Tuesday, April 21, 2009

2009 Dallas Career Day Fashion Design Competition Winning UNT Students

On Friday, April 17th the Fashion Design students at UNT participated in the 41st annual Fashion Group International's Career Day at the World Trade Center in Dallas, Texas. This event is a one-day educational symposium created to mentor and develop tomorrow's leaders and entrepreneurs in the fashion industry. It is the largest event of its kind in the U.S. It has over 1,200 participants from 42 schools in 10 states. The finale of the event is a juried fashion design competition presented in a runway show exhibiting hundreds of students' designs from schools nationwide. At the end of the show students are presented with awards for excellence in design.

The University of North Texas excelled once again this year receiving the following awards which totaled over $10,000! The faculty in the Fashion Design department congratulates the following students:












Top Achievement Award, 1-month,all expense paid scholarship Paris American Academy:Stephanie Montes













Lectra Award for Most Creative - Emily MacKinnon













1st Place in Casual Design- Kourtney Williams













2nd Place in Casual Design - Kristi Schkade













1st Place in Cotton - Emily MacKinnon













2nd Place in Cotton - Stephanie Montes













3rd Place in Cotton - Missy Bergemann













1st Place in Wool - Sara Hoffman













2nd Place in Wool - Stephanie Montes

(Photos taken by faculty Li-Fen Anny Chang)
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-ac

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Collaborative Innovation Summer Session 5-Week I

CDES: Design Studio — Collaborative Innovation
Summer Session 5-Week I
ADES 4540-501
June 8–July 3
Monday–Friday
8:30 AM–1:30 PM

Description:
In this four-week long course open to upper level undergraduate and graduate students, interdisciplinary teams will identify and solve a problem a problem presented by a non-profit organization that will ultimately manifest itself in a visual (or non-visual) expression of one form or another. (I am currently beginning discussions with a Dallas-based museum for our client.) Emphasis will be placed on conceptual problem solving, exploration of multiple hypotheses, creative teamwork, and the development of innovative solutions.

Students will explore and utilize a variety of processes and visual techniques that inform and guide ideation as a means to create a common language that will allow them to communicate effectively across disciplinary backgrounds. The knowledge they gain from these experiences will allow them to develop and actualize the kinds of visual solutions necessary for future programmatic and career-based success.

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the class, students should be able to
1. Students will study ideational/conceptual sketching techniques and develop a common visual language of symbols from which to develop quick visual.
2. Students will work in interdisciplinary teams in order to learn and understand other methods of empathetic research, problem solving, strategic thinking and innovative planning.
3. Identify various problems in need of new solutions. The problems may be social, economic, cultural or market-based problems.
4. Identify and meet new user and business needs by designing instruments, solutions and/or communications that allow constituents from all involved groups to contribute to at least some aspects of the design decision-making process.

Student Teams:
It is my goal to create three creative teams made up of students from the following disciplines. These three teams will work collaboratively to develop their own solutions to the problem creative problem.
1. Fashion Design
2. Interior Design
3. Communication Design—Graphic Design, Art Direction, Web Design
4. Marketing
5. Anthropology
6. Radio / TV/ Film
7. And possibly Art Education depending on the client

If you are interested in the Collaborative Innovation class, send me an email by Friday, April 17 at eric.ligon@unt.edu with your:
• First and last name
• Year and program in which you are enrolled