STUDIO5

What if  we built an active design studio within the Segal Design Institute at Northwestern?

In 2015, Pam Daniels and I were asked to move into the Segal Design Institute as Designers in Residence with the goal of exposing students to an active design practice. As co-founders of Welcome Industries, we create products across disciplines and bring ideas to life through a wide range of processes.

The first thing we had to do was to create a studio space to live in. We started with an ordinary room, ripped out the carpet, and began to fill it with objects that inspire us, that we've created or are in the process of creating, and that students can learn from.

Exposing students to design by drawing attention to objects of interest.

One of the main goals of Studio5 (named after the orange five from an old gas station sign hanging on the wall) is to inspire students to try new and interesting things. We accomplish this by putting as much visual fodder as we can within view. The first thing we made for our studio was a set of shelves modeled after Jeanne Gang's Aqua Tower, in Chicago.

We not only created an interesting space to display our favorite books and objects, but also actively call students' attention to important designers and designs through the "Story of our Stuff." By inviting students to engage in the studio and the objects within it, we provide a new and different point of view to the Segal Design Institute. 

Show us what good looks like.

One role that I particularly play is that of visual communicator. I constantly bring things into the studio that inspire my thinking around printed design and in turn, hope to inspire students to think visually. One wall of our studio is solely dedicated to posters, artwork, branded tags, and other print memorabilia that is constantly changing and evolving showing what we're working on and what is making an impression on us in the world.