Atop a desk on the third floor and north side of the Architecture and Planning Building is a small rectangular frame containing a collection of pictures, inspiring images and a yellow piece of paper with large Helvetica print that reads: “Inspiration comes of working. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
This is the design space of U student Stella Liechty. Liechty is a senior, although she won’t graduate until Spring 2015 because of her recent admittance into the new Multi-disciplinary Design major. In declaring the major, Stella has joined 16 other students to take the major’s first required course.
Design comes in many forms and variations, but for the students in the program, it mostly means product design. Before anyone can apply to the program, students must take two design studio classes and a design thinking class. Along with design courses, declared majors are to take calculus and physics and either drawing or graphics. After they have completed the preliminary course load, students then submit a portfolio to be reviewed by a board of faculty members whose expertise lies in design.
Like many of her peers, Liechty did not come to college thinking she wanted to be a product designer. “I started out not really knowing what I wanted to do at all,” she said. “I thought I wanted to do sociology and anthropology — I wanted to just be out there, talking to people and helping them. And then I jumped around a lot with my majors. I looked at communications and didn’t like it, [so I just] declared marketing. Whatever I did, I wanted to be able to be creative with it.”
After a few semesters of pre-business courses, Liechty discovered a class called design thinking, and along with it, the design minor. “[Design thinking] blew my mind,” Liechty said. “It was everything I had wanted rolled into one. After that, I talked to Jim Agutter, who’s the director of the program. He said they were thinking about doing a design major but didn’t know yet. So I started taking more design classes.”
Eventually, Liechty decided she didn’t want to wait for the major and would instead create her own major out of Design and Marketing. “But then Jim convinced me to stick around and finish up the [design] major,” she said.
Over 40 students submitted portfolios last spring, and only 17 students were accepted into the program for Fall Semester. Many of the students included work they did during their pre-design courses, including Liechty. In the first studio she took, Liechty created a structure made entirely out of cardboard that could hold the weight of her professor. In the fashion of design, the creation was useful, but more importantly, it was pleasing to the eye. The structure’s inspiration came from laps and different seated positions like cross-legged.
“One thing I try to do for each project [is] to find inspiration for that particular project and base it off of one thing,” she said. When inspiration fails, Liechty said taking a step back from the project always helps. “I love going through my books about design methods and just reevaluating what I’ve worked on already. I tend to get stuck on the appearance of things. Pinterest really helps. Sometimes I just Google something random to get an idea.”
As far as how the program is set up, Liechty loves it.
“Having such a close, tight-knit group of people working here is amazing. We’re like a family. We all sit together and have lunch sometimes and talk,” Liechty said. “I think because it’s so small right now and is so new, we’re all going through everything together, and that’s what’s so cool about it. It really inspires creativity. By making this our home, we’re making it a space we’re more comfortable with.”
And in terms of workload and hours spent on projects, Liechty expressed how hard and time-consuming the program can be.
“It’s a lot of work. They’re expecting 20-30 hours of studio time a week for each class. It’s actually weird if we’re not here at least one day each weekend. Design is a really time intensive process, but it’s so worth it,” she said.
Often, at the end of a long day, Liechty will go on a run across campus. These midnight runs are a way for her to work off any stress she has accumulated throughout the day. It also is a way to fit exercise into her busy schedule.
Liechty is also the student representative for the Design program and is working hard to build a community between students. “One thing we like to do is post pictures from the studio on Instagram and hashtag it ‘thirdfloornorth.’ It’s fun to see everyone’s posts in one place,” she said.
Currently, Liechty’s main design studio class is working on developing a new crash cart for the University of Utah Hospital. “We’re looking at doing outdoor products next,” said Liechty. “We want to try making more consumer-based goods rather than just hospital products.”
Although it’s her first semester in the new program, Liechty has already found immense happiness in being a design student and encourages anyone who is passionate about design and innovation to check it out.
“You can get really sucked into the lifestyle so easily. We all work really hard, we all love what we do, and it’s just so incredibly rewarding,” Liechty said.