AIGA Guest Speaker Sara Wachter-Boettcher

Finding Your Path as a Designer in Tech

AIGA was happy to host a virtual event on Thursday, February 24, 2022 with Sara Wachter-Boettcher. She spoke with students and staff about roles in the tech industry like UX, product design, content design, and user research. She also led discussions about the ethical considerations of working in tech—how you can spot problematic companies, avoid toxic workplaces, and confidently raise issues like bias and exclusion in the design process. You can watch the recording from the event or view the slides from her presentation.

Sara Wachter-Boettcher is an author, speaker, coach, and strategist dedicated to changing design and tech for good. She’s the founder of Active Voice, a coaching and training company helping organizations build radical, courageous leadership practices.

Her most recent book, Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech, was named one of the best tech books of the year by Wired. She also wrote Design for Real Life (with Eric Meyer) and Content Everywhere, and has been published in The Washington Post, The Guardian, and McSweeney’s. Find her at home in Philly, on Twitter @sara_ann_marie, or at sarawb.com.

Thank you to Sara for joining AIGA to make this event happen!

2021 MFA Projects

We are transitioning back to “normal” at KUCD! The MFA Show was held in the Atrium of Sharadin. If you missed it… check out our two newest MFA grads: Valerie Nyby and Amy Bolger-Santucci.

View Amy Bolger-Santucci’s Project

View Valerie Nyby’s Project

AGENCY CRAWL!

This is the last big AIGA event of the year, and your exclusive chance to participate in our first KUCD AIGA “Agency Crawl!” KUCD alumni will be taking you on a “tour” of their agencies via zoom.

Fishawack Health:

Fishawack Health is the leading global commercialization partner for the modern life sciences era. Powered by a globe-spanning pack of strategic, creative, and scientific experts, we are driven to connect patients and healthcare professionals with the knowledge they need to live better lives. Our internationally recognized, award-winning teams collaborate across operations in the UK (Brighton, London, Manchester, Knutsford, and Oxford) and USA (Evansville, New York, Philadelphia, Scottsdale, St. Louis, and San Diego). We are Fishawack Health. Bolder. More agile. More connected. Together with our client partners, we can shape the future and improve lives.

You’ll be hosted by Lacey Christman, Head of Creative

https://fishawack.com/

Watch the recording:
https://kutztown.zoom.us/rec/play/I_yYIwazgLZjCxf65JTCGWEkVURZfiMW5JvZvCsKp1MjTJbq-aBBZ8SLsore3bVR4moFkHwfyx6ICv8M.QVUVYUCl4DmdhGNc?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=7lkATwTATBWPcUumGzma_A.1619795381553.39efaf1fa3e137bcc783374dfef0037c&_x_zm_rhtaid=989

Pentagram:

Our work encompasses graphics and identity, architecture and interiors, products and packaging, exhibitions and installations, websites and digital experiences, advertising and communications. Our 24 partners are all practicing designers, and whether they are working collaboratively or independently, they always do so in friendship. Our structure is unique. We are the only major design studio where the owners of the business are the creators of the work and serve as the primary contact for every client. This reflects our conviction that great design cannot happen without passion, intelligence and — above all — personal commitment, and is demonstrated by a portfolio that spans five decades and all industries.

You’ll be hosted by Mary Kate Henry, designer extraordinaire

https://www.pentagram.com/

Watch the recording:
https://kutztown.zoom.us/rec/play/1sbwmmCWGq_rnpUvFaS3SiErwTXQIirJY_MUPS8zc-BVRyARz-bLWMz3D_4xN4xIQURETNSBPP7wA3ld.Mycu_gFHWKABawNA?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=rYiC9ryySz-3rt-VcsW_ow.1619702645936.80f3a000bb2d7df680ac8e79d11c46ab&_x_zm_rhtaid=442

Layouts for Layups! Stef Fontela

Join Kutztown AIGA as we welcome Stef Fontela! Stef is the former Creative Director of the Golden State Warriors. She is going to take us through the recent re-branding she did for them. (For the non-sports fans, the Warriors are an NBA team…this is an amazing opportunity for ALL to hear a renowned guest speaker and learn about branding! No knowledge of sports required.)

Watch the recording:
https://youtu.be/9YAA0kpvnlk

Featured Alum! Jarrett Fuller

Where are you currently working? (location & company)
Brooklyn, NY: twenty-six.design https://twenty-six.design/ (self-employed); AIGA Eye on Design (contributing editor); The New School, Parsons School of Design, University of the Arts (adjunct faculty)

What are you currently working on?
Hosting and producing the Scratching the Surface podcast; writing and editing for AIGA’s Eye on Design; editing a publication about Parsons School of Design; teaching typography classes

What’s your favorite recent project?
Scratching the Surface (now five years old) is a continually fulfilling project; I’m especially proud of my recent essay on retail branding for EoD; the Design Observer book I designed and edited in 2018 is still a career milestone!

How has your job changed with COVID?
Other than teaching classes over Zoom, it hasn’t.

What was your favorite KUCD project? What class did you make it in?
Either ‘Trading Post’ Magazine from Publication Design (?) or the Dharma Initiative Annual Report from Advanced Typography (?) (Not sure if those are the right classes. Cunfer was my prof for Trading Post and Kresge my prof for the Annual Report.

https://jarrettfuller.com/archive/dharma

How did your decision to attend KUCD affect the trajectory of your career?
Everything I’ve done in the last decade can probably be traced back to ideas that began during my time at Kutztown.

What advice would you give your high school self about choosing a college?
I don’t have a good answer for this.

What is the best part of KUCD?
In a weird way, I still feel like my time at Kutztown was one of the most creatively engaging where I worked on projects that stretched me and pushed me, that I’m still strangely proud of. I see a big difference in the work I was making at the beginning my time there and the work I left with. In many ways, I’ve been trying to recreate that feeling since. That freedom to explore is a dream!

Any advice for current KUCD students?
Stay open. Try new things. Break the rules.