Voices of Design

Voices of Design: Connecting Design, Community Building, and Student Success   

Supporting student success and helping young designers build meaningful connections is a top priority in the Design Department at CSULB. Design students need to feel welcome in our department, connected to their peers, and to feel like they are a vital part of the CSULB and Long Beach design and creative communities. Our students in the design department seek places where they can learn, as well as places where they can be seen, valued, and feel safe to be their most creative and authentic selves. Connecting with students and helping them grow into talented and confident professional designers is one way we support the academic success of all students.  

Our VOD workshops and activities reach students at deeper levels and engage them in meaningful personal, professional, and academic activities while also connecting students with access to meet their basic needs like friendship, food, and art supplies.  

The VOD is a new 10-week event comprised of 3 evening lectures, 10 lunchtime activities/speakers, 2 class projects on identity and community, and a designer-in-residence program. VOD focuses on building community, providing a safe space for students to be creative, addressing food insecurity, identifying financial concerns, and supporting the social needs of students in areas such as resilience and self-confidence. VOD addresses these needs through a series of interactive workshops, real-world-based classroom activities, and collaborative design community activities such as painting our mural painting led by Long Beach muralist and CSULB alumnus, Mer Young. 

Design for Good: Our VOD Goals  

VOD allows students to discuss, explore, and identify their voices as designers and learn how to use their unique talents to benefit their lives and future careers. The VOD lectures and workshops help students understand how design can be a vital agent for change or a catalyst for good in their lives, careers, and their communities. Our goals are to: 

• Partner with our friends in the corporate and professional design community, donors, families, friends, and alumni for student success; 

• Build Trust in the Design Department Community; 

• Identify the department as a Safe Space for Creativity and Learning; 

• Create a Shared Community Identity; and 

• Use Co-Creation of Public Art to physically embody our Commitment to Student Success. 

Connecting with our Community of Design Professionals 

Therefore, VOD 2024 evening lectures showcased highly accomplished designers from a variety of backgrounds as guest speakers who have found a significant personal and professional voice through their design careers. The goal was to find designers who could directly relate their own experiences to the experiences of our student population. In addition, these speakers directly serve the needs of diverse communities through their design work. 

Designing our Individual Skills, Passions, and Gifts 

The lunch workshops serve as a time of discussion and a personal exploration of what design means to each of us. Students are encouraged to think about their individual skills, passions, and gifts in new ways. It is a time to freely “try on a new identity” or “explore a new skill, or a new belief about yourself or find your purpose.” In spring 2024, students worked side-by-side with Long Beach artist and Designer-in-Residence, Mer Young, to paint our first design community-inspired mural. 

Community Building with a Focus on Fun and Lifelong Friendships 

The lunch workshops served as a time where students could interact with faculty and other with other students from different majors or at different points in their academic careers. VOD gave students a way to get an easy lunch between classes, make new friends, participate in fun design activities, and see high-quality presentations by professional designers, all in a welcoming and familiar environment. VOD is a time to do what college is meant to do: learn professional skills, make memories, and build lifelong friendships.  

Measuring our Success: A Work in Progress 

Our first VOD event in Spring 2024 was attended by 189 individual students with an average attendance of 50+ students and 10 faculty per event. The total attendance during the spring 2024 semester was over 400 students and the VOD events provided the following outcomes: 

• Professional networking opportunities for students and faculty through the lecture series; 

• events, speakers, and activities that connect students to the professional design communities; 

• Distribution of much-needed art materials to students;  

• Using Design activities as a community-building experience in our department; 

• Easy access to campus support services such as food banks, emergency funds, LGBTQ+ support groups, and medical and mental health resources; and 

• Future class field trips were arranged with local design industry professionals. 

Here’s How You Can Support the Success of the Next Generation of Designers 

If you have a creative idea, activity, or opportunity that would engage students and faculty with the professional design community, we want to talk! We love to engage designers, industry professionals, alumni and other guests in our VOD programs and events.  

Your financial support can also make a huge difference in the lives of our students by helping them achieve their dreams. If you would like to contribute to the sustainability of these programs through financial gifts, memorials, scholarships, or other types funding for student success initiatives, please let us know. We are committed to providing the best possible learning experiences for our students. And, it is through the generous support of our donors, alumni, and friends that these quality events are possible. If you are interested in participating in or making a financial gift in support of VOD or other student success initiatives in the design department, please contact us at:  

Debra Satterfield, Professor and Design Department Chair 

Debra.satterfield@csulb.edu