Industrial designer Siobhan Gregory to discuss hybrid careers in design Feb. 17 at ISU

02/05/16

AMES, Iowa — Siobhan Gregory, a senior lecturer in design and design research at Wayne State University in Detroit, will speak about the changing roles, responsibilities and expectations of industrial designers working in the private and social sectors in a lecture Friday, Feb. 17, at Iowa State University.

Gregory will present “Hybrid Careers in Design: Industrial Design + Design Anthropology” at 5:30 p.m. in room 2245 Coover Hall. Sponsored by the Department of Industrial Design with support from the Women’s and Diversity Grants Program, her talk is free and open to the public.

An industrial designer and applied anthropologist whose research focuses on the progress toward a more human-centered design practice, Gregory will address traditional and nontraditional ethnographic approaches and methods in the design process, including consumer insights research, participatory design engagement and long-term fieldwork experiences. She will also discuss the increasingly important role that anthropological methods can play in creating designs that are culturally appropriate, inclusive and relevant.

Gregory holds a Bachelor of Industrial Design from Pratt Institute, a Master of Fine Arts in industrial design from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Master of Arts in anthropology from Wayne State University. She got her start as an automotive designer for General Motors, where she developed portfolio and brand strategy and worked in advanced pre-production and production studios. She later became the lead women’s footwear designer for the Keds Corporation, helping to bring style and relevancy back to this American heritage brand. Gregory now works on a broad range of design research projects in the business sector and beyond. She joined the faculty of Wayne State University in 2012.

Contacts:
Betsy Barnhart, Industrial Design, (515) 294-9840, betsy@iastate.edu
Heather Sauer, Design Communications, (515) 294-9289, hsauer@iastate.edu

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February 5, 2017 12:17 pm

Tags: Lecture