It's Here and It's Happening! Design Week, October 17-22
That’s right – Salt Lake Design Week is officially underway, and we are beyond excited to be a part of this city-wide cultural extravaganza! As Salt Lake City architects deeply committed to producing and inspiring great design, we can’t wait to sample the artistic cornucopia that this creative-minded city has to offer this week. So get ready to sharpen your creative edge and join us for what is shaping up to be a stellar event…
The intent of Salt Lake Design Week is to raise awareness of the impact that all design, including architecture, advertising, photography, fashion, product, interior and graphic, has on Utah, its residents and visitors. Salt Lake Design Week assembles professionals, students, entrepreneurs, architects, educators and broader members of the community to herald design in our fantastic metropolis. Impressively, since its inception five years ago, Salt Lake Design Week has engaged over 50,000 people and continues to motivate critical thinking in even the youngest of participants. Sparano + Mooney Architecture has participated almost every year with open studio tours, architect talks, exhibitions, installations and design award celebrations. Some of you may remember the fashion show runway installation architect Anne Mooney helped coordinate for her University of Utah architecture students during Design Week 2013.
This year a series of events – workshops, lectures, business development sessions, film screenings, studio tours and exhibitions to name a few – will encourage collaboration and inspiration among Salt Lake’s numerous design groups, museums, architects, businesses and educational and cultural institutions. Through these offerings, Salt Lake Design Week seeks to provide forums for professionals and the general public alike to interact and learn from each other, and in doing so, initiate a stronger creative community. How cool is that?!
A cross-section of events include: “Designing Gender: The Art of Equality”, a conversation about the intersection of marketing, design and social science, and how advertising can affect the realities of the people it influences (held at Studio Elevn); “Monsters + Mayhem”, a judged mini-monster movie competition with keynote speech and critique, hosted by OctoLeague and the Salt Lake Film Society (held at the Tower Theatre); “Morph 3D”, an exploration of consumer virtual reality and shared digital consciousness (held at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art); and the Bizarre Bazaar closing party, a so-called “psychedelic sideshow and soiree” (held at Shades of Pale Brewing Tap Room). In addition, several studio tours form an integral component of Salt Lake Design Week. Tour stops include Contravent, Jibe Media, Dinng, Super Top Secret, Struck, Modern8 and Brute Squad. These personal and private tours offer eye-opening insight into the creative processes honed by some of the city’s most notable design firms, and we have enjoyed being featured as top Salt Lake architects in past events and studio tours.
As part of Salt Lake Design Week, be sure to check out the DesignArts ’16 Exhibition at the Rio Gallery. The exhibition closing reception and celebration will take place Friday, October 21st from 6-9pm. Award-winning work by Sparano + Mooney Architecture is on display and we hope to see you there! If we don’t have the chance to meet during Salt Lake Design Week, we’d love the opportunity to discuss our design philosophy and to create a unique work of architecture for your next civic, municipal, institutional or residential project in the American West!
Salt Lake Design Week is hosted by the Salt Lake City chapter of AIGA, the Professional Association for Design. For more information, and to purchase tickets to selected events, please visit the Salt Lake Design Week website. Design matters!