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Josh Owen

Metaproject 12 promises to be the cat’s meow this academic year. Students in RIT’s industrial design program will spend the semester designing products for Modkat, the award-winning maker of cat litter boxes. Metaproject pairs students with a different industry partner each year.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 48: Design must play a critical role as society faces difficult discussions and works to create a new balance in a troubled world. Josh Owen, director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, and Seth Eshelman '06, founder of sustainable design firm Staach, discuss their Metaproject collaboration.

Beginning with next week’s inaugural lecture on Sept. 16, the Vignelli Center’s Design Conversations Lecture Series presented by Design Milk will feature a wide variety of diverse designers whose compelling work has made important impacts on the design world.

For Metaproject 11, senior industrial design students will spend the semester designing products for Staach, which focuses on functional sustainable design. Founded by Seth Eshelman '06 (industrial design/graphic design), the company designs and domestically manufactures sustainable products including furniture, interiors, and built structures.

Design Milk features Josh Owen, Distinguished Professor and director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies.

Josh Owen, an internationally renowned designer, author and faculty-researcher who has led RIT’s industrial design program to national prominence since coming to the university a decade ago, has been named the new director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies and the Massimo and Lella Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design.

The New York Times features a match striker designed by Josh Owen, distinguished professor and director of the industrial design program.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 28: Since 2010, Metaproject has paired RIT student designers with a client in what has become a signature project for the university’s internationally-ranked industrial design program. Distinguished professor Josh Owen, director of RIT’s industrial design program and founder of Metaproject, talks with distinguished professor Roger Remington, director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, about a decade of connecting students to industry.

Woodworking Network talks to Josh Owen, professor and chair, industrial design program, about the late Wendell Castle, father of the art furniture movement and former RIT artist-in-residence.

Students, faculty, staff and alumni from RIT’s College of Art and Design descended on Manhattan last week for NYCxDesign—New York City’s annual celebration of design that attracts hundreds of thousands from across the globe—that included a memorable celebration on the iconic Sesame Street.

RIT announced John Klofas, Bruce Smith and Josh Owen as its first class of Distinguished Faculty, leaders who have provided insights and solutions to today’s criminal justice issues, produced groundbreaking work in nanolithography and developed exciting industrial design innovations.