UC Designers Outpace the World in International Competition

It’s in black-and-white.  Well, actually, it’s in richly colored images, but the message is very clear.  The University of Cincinnati’s young designers competed with the world’s best and have emerged as the distinct design winners. 

The September/October 2003 issue of the prestigious international design magazine, I.D., carries the results of the publication’s annual student awards.  Among the 23 winners chosen out of more than 500 entries from North America, South America, Europe and Asia, three represent UC’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning.

The students (now graduates) are featured in the magazine for work they did at DAAP to resolve real-world problems.  The winners are June 2003 industrial design graduate Philip Madden of Perrysburg, Ohio; June 2002 industrial design graduate Nick Tinsler of Wauseon, Ohio; and June 2002 digital design graduate Arthur Kuhn of Clifton, who is now an adjunct instructor at DAAP. 

Tinsler, who grew up on a farm, designed a Universal Agricultural System:  farm machinery that could – with attachments – be used for any number of jobs.  He took on the task because American farmers are faced with the problem of having to purchase, maintain and store costly, bulky and infrequently used machines for specific tasks.  Thus, he wanted to create multi-purpose machinery that, because of its flexibility, would better meet farmers’ needs.

Fellow industrial design student Philip Madden developed the Health Scarf, which seeks to provide cleaner breathing air for the wearer.  It’s a “personal environmental cleanser” for people who need extra protection from airborne pollutants.  The battery-operated, organic-cotton scarf takes in air through tiny openings and purifies it with an integrated, corona-discharge ionizer.  As air is pumped through the tubular garment, it passes through an anti-fungal sponge that can be soaked with water for humidity or in medicine for vapor.  The treated air is then released at the front of the scarf, where it can be breathed by the user.

UC’s Artie Kuhn, now a design instructor, was a student when he created his Networked Literature project.  Basically, the project provides an enhanced computer environment for reading text on a computer screen.  Kuhn built an online environment for studying Jesus' New Testament parables, including visual samples of parchment paper, images of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and hyperlinks to related commentaries.