Visual Design Lab 2022-2023 Academic Year in Review

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Faculty Goffredo Puccetti named, branded, and designed the interface for “Firmamento,” a multi-messenger astronomy tool for citizen and professional scientists (May 2023)
• Faculty Goffredo Puccetti supported organization and collateral design for “(Re)Locating Rights,” a workshop convened by the Culture, Rights, Representation in/for the 21st Century Research Kitchen (May 2023)
• Students of the Wayfinding class presented wayfinding solutions to the NYUAD Arts Center for their lobby, which will be implemented in Summer 2023 (May 2023) 
• Students of the Wayfinding class presented wayfinding solutions to Al Sadeem Observatory for their road and entrance, which will be implemented in Fall 2023 (May 2023)
• Fourth-year student Tonia Zhang presented her Capstone project in Graphic Design (April 2023)
• Faculty Goffredo Puccetti acted as Judge Chair of the The Global Undergraduate Awards, UA2023, Panel on Architecture and Design (Summer 2023)
• Instructor Erin Collins designed the poster for On Motherhood and its Shadows, an interdisciplinary workshop at NYUAD (May 2023)
• Faculty Goffredo Puccetti designed the NYUAD Hackathon 2023 poster and visual identity (April 2023)
• Faculty Goffredo Puccetti designed a custom bookplate for the NYUAD Library collection donated by the Ballon family in memory of Hilary Ballon (February 2023)
• Faculty Goffredo Puccetti mentored two students’ teams from Zayed University in their Partner Challenge Program on Accessible Design in Abu Dhabi (Spring 2023) 
• Faculty Goffredo Puccetti designed the book and cover layout for “The Littlest Girl Goes Inside an Atom,” a children’s book by Laura Manenti with an endorsement by Nobel prize winner Arthur McDonald (January 2023)
• Faculty Goffredo Puccetti wrote the central essay, “On Art and Gratitude,” for the show catalog of Wissam Shawkat’s exhibition Letters of Love II at Mestaria Gallery, Dubai (November 2022)
• Hamad AlShamsi, a student of Foundations of Graphic Design class, designed the poster for Temporary People, NYUAD’s Fall 2023 Theater Production (November 2022) 
• Instructor Erin Collins designed the poster advertising faculty Sandra Peters’ book launch event (October 2022) 
• Instructor Erin Collins won the inaugural Tasmeen Poster Design Competition and exhibited her poster “Sympoiesis” in Dubai, UAE (August 2022)

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EVENTS

• “The Banality of Evil Design,” a lecture by Goffredo Puccetti, part of the IDBE in Engineering Series (2 May, 2023)
• “Brand Identity 101,” a talk by fourth-year student Tonia Zhang given to the Design Collective Student Interest Group (May 2023)
• “Logo 101,” a talk by faculty Goffredo Pucetti given to the Design Collective Student Interest Group (April 2023)
• “Designing Your Living Space for Health & Well-being,” a mini-course presented by instructor Erin Collins at NYUAD’s inaugural “Our Learning Community” event (28 February, 2023)
• Do you see me?, an exhibition of digital art by Murtaza Raza, curated by faculty Goffredo Puccetti, held in the Visual Design Lab. The event was attended by over 200 visitors over two days (On view from 9-10 December, 2022) 
• “50UAE - Photography as a Visual Record: Past, Present, Future,” a panel discussion moderated by faculty Goffredo Puccetti at the NYUAD Institute (21 November, 2022)
• Design Works: A Decade of In-House Design at NYU Abu Dhabi, an exhibition of design work curated by instructor Erin Collins and faculty Goffredo Puccetti, at 19 Washington Square North, New York, USA (On view from October 2022-January 2023)
• “Design Works: A Decade of In-House Design at NYU Abu Dhabi,” a panel discussion featuring faculty Goffredo Puccetti and instructor Erin Collins at the NYUAD Institute at 19 Washington Square North, New York, USA (October 20, 2022)
• “Principles of Visual Communication for Science,” a workshop presented by faculty Goffredo Puccetti and instructor Erin Collins at the NYUAD Institute at 19 Washington Square North, New York, USA (October 21, 2022)

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VISUAL DESIGN LAB LECTURE SERIES

• “Writing Directions” with Dr. Antoine Abi Aad (8 May, 2023)
• “Delason, a Constructed Language” with Nizar Habash (3 May, 2023)
• “Wayfinding Q&A with Jug Cerović” (17 April, 2023)
• “Wayfinding Q&A with Giuseppe Attoma” (10 April, 2023)
• “Web Interface Design for SESAME” workshop with Andrea Lausi. SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) is the first synchrotron light source in the Middle East. (March 29, 2023)
• “Journeys into Arabic Calligraphy with Wissam Shawkat,” a four-day workshop with the Types of Art class (March 27-April 5, 2023)
• “Visual is the most boring part of design. with alumna Ven Anh Bui and The Lab Saigon, Vietnam” (27 February, 2023)
• “Questions & Answers on Type Design with Dr. Nadine Chahine” (20 February, 2023)
• “Cross Cultural Design in the UAE” with Zena Adhami (16 November, 2022)
• “Palisra Project” lecture and workshop with Nizar Habash (31 Oct and 2 Nov 2022)
• “A History of Arab Graphic Design” with Haytham Nawar (26 October, 2022)
• “Creativity in Science” with Dr. Laura Manenti (24 October, 2022)

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NEWS

• Fourth-year student Tonia Zhang was accepted into the Master of Fine Art in Graphic Design program at Rhode Island School of Design, USA and will begin her studies in September 2023 (May 2023)
• A patent application was submitted for a cycling-friendly abaya design emerging out of a student proposal developed in the Re-Design Fall 2019 class (May 2023)
• Two student-designed logos, for NYUAD Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, and alumni startup Sweech, won World of Logo Design Awards (December 2022)

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