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UW Design

@_uwdesign

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Seattle, Washington. Offering Bachelor and Master of Design degrees in ID, IxD and VCD.

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Let’s give a big welcome to the UW Design class of 2029! They had their first day in Color and Composition yesterday! taken in Art Building by @_uwdesign

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Adapt! is a board game bridging the gap between creativity and science to celebrate the eclectic beauty of prehistory. It’s designed for lovers of art and biology, in a board game space that’s often either overly educational or purely playful.

Designed by Lee Hardisty (VCD), the board is a direct representation of the geologic timescale, from the origin of life in the Cambrian to the demise of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, structured around the “Big Five” mass extinction events, with illustrations rooted in time-period-accurate paleoart.

Adapt! became an actual product ready for small-scale indie production after the 2026 Design Show.

Explore many more projects at uwdesignshow.com.

leehardisty.com by @_uwdesign

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We know that our environment affects us — the spaces we move through every day shape how we feel, how we work, and how we treat the people around us. But often we forget that this influence goes both ways; we also have the power to affect our environment.

The project by Dasha Orlov, Lily-Rose Day, Kat Lew, Lia Chon and Emily Hao explores how playful moments on UW’s campus can shift everyday student life. It was inspired by the Swing in the HUB Yard (2010–2026), built by students, for students. It’s been empirically proven that swings in high-stress environments improve mental health. So the question became: how hard would it be to add another one? Turns out, pretty hard: over 73 meetings across the School of Art, Campus Design and Planning, and UW Facilities revealed how much unseen work goes into stewarding the spaces we take for granted.

Explore many more projects at uwdesignshow.com.

dashaorlov.com
katlew.com
liachon.framer.website
emilyhao.com by @_uwdesign

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Made from solid walnut, Grace Giezentanner’s (ID) Parlor reimagines how classic board games are incorporated into the home. In its resting state, it functions as a traditional coffee table; when it’s time to play, the main surface rotates to reveal both a backgammon and chess board.

The transformation is powered by over one hundred individual wooden slats rotating in unison along an internal track, creating the appearance of a solid surface while enabling smooth movement. This design provides an effortless way to recenter games into our lives the way we once did before a digitized world.

Explore many more projects at uwdesignshow.com.

gracegiezentanner.com by @_uwdesign

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Everwarm is a soft set of hand warmers designed to fit into your busy lifestyle for long-term use. You’ll never have to wish you brought your handwarmers with you when Anika Srivastava (ID) designed Everwarm to be a bag accessory for your convenience.

The stem that lets Everwarm hang off your bag doubles as the charger, plugging into your laptop or an outlet while you’re at work or a coffee shop. Both handwarming pieces charge as one unit once attached to the core slice, thanks to a pogo pin connection between all the parts. You’ll always have it when you need it, whether it’s your morning commute or a late-night walk.

Explore many more projects at uwdesignshow.com. by @_uwdesign

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EQ reimagines the music player as a space for intentional listening, free from advertisements, algorithmic recommendations, and endless content feeds. Cleo Yumei (VCD) built it around users bringing their own curated libraries and creating personalized audio presets that dynamically transform individual songs, prioritizing ownership, expression, and emotional connection over consumption.

Orb, its pocket-sized companion, brings that music into the physical world. Connected directly to the app, it displays the album art of whatever song you’re listening to on a compact OLED screen with a flexible paracord loop and single-button interface, turning your favorite music into a wearable artifact.

Explore many more projects at uwdesignshow.com.

cleoyumei.com by @_uwdesign

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Apoptosis is a collection of poetry, writings, and visual art exploring identity, suffering, and transformation. For most of her life, Esther Ko (IxD) hated being asked one simple question: “Who are you?” as the answer is always shifting depending on who she was trying to impress.

The project takes its name from the biological process of programmed cell death, in which damaged cells die so the larger organism can continue living. This central metaphor asks whether false identities and old survival patterns need to die for new life to emerge. It traces the slow unraveling of these false selves across five emotional movements: Nightfall, Death, Dawning, Exposure, and Rebirth.

It is a testimony of bloom, from burial.

Explore many more projects at uwdesignshow.com. by @_uwdesign

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Marine Weave is a sustainable replacement system for the tires hanging beneath the docks at UW Friday Harbor Labs, which have long provided habitat for marine organisms and supported student research but also release harmful chemicals into the water.

Kat Lew’s (ID) system is constructed from natural fibers — manila, hemp, and sisal rope — paired with terracotta tiles, preserving the educational and ecological benefits while reducing environmental impact. Over time the structures become colonized by algae, kelp, mussels, sea squirts, and crabs, letting students compare new and older structures each spring to observe how biofouling communities develop and mature.

Explore many more projects at uwdesignshow.com.

katlew.com by @_uwdesign

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Domesticated is a series of three wall-mounted objects exploring domestic interfaces — the switches, knobs, and panels that structure daily life at home. Designed by Jana Radwan (IxD), each object is fabricated in wood-finished PLA and embeds ambient light and haptics, moving across the series from force, to calibration, to anticipation.

The project draws on Donna Haraway’s cyborg theory and the extended mind thesis to argue that domestication is the undirected, cumulative result of two things changing each other over time. As interfaces grow less physical and more anticipatory, Domesticated asks: what’s our next evolution? The Switch, The Knob, and The Panel are familiar enough to reach for, and strange enough to make you pause when you do.

Explore many more projects at uwdesignshow.com.

designbyjana.com by @_uwdesign

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Azure is a heads-up display SCUBA mask for technical divers that enhances their visual awareness of critical information without ever having the divers to look away from what they’re doing.

Technical divers are often holding tools for photography, research, or construction. Madeline Baulch’s and Natanya Schwimmer’s Azure delivers no-decompression limit, air levels, dive time, and depth hands-free, with a tiered color system that warns divers as they approach their limit long before an emergency arises. It also streamlines buddy monitoring: instead of relying on hand signals, Azure uses an external light to indicate air status to nearby divers, and connects with technology like Garmin Subwave Sonar to display a buddy’s air levels right inside your mask.

Explore many more projects at uwdesignshow.com.

madelinebaulch.com
readymag.website/u893201685/NatanyaSchwimmer by @_uwdesign

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