Good design takes many forms. It can be a poster or book jacket or a smart phone. Yet increasingly, designers are being asked not only to create objects, but also to address large-scale social problems, from poverty to sustainability to eating disorders.

The Sam Fox School is launching its fall Public Lecture Series with two speakers who are rethinking the roles of design and designers.

At 7p Thursday, September 13, Jon Kolko, founder and director of the Austin Center for Design, will discuss design as A Means to An End. His visit comes as part of the School's new Interaction Design Initiative, which will bring to campus nationally known experts in this emerging, interdisciplinary practice of understanding human behaviors in order to design digital interfaces, products, built environments, systems, services, and other tools that people use.

Then, at 5p Friday, September 14, Cynthia E. Smith will discuss Design Exchange. Smith is curator of socially responsible design for Cooper‐Hewitt, National Design Museum. Her credits include Design with the Other 90%: CITIES, which collects dozens of smart, problem-solving projects from around the globe—and which will be on view at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum throughout the fall.

In her talk, Smith will explore how a new wave of designers, architects, engineers, and philanthropists is working directly with people with limited resources, collaborating across sectors to find solutions.

Both talks are free and open to the public and take place in Steinberg Hall Auditorium. Smith's talk will be followed, at 6p by the public opening of the fall exhibitions at the Kemper Art Museum, including Design with the Other 90%: CITIES.

Interaction Design Initiative

The goal of interaction design is to develop innovation through a collaborative process of imagining things as they might be in the future. The process is relevant to fields such as architecture, engineering, business, social work, the humanities, and medicine, as experts seek strategies to solve complex, human challenges.

During the fall semester, the Sam Fox School is hosting a series of interaction design workshops taught by renowned professionals and academics in the field of interaction design, complemented by four public lectures.

Organized by Heather Corcoran, associate professor of communication design, the workshops are open to all WUSTL students and focus on a range of contemporary activities and methods of interaction design.

Sam Fox School Public Lecture Series

All talks are free and open to the public and, unless otherwise noted, begin at 6:30p in Steinberg Auditorium, located near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. In addition, each talk will be preceded by a reception at 6p. The Public Lecture Series is supported in part by funds from Washington University Student Union.

September 13
*7p Lecture
Jon Kolko
Founder and director, Austin Center for Design
Interaction Design Initiative Lecture

September 14
*5p Lecture, Steinberg Auditorium; 6p Public Reception, Kemper Art Museum
Cynthia E. Smith
Curator of Socially Responsible Design, Cooper‐Hewitt, National Design Museum

September 19
Kate Fletcher
Founder of the design for sustainability consultancy Slow Fashion; Reader in Sustainable Fashion, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion

September 24
Frank Barkow
Co-founder, Barkow Leibinger Architects, Berlin

October 1
Susan Rodriguez, FAIA
Founding partner and design principal, Ennead Architects, New York
AIA St. Louis Scholarship Trust Lecture

October 4
*6:30p Lecture, Whitaker Auditorium
Rachel Hinman
Researcher, designer, and recognized thought leader in the mobile user experience field; senior research scientist, Nokia Research Center
Interaction Design Initiative Lecture

October 8
James Siena
Artist represented by The Pace Gallery
Arthur L. and Sheila Prensky Island Press Visiting Artist Lecture

October 15
Peter Stutchbury
Principal, Peter Stutchbury Architecture, Australia
Harris Armstrong Fund Lecture

October 17
Adriaan Geuze, IR., RLA, OALA
Founder, West 8 urban design and landscape architecture, New York
Anova Lecture for Landscape Architecture

October 22
Chris Sickels
Creative force behind Red Nose Studio

October 24
*6p Reception, Kemper Art Museum
Ed Chan-Lizardo
Chief development and partnerships officer, KickStart International

October 25
Ian Curry
Interaction designer, FiftyThree
Interaction Design Initiative Lecture

October 29
Hal Foster
Townsend Martin Class of 1917 Professor of Art and Archaeology and professor of architecture, Princeton University
Abend Family Lecture

November 7
*6p Reception, Kemper Art Museum
Anne Rorimer
Freelance curator and independent scholar

November 9
Thom Mayne
Founder, Morphosis
Fumihiko Maki Lecture
Keynote Lecture: URBANISMS: Sustainable Cities for One Planet

November 15
Callie Neylan
Interaction designer, researcher, and writer
Interaction Design Initiative Lecture

November 19
Anthony Elms
Associate curator, Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania; editor, WhiteWalls Inc.

November 26
Tatiana Bilbao
Founder, Tatiana Bilbao S.C.
Coral Courts Lecture