Ever since sketching themepark rides as a six-year-old inspired by Disney’s Tower of Terror™, interior design graduate Karina Nelson (BS, ‘26) dreamed of creating immersive worlds. Now, after years of blending storytelling, design, and experiential thinking at the University of Minnesota College of Design, she is beginning her career with Walt Disney Imagineering. Nelson shared her reflections on the mentors, projects, and moments that shaped her path from aspiring “Imagineer” to professional designer. 

What if one of Minnesota’s most destructive invasive species could be used to bring communities together? Recent landscape architecture graduate Sean Durbin (MLA '26) transformed harvested buckthorn into a handcrafted marimba, creating a joyful new way for communities to engage in ecological restoration through sound, design, and collective action.

From river corridors and wetlands to city streets and community spaces, students in the Master of Landscape Architecture program are learning to design with empathy and imagination, restoring connections between people, place, and the living systems that sustain us.

A wildly popular product design course at the University of Minnesota College of Design gives students a hands-on learning opportunity that leaves them with real-world experience.

This summer, College of Design graduate students traded classrooms for temples, gardens, and bustling city streets in Japan. The May term study abroad program offered more than travel – it opened a global lens on architecture, culture, and community, leaving students inspired to carry these lessons into their future design careers.

Each year, the College of Design proudly honors exceptional students, faculty, and staff whose remarkable contributions have enriched our academic community. Award recipients are nominated across multiple categories by their peers, including faculty, students, and staff.

College of Design students teamed up with the Multicultural Center for Academic Excellence (MCAE) to create a refreshed design for the group's signature graduation stoles.

The Bring Back 6th Mobile Museum exhibition kicked off on May 15, 2022, during an outdoor street fest organized by Our Streets Minneapolis (OSM). Crafted by six Heritage Studies and Public History students, Jessie Merriam, Ayaan Natala, Jade Ryerson, Hibaa Roba, Angel Swann, and Carrisa Thomas, the exhibition shed light on the once-vibrant Black and Jewish neighborhood along 6th Avenue North that was bulldozed between the 1930s and 1950s to make way for the city’s first highway. 

In a fusion of culture, design, and gastronomy, 21 University of Minnesota students embarked on a transformative learning abroad program to Singapore in January 2024 with Product Design Professors Carlye Lauff and Barry Kudrowitz. With a focus on the intersection of food and design, their trip proved to be a rich exploration of Singapore's vibrant culinary scene and innovative design landscape.

As a playful opportunity to boost creative collaboration among design students, the Kusske Design Initiative (KDI) Cohort developed “Through-Line,” an interactive string installation that surveyed the design processes and learning styles of students at Ralph Rapson Hall and McNeal Hall.