Teaching Experiential Graphic Design

The Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD) is a global, multidisciplinary community of professionals who plan, design and build experiences that connect people to place. This semester, Page Associate Principal and Experiential Design Director Roy Watson was invited to represent the local SEGD Austin chapter in a series of roundtable discussions and student reviews at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture (UTSOA).

As part of the studio, Roy joined a spring studio dedicated to a planned 2019 exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center about the Arts and Crafts movement. The Ransom Center is a research library and exhibition space located nearby UTSOA on the UT Austin campus. Course work focuses on exhibition design and is augmented by guest lectures given by professionals like Roy in the fields of graphic design, historical color research, interactive technologies and lighting.

Roy shared his expertise in experiential design at multiple roundtable sessions. He returned to see the students’ progress at various design reviews. Two former Page interns, Cecilia Sariol and Shawna Stockton are among the students in the studio.

"I was pleasantly surprised with how sophisticated the student's concepts were. The level of thought put into their ideas made the review process challenging and fun," says Roy. "Because of the sophistication, many of the reviewers' comments were aimed at trying to help studio participants refine ideas and hone design communication. I hope it was as beneficial for them as it was for me.”

To learn more about the students' work and the studio, see this month's Ransom Center Magazine article "School of Architecture students collaborate with Ransom Center to learn exhibition design."