Stella Ding

Pixel Husky

build the first outward facing design club at UW Seattle in a team of 8

A NON-TRADITIONAL DESIGN PROJECT

I believe a good designer sees all problems in life with a design eye. I also believe a good designer can translate all that is learned from other disciplines into design. That is why I want to feature Pixel Husky in my portfolio as a design project.

A PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED

I relaunched Pixel Husky 2 years ago because I see a problem that frustrates me and is waiting to be solved: design is still misunderstood.

THE SOLUTION

The first outward facing design club at University of Washington Seattle with a completely new branding from our Creative Director Justin McKissick to fit our new ambition.

THE NEW TEAM

WHAT WE DO

We run 4-5 events a quarter and cater them to all 3 groups of audience: designers, non-designers and prospective designers. Our event types include talks, panels, workshops and other creative format of events.

We try not to recycle events and keep putting out creative events that evolve with the industry trends and needs of our members.

THE RESULT

PROBLEMS REMAIN UNSOLVED

We realize even though we have a diverse group of members, there are still problems existing that did not get solved by our current way of running the club.

The 3 groups of audience (designers, non-designers and prospective designers) are still separated; there is enough contact with the real world design; there is no large scale event that celebrates the power of design.

THE SOLUTION

An event that is different from everything that is out there. A 7-week long event where students form in teams to work on company proposed projects or their own with construtive feedback from industry mentors.

THE RESULT

I acquired 14 sponsors, 15+ industry mentors and raised $3000+ for our first ever winter event "The Pixel Project" with 260+ RSVPs and 150+ event participants.

More info: The Pixel Project event page

APPROACH EVENT PLANNING AS A DESIGN PROBLEM

It is our first time running such a large scale event that is different from everything that is out there. Our work session one is quite chaotic. We as a team wanted to improve the experience of work session two. I created two experience map for partipants and mentors as a conversation starter at the feedback meeting.