Hello From the Pluriverse

S1: Ep9: Hello From the Pluriverse: Rafe Steinhur

Rafe Steinhauer is a design educator and a designer. Currently he is a visiting assistant professor at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, but he has also been a visiting assistant professor with the Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking at Tulane University in New Orleans and a lecturer at Princeton University. Introduced to design thinking in his graduate studies, Rafe has incorporated it into his classes to help his students experience the type of growth he had when he first learned about design thinking. Design educator is not the only role Rafe plays though; community design work has created opportunities for him to step into the role of designer where he can work with communities to create programs that resonate with the needs and wants of those community members.  

 

 

Connect with Rafe Steinhauer: 

LinkedIn 

S1: Ep8: Hello From the Pluriverse: Woodrow Winchester III

Dr. Woodrow Winchester III is a professor of Systems and Industrial Engineering at Kennesaw State University and a design educator. His work within engineering focuses on interactive technologies and using connections between technology and design. Specifically, Dr. Winchester examines the connection between technology, design, health, and fitness; like his work on using interactive technologies in order to improve health outcomes, especially in underrepresented groups. Dr. Winchester also works to increase diversity and inclusion within the field of design, and he consistently is encouraging his students to think holistically and to use design thinking with other design approaches.  

 

Get to Know Dr. Woodrow Winchester III: 

• LinkedIn 
• Twitter: @woodtres 

S1: Ep7: Hello From the Pluriverse: Marlon Darbeau

Marlon Darbeau is a designer, the Founder and Creative Director of By-Making, and a collaborator at the Alice Yard art-space initiative.  

 

Based in Trinidad and Tobago, Marlon’s identity is rooted in his culture and his upbringing. He consistently integrates techniques his father taught him into his own physical designs, not only incorporating his identity and his family into his work, but also working towards striving to bring his local Caribbean culture into the present and future.  

 

 

Connect with Marlon Darbeau: 

 

• LinkedIn 
• Website 
• Instagram @marlondarbeau
• Instagram: @bymakingdesign
• By Making  

S1: Ep6: Hello From the Pluriverse: Randall Wilson II

Randall Wilson II is the Design Lead in Digital Messaging at Capital One in Chicago and is the co-creator and creative director of Hue Design Summit, a four-day immersive conference and community for designers of color. Randall is a self-taught designer, and on his path to becoming a designer, he explored opportunities in architecture. As an avid Lego enthusiast, Randall likes to use Legos, and other hobbies, to facilitate design and design thinking processes.    

 

Connect with Randall Wilson II: 

• Linkedin
• Instagram: @therocfiles & @huedesignsummit
• Twitter: @huedesignsummit 

  

 

S1: Ep5: Hello from the Pluriverse: Jose Cotto

Jose Cotto is the Collaborative Design Project Manager at the Tulane School of Architecture Albert and Tina Small Center for Collaborative Design. Among his many responsibilities in the Small Center, he works on various design projects, fosters partnerships with Tulane University departments and community stakeholders, and leads a seminar course on public space in New Orleans, guiding Tulane students as they explore the connections between our created environment and social dynamics.

In this interview, we learned that Cotto comes from Worcester, Massachusetts. Specifically speaking, he grew up in Great Brook Valley, a small housing project. Cotto emphasizes that he grew up in a housing project, as he feels his upbringing there has shaped much of his life that followed from forming how he perceives the world to what he has chosen to be passionate about.

The path of going into design and architecture was not a linear one for Cotto. He initially intended to go into mathematics as he was a math major. When reflecting on how he initially got involved in this discipline, he thinks of the great math teachers he had, specifically one teacher that challenged him and did not let him fall behind. This teacher's impact really helped Cotto see the importance of teachers and mentors for young students (especially in inner-city environments like the one he grew up in). When he realized going into mathematics really meant a lot of isolating himself and problem sets, he began to think of shifting his major into something that focused more on relationships, which made him think about the physical and social environment around him. After talking to some faculty at his undergraduate college, the University of Massachusetts, he found that design and architecture provided these kinds of conversations and teachings.

While design may have flashy names and complicated vernacular, at the end of the day, we are all designing for people to make this world a better place. The process can be exhausting. The technology can be complicated, but the goal is bigger than the process, so Cotto encourages designers and non-designers alike to lean in, remember the big picture, and why it's important to engage in this work in the first place.

Episode Webpage: https://taylor.tulane.edu/design-thinking/hellopluriverse/jose-cotto/

About Jose Cotto

https://architecture.tulane.edu/people/jose-cotto

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jccotto/

 

About the Small Center

https://small.tulane.edu/

https://www.instagram.com/smallcenter.tulane/

https://www.facebook.com/smallcenter.tulane/

https://twitter.com/smallcenter_tu

S1: Ep4: Hello from the Pluriverse: Maria Rogal

Maria Rogal is currently a professor of design at The University of Florida and her work spans disciplines, applications, and place. Her upbringing, education, and experiences have all been diverse, enriching, and make her the conscientious designer she is today. Always cognizant of visual language and environmental print, Rogal found her passion in design from the language barrier of growing up outside the United States. Moving from places ranging from Laos to Peru to Liberia, Rogal needed to be aware of the signs to maneuver around these different cultures and landscapes. When she returned to the United States for college, she majored in political science and shortly after graduation worked for a grassroots devolvement firm that worked in Columbia and Venezuela, where she then realized the way she was able to and had the potential to impact these people's lives. Coupled with her love of art, Rogal discovered design and went back to school for her bachelor's and her master's in design. Rogal's background in political science as well as design has allowed her to embrace systems thinking as a method of identifying and solving problems.

Her work is rooted in acknowledging the inequalities in these systems. These range from women's versus men's work, economic freedoms, and environmental justice. Currently, this can be summed up best by Rogal's work in actively working in decolonizing design. The undercurrent of her work is environmentalism and its looming impact on future design work. While design thinking is user-centered, Rogal includes the caveat that humans are not at the center by themselves, that their environment and its health is also a crucial part of the context of solutions to any problem.

Episode webpage: https://taylor.tulane.edu/design-thinking/hellopluriverse/maria-rogal/

 

About Maria Rogal

https://mariarogal.com/

https://arts.ufl.edu/directory/profile/1573

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariarogal/ 

S1: Ep3: Hello from the Pluriverse: Omari Souza

Omari Souza is a professor of design and design research at Texas State University. Professor Souza was born in the Bronx, New York as a first-generation American and Jamaican descent. Professor Souza graduated from Kent State University as a first-generation college graduate with a Masters of Fine Arts in Design.

 

Professor Souza's research primarily revolves around what classes and majors students of color prefer and why. He then used this research to discover what the design industry can do to attract more students of color. In his research, Professor Souza found that students of color preferred social service majors like sociology and psychology. Three reasons for this were:

1) a professor left an impression on a young student 

2) the student was drawn to the field because of personal trauma or 

3) the student was seeking to help a disenfranchised group. 

A theme that resulted from his research was perception. 

 

The perception of the design field to students of color reflects commercial capitalism. When asked how we can change this perception, Professor Souza commented that it starts with design professors and organizations questioning what their social responsibility is and expressed concern that classrooms will not be filled in the coming years if this perception remains unchanged.

 

Professor Souza concludes that you must always first identify your XYZ; your topic of research, research method, and what you're attempting to understand. This will help you narrow your focus and lessen ambiguity in your work. He also emphasized the importance of involving the target community in designing the solution and that being ingrained in the community is best for the design process. While it is not without its flaws, design thinking puts people in a position to make people think more broadly.

 

Episode webpage: https://taylor.tulane.edu/design-thinking/hellopluriverse/omari-souza/

 

About Omari Souza:

https://www.finearts.txstate.edu/Art/faculty-staff/full-time/souza--o.html 

https://twitter.com/omarisouza

https://www.linkedin.com/in/omari-souza-b483187/

https://www.instagram.com/omari.souza

S1: Ep2: Hello from the Pluriverse: Ann Yoachim

Ann Yoachim joins us for a cheerful, enthusiastic, and passionate conversation. The energy Ann brings to this interview is surely indicative of the energy she brings to her role as director of Tulane's Small Center of Collaborative Design. Reflecting on the creative process, our nonlinear conversation sparked a powerful exploration of identity, impact design, and design as a coalition builder.

Ann was born and raised in Northern Pennsylvania, right near the New York state border. Though she didn't realize it until later, her rural roots forged her interest in people and their relationship to place related to their upbringing. In particular, her curiosity fixated on distant unseen places because of her father's military service in Vietnam. Ann majored in political science and environmental studies. Her dual degree served her with theoretical and pragmatic knowledge, allowing her to work with people through meaningful service-learning.

Tulane's Small Center of Collaborative Design works closely with organizations led by and in the service of people of color. Ann acknowledged that design services often target the wealthy in the context of fields of architecture and urban planning. The Small Center is mindful of making diverse hires and perpetuating an ongoing dialogue of power dynamics, race, and privilege. This supports their mission to provide design services to those who are traditionally underserved by the design community. Their commitment to engagement, co-creation, and humility allows their design work to be informed, first and foremost, by the communities they serve.

Episode webpage: https://taylor.tulane.edu/design-thinking/hellopluriverse/ann-yoachim/

 

Related Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-yoachim-589b163/ 

https://small.tulane.edu/ 

S1: Ep1: Hello from the Pluriverse: Tanya Marie Williams-Rhule

In this first ever episode of the Hello from The Pluriverse Podcast, we interview Tanya Marie Williams-Rhule, an independent designer and brand consultant and the executive Designer of Designer Island, an online publication curating contemporary Caribbean culture. To Tanya Marie, design is so much more than designing for the project and the need, it is about communicating and listening. 

Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Tanya Marie's identity is not only rooted in her upbringing in the Caribbean but also the work she does to explore the "Caribbean aesthetic" and expand it past the limited definitions it has been given; she seeks to expand and explore the diversity of Caribbean creators through her work.

Episode information (including chapter PDF): https://taylor.tulane.edu/design-thinking/hellopluriverse/tanya-marie-williams-rhule/

Get to know Tanya Marie: 

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-marie-williams-rhule-70888015
• designerisland.com
• Instagram @designerisland

This podcast is a project of the Design Thinking for Social Impact Program at the Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking at Tulane University.