2024–25 Public Seminar Series: Studio Gorm

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What can design do?

This year’s public seminar series asks four invitees to reflect on design’s capacities, potentials, and failures. What are the everyday realities of our practice, and where has it surprised us? What future social roles might design play? And where and why have we seen it fall short? In this deeply uncertain time, we may at least be able to specify something about our practice and its place in the world: What can design do?

John and Wonhee Arndt founded Studio Gorm (Eugene, OR) in 2007. They design products, furniture, interiors, lighting, and exhibitions. The studio’s work is informed by speculative research that explores culture, technology, and the historical evolution of objects and ideas. Their experimental constructive approach also reflects both designers’ backgrounds in sculpture and craft. The resulting products are practical, thoughtful, and approachable forms for everyday life.

The UIC School of Design public seminar series serves as a research platform for the school’s MDes program, stimulating broad intellectual inquiry about the values guiding the designer by promoting discourse across industrial and graphic design.

Thursday, March 20
6:30–8:00 pm
Room 1300
Architecture and Design Studios
845 West Harrison Street, Chicago

Free and open to the public.