School of Design Course, Program Honored for Service to Community at CAPES Awards

The School of Design’s CMD 352: Design Project Management class and graduate program in collaborative design were honored by Syracuse University at the 2016 Chancellor’s Award for Public Engagement and Scholarship (CAPES) ceremony on April 19. CMD 352 won a CAPES Award in the “Innovation in Academic Engagement-Legacy” category. The collaborative design program received an honorable mention in the same category.

Offered as part of the School of Design’s undergraduate program in communications design, the CMD 352 class is run as a working design firm with active teams each focusing on specific design problems. The Spring 2015 class brief from the Food Bank of Central New York proposed adding more clarity and creative work to the already existing brand. This was accomplished by designing additional new branding graphics, researching underserved markets (such as younger audiences) and creating targeted advertising. The team also produced promotional videos for soliciting new funding and seeking younger volunteers, and designed new community events to engage younger audiences while instilling extensions of the brand into the culture and communities of Central New York.

CMD 352 is a past recipient of seven CAPES Awards. This semester’s CMD 352 class is being team-taught by communications design faculty Bill Padgett, associate professor, and Michele Damato, assistant professor.

The School of Design’s collaborative design program is a professional, two-year graduate program leading to a master of fine arts (M.F.A.) degree. The program engages students in collaborative practice within a dynamic, multidisciplinary studio environment and breaks down boundaries in the academic and corporate worlds, bringing together students, faculty, communities and businesses to work collaboratively on the world's significant problems for the greater good.

During the fall 2015 semester, collaborative design students worked with College of Engineering and Computer Science students during the annual Fitness Inclusion Network (Fit-IN) conference and considered design challenges for people with a range of abilities. A collaboration of the Upstate Foundation/Golisano Children's Hospital, SUNY Cortland’s Department of Physical Education and the Burton Blatt Institute, Fit-IN seeks innovative ways to promote inclusive fitness for people with disabilities. The conference looked at mobility involving sport, dance and recreation.

The collaborative design program faculty includes Don Carr, professor and program coordinator; James Fathers, professor and director of the School of Design; and Sarah Redmore, assistant professor.