UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON OMA&D 50th ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION

Studio Matthews / 2018

Team / Art Direction: Kristine Matthews + Matt Cole / Design + Production: Jeffrey Underwood / Student Designers: Christen Miyasato, Monica Niehaus, Angela Piccolo, Samantha Spaeth, Dana Golan, Eva Grate + Jazmine Hoyle / Photography: Ben Benschneider /

Deliverables / exhibit graphics / infographic displays / production + fabrication deliverables /

Recognition / Communication Arts 2019 Design Annual, Award of Excellence / GRAY Awards 2019, Finalist / UCDA Annual Design Awards 2019, Gold Award / UCDA Annual Design Awards 2019, Excellence Award

The University of Washington’s Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity (OMA&D) was born in May 1968 after members of the Black Student Union and their supporters occupied the office of UW President Charles Odegaard, demanding greater diversity in the UW’s student body, staff and faculty. This iconic student protest led the UW to create one of the nation’s first office of minority affairs.

When OMA&D approached Studio Matthews to design an exhibition to celebrate their 50th anniversary, Kristine Matthews incorporated the project into her advanced Exhibition Design class at UW, and involved OMA&D representatives and Studio Matthews designers in class critiques. Design seniors worked in teams to develop exhibition concepts. The final design, developed by Studio Matthews, represented a combination of two of the strongest student design solutions.

I joined the project at the close of the concepting phase, tasked with bringing the student groups’ designs to life. My role included developing displays with clear statistics and infographics, unifying the work through a consistent system of typography, color, and imagery, and—most critically—ensuring fabrication files were accurate and at scale for the installation vendor.