict only one of the three LMPD officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor after during a no-knock raid executed on her apartment on March 13, 2020. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

With a background in curatorial work motivated by sensitivity to how museums and art spaces can represent and engage with diverse communities, Young said this project is close to her heart. A specialist in postcolonial and contemporary art of the Global South, her research centers primarily on African and African-Diasporic artists and art histories. Before joining LSU, Young was Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow for Modern and Contemporary Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA).

Young’s curatorial practice at NOMA includes the collaboratively curated “Changing Course: Reflections on New Orleans Histories.” She worked with colleagues and community members to realize “Everyday New Orleans,” a photography project that included a range of local partners and sought to dismantle exclusive narratives about who can make and engage with art. Other recent exhibitions include Torkwase Dyson: Black Compositional Thought | 15 Paintings for the Plantationocene, Lina Iris Viktor: A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred., and Bodies of Knowledge, co-curated with NOMA’s curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Katie Pfohl, which brought together international contemporary artists to reflect on the role that language plays in archiving and asserting our cultural identities.

“As an art historian, these are issues that are vital in conversations about visual culture at present: Who is represented, and how their stories are told in both art and history – are among the most pressing questions our field is asking,” she said.

Watch “Promise, Witness, Remembrance” panel discussion April 8, 2021.

Learn more about the exhibition.

Learn more about the art history program at the LSU School of Art.

Mark Boyer Named to 2021 CELA Academy of Fellows

Art & Design, Landscape Architecture, Honors & Awards, Alumni, Faculty, ,
mark boyer

Director Mark Boyer

Mark Boyer, professor and director of the LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture, was inducted to the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Academy of Fellows during the 2021 CELA Conference on Friday, March 19, 2021.

The CELA Academy of Fellows recognizes outstanding landscape architecture educators who advance the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture’s mission. Membership in the Academy of Fellows represents the highest level of achievement within the CELA membership and honors a faculty member’s accomplishments in teaching, scholarship and/or creative activity, and service.

Under Director Boyer’s leadership, the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture has been consistently ranked the #1 landscape architecture program in the country; the school has an established international reputation as one of America’s leading and top-ranked programs.

“This honor reflects Director Boyer’s career-long dedication to educating and inspiring future landscape architects,” said Alkis Tsolakis, Dean of the College of Art & Design.

Prior to joining LSU faculty as the RRSLA director in 2015, Boyer “worked to establish the landscape architecture program at the University of Arkansas as a first-class national design program for 16 years,” according to CELA. He joined the University of Arkansas faculty in 1998 and has taught courses on landscape architecture construction materials and technologies, ecological design studios, and interdisciplinary courses on urban stormwater management and constructed wetlands. He has won several teaching awards at the departmental and national level and was inducted into the highly distinguished University of Arkansas Teaching Academy.

Man with yellow bow tie at podium

LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture director Mark Boyer remembers the school’s founder Doc Reich

Boyer’s extensive involvement in landscape architecture professional organizations includes serving for two years as CELA second vice president (2012–14), an elected position. Boyer was then then inducted as President during the historic 2017 CELA Conference in China. A member of ASLA, he served on the Committee for Education (2012–14). He has volunteered for the Task Analysis Experts Committee and the Cut Score Committee of the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB), the organization that certifies landscape architecture professionals and establishes and promotes standards for professional competency and conduct.

At the CELA induction ceremony, Stephanie Rolley said of Professor Boyer: “Mark’s nominators noted that his penchant for caretaking the long-term health of others—whether persons, programs or the profession—has made his legacy one of lasting impact. In 2001, the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture recognized him with the Award of Recognition for teaching, research, and service and now we welcome him to the Academy of Fellows.”

Boyer has received numerous grants for his research on landscape architecture design and construction technologies; sustainable design; green roofs and bio-retention; and sustainable and alternative stormwater management technologies. He has presented papers at national and international conferences and his work has been published in dozens of peer-reviewed publications. Boyer received bevies of merit and honor awards from the national and regional organizations of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), the American Institute of Architects, and others for the planning and design of an urban greenway in Warren, Arkansas, and as a project design team member of “Habitat Trails: from infill house to green neighborhood design.”

As a registered landscape architect in Louisiana and Arkansas, Boyer has worked as a landscape architect at Patrick C. Moore Landscape Architects + Site Planners (now Environmental Resources Management) in Alexandria, Louisiana, where he was involved in institutional site design, master planning, and large-scale state and national parks.

He now holds the LSU Robert Reich Professorship.

About CELA

About the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture

 

LSU Animation Ranked Top 25 in Nation

Art & Design, Honors & Awards, Art, Digital Art, ,

Professor adjusts headset on student's face

Digital art associate professor Hye Yeon Nam assists student with tech

Animation Career Review named LSU’s animation program the 25th best public university or college animation program in the nation. LSU was also ranked first in Louisiana, and the 11th best animation program in the South, across all Southern public and private institutions. Animation Career Review is the source for aspiring animation, design, and gaming professionals seeking information on training programs, schools, and colleges. The 2021 Game Design School Rankings are the ninth annual rankings, and over 125 schools with game design programs from across the U.S. were considered in preparing this year’s rankings.

“We have created an environment that fosters collaboration with students, researchers, and industry,” said Derick Ostrenko, assistant professor of digital art at LSU. “Educating our own visual artists is vital to continue growing the digital media industry in Louisiana.”

LSU is home to several programs for aspiring animators. The LSU School of Art offers a BFA and MFA in studio art with a concentration in digital art. The program fosters creative insight and theoretical grounding in addition to practical expertise. Students refine their skills in classes that provide an integrated understanding of animation, visual effects, 3D modeling, and interactive systems. LSU pulls instructors from the wide range of Louisiana digital media companies. These companies also offer internship opportunities for LSU students, keeping students and faculty current in trends, practices, and professional workflows.

The Master in Digital Media Arts & Engineering, an interdisciplinary program of the College of Art & Design and the College of Engineering, DMAE is an intensive, two-year master’s degree that employs a practice-driven approach to produce polished outcomes designed to meet industry needs. The courses explore cutting-edge developments in video games, interactive design, visual effects, and animation.

The DMAE program is housed within the LSU Center for Computation & Technology located on LSU’s campus in the Digital Media Center, a state-of-the-art, $29.3 million facility that is shared with Electronic Art’s North American Test Center. Students work with a diverse group of digital artists, programmers, musicians, and researchers who help them develop their ideas into the future of media. Visit dmae.lsu.edu for more information about the program.

LSU’s Arts, Visualization, Advanced Technologies and Research (AVATAR) hiring initiative established a university-wide faculty focus on the intersections among art, technology, and computation, creating new research areas in virtual environments, digital art, electroacoustic music, animation, video game design, scientific visualization, and more. Many digital art students at LSU pursue a minor in digital media, which allows them to take classes in video game design, electronic music, and interactive graphics.

Students interested in expanding their studies beyond digital art and animation may consider LSU’s BA in theater with a film and television concentration, as well. LSU students also benefit from a strong film and media arts program, which offers courses in screenwriting, film theory, and video production.

Visit animationcareerreview.com for more information and to view a complete list of rankings.