Designer in Residence at OHIO

Are you a graphic design professional with a passion project that you haven’t yet found the time and place to make happen?

Bring your project and passion to OHIO University. Athens and the surrounding Southeastern Ohio region just might have the “creative terroir” you have been looking for. Our setting in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains is rural yet academic, friendly and open, removed from the coasts while being a regional center of culture, and offers opportunity for escape, reflection and renewal.

OHIO sees design as a change agent and design thinking as being a universal need. You will have a chance to contribute to this dialogue both in our community and your own practice.

And we are looking for a Designer in Residence who wants to tap into the tremendous resources the School of Art + Design has to offer in a community that will support your work. We invite you to visit the School of Art + Design to learn more.

Applications are due July 31, 2022.

Apply Now

Overview

We are searching for mid-career graphic design professional who will enrich both our academic and the surrounding community’s activities. This residency is based in Athens, Ohio, at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, one and a half hours away from Columbus and its John Glenn International Airport. Ohio University’s School of Art + Design is part of the College of Fine Arts and home to more than 1,000 students in BFA and MFA programs in Graphic Design, Interior Architecture, Painting + Drawing, Sculpture + Expanded Practices, Printmaking, and Ceramics.

This unique position requires a creative and critical thinker looking for an opportunity to challenge yourself and continue to grow in your design practice. You consistently shape and implement your work in a collaborative way and foster sustainable academic ties to facilitate career-long collaborations. A partnership of two or more candidates will be considered.

We seek someone who is medium- and platform-flexible and who approaches design from a holistic lens geared toward solving the problem at hand. Your body of work can be tangible or virtual, still or motion-based, flat or immersive, commercial or open source, a cornerstone item or a link in a larger, existing ecosystem. You are part of the continuum of unique designers/creators making and doing in service to design and people. Ultimately, memorable visiting faculty will leave unique, lasting legacies that will mold our students' learning experiences

The select applicant can relocate with ease to ensure success as a visiting faculty member.

A new Designer in Residence project at OHIO

The newly-funded and emerging OHIO Designer in Residence program has been created to address two dynamics happening once graduates enter the field as professionals. First, that design has become overly specialized and fetishized, funneling young designers into specific tracts without the opportunity of lateral exploration and holistic thinking. The result is reduced professional autonomy and authority, with powerful industries including big tech, marketing and advertising relegating designers as simply tacticians responsible for surface treatments rather than a resource for thoughtful intent supporting elegant and innovative solutions. Second, the “design thinking” movement embraced by these same industries often includes maker guidance and system oversight from managers lacking hands-on experience themselves.

This residency proactively addresses this by inviting designers to think and make in a multi-disciplinary model, respecting the long tradition of successful and influential studios and firms such as Eames Studio, Fuseproject and Pentagram, where designers and their ideas are the integral to the solution. This program is a springboard to shape our profession’s future leaders, one where designers are agitators and diplomats who form questions to be asked and find answers in concert with technologists, fabricators, and writers while using their heads, hearts and hands. This residency knocks down silos, takes ideas to application, fuses urban and rural perspectives, and engages with esteemed faculty and young talent alike in a unique and progressive academic setting

What We Offer

Visits with School of Art + Design faculty, 24-hour access to your own studio space, access to resources at OHIO’s College of Fine Arts and the University
Access to a letterpress shop, Mac lab, printmaking, photography, the College of Fine Arts’ CREATE_Space lab (printing, laser cutting, 3D printing and more), and faculty and students seated in the Schools of Music, Film, Theater, Dance and Interdisciplinary Arts
Workshops with students and connections to the larger region
Capstone exhibition in a prominent space either on the Athens Campus and/or in the City of Athens
In town, mid-century modern dwelling for accommodations, social gatherings, salons and the like (see specific details below)
Competitive residency stipend (see specific details below)

Requirements

Excellent verbal communication skills
An affable, culturally sensitive and inclusive disposition
Enthusiasm for impactful mentorship of students and collaborators; championing mutually beneficial partnership(s)
Capacity to live in Athens for up to six (6) weeks for the first residencies; potentially up to six (6) months for future residencies

Responsibilities

Examining design-related coursework and engaging in a dialogue to offer feedback and suggestions for change or improvement
Engaging in collaborative investigations that ultimately result in work or works based on a discovered theme/idea that addresses a problem or challenge
Attending faculty- and/or student-organized networking meet-ups
Promoting awareness about Ohio University’s endeavors and your role in supporting and growing them
Working with students and faculty to create work that is of your location that will be part of a visiting faculty continuum and is responsive to your time at OHIO. This will become a part of a visiting designer-in-residence collection that will be exhibited to the public
Forging gainful, long-lasting partnerships that will endure once your stay ends.

Deliverables

Working with students and faculty to create work that is of your location that will be part of a visiting faculty continuum and is responsive to your residency at OHIO. This will become a part of a visiting designer-in-residence collection that will be exhibited to the public.

Details

When: Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 for up to six weeks.
Where: Ohio University School of Art + Design in Athens, Ohio (in person)
Stipend: $3,000 + housing