Student Design Organization provides an opportunity for the UMD Graphic Design Students to explore design outside of the
current curriculum. We intend to better understand our future profession through studio tours, speakers, and museum visits.
Examples of past events include Attending the Walker Insights Lecture Series in Minneapolis, web development demonstrations, Blindsight (editions 1 & 2), speakers such
as Eddie Prentiss of the Brainco School of Advertisign, design@umd, Take Back Your Time Day events and studio tours of Duffy Design, Kilter,
Yamamoto Moss, O Co, Aesthetic Apparatus, and more. We have hosted widely respected speakers in the industry, such as Mike Cina, Chip Kidd,
and many others.
We are also strongly involved with promoting AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts), attending events such as Portfolio 1:1, and Design Camp.
Additional events planned for the year include connecting all class levels in the program through meetings, fundraisers, student-run workshops, critique
sessions, Blindsight, and a design competition co-sponsored by the Kirby Program Board. Our meetings are weekly and cover upcoming activities, event planning,
and group critiques of student work. SDO will also work with the UMD Art Guild and UMD Photo Alliance to promote fine arts exploration among all SFA
students.
Planning and activities in SDO are on a volunteer basis, offering students the opportunity to further their design education on a self-motivated level.
As long as a student is interested in graphic design and is enrolled in the graphic design or pre-graphic design program at UMD, there are no other
requirements for belonging to SDO. The organization charges a membership due of $10/semester or $15/year to cover the cost of producing Blindsight and
putting on other events. Non-paying members are still encouraged to come to the meetings, but must be a paying member to attend special events, such as
Studio Tours, etc. With over 300 students majoring in graphic design at UMD, SDO has a large group of potential members.
In the past, a core group of 20-40 students have shown a strong interest in the events SDO has sponsored. We hope to increase this number by promoting more
awareness of the organization, increasing the amount of events that we sponsor, and involving all class levels.
In short, SDO aims to showcase what exists in graphic design beyond the classroom and seeks to expand our student body's graphic design knowledge outside,
but in collaboration with the university environment.
SDO is open to all UMD graphic design and pre-graphic design majors.
