Highlights: Boston Design Week 2017

We are excited that the fourth annual Boston Design Week is here! The 12-day event runs from March 29 – April 9, with events happening all over the city. We have chosen a few events highlight below, but please check the event’s calendar to see what other events might interest you (and note that many events require an RSVP). So many of our design disciplines and talents intersect – get out in the city and enjoy!

Let’s Get Real: Finding An Authentic Voice in Social Media
Wednesday, March 29 | 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Room & Board
375 Newbury Street, Boston

Join us for a panel featuring social media influencers: Damien Smith of Yelp, Dana Cordova of Safr, design journalist Marni Katz of StyleCarrot and illustrator Holly Nichols – as they share their thoughts about creating an authentic social media presence and being genuine in our connected culture.

Back to the Future: Designing the Monsanto House of the Future for Disneyland in the 1950s
Thursday, March 30 | 1:00 – 2:00 PM
MIT
265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Join Gary Van Zante, MIT Museum Curator of Architecture and Design, and examine original design drawings and other documentation from the Architecture and Design collections of the MIT Museum.
This one-hour session will focus on the design of one of the most influential of twentieth century prototype houses, the Monsanto House of the Future (completed 1957;designed by Marvin Goody and Richard Hamilton), a project developed at MIT for Monsanto Corporation and exhibited at Disneyland in Anaheim from 1957-1967.

Exhibition Tour: Road to Revolution
Monday, April 3 | 6:00 – 7:30 PM
The BSA Foundation
290 Congress Street, Boston 

For 30 days in the summer of 2015, architectural designer Abby Gordon traversed the island of Cuba as Shepley Bulfinch’s 2015 Howe Traveling Fellow. Gordon’s photos document her course of travel and her investigation into the 1959 Cuban Revolution’s impact on the country’s infrastructure, and the way Cubans congregate and interact with their surroundings.

Design Your Own VR Experience
Tuesday, April 4 | 3:00 – 5:30 PM
Neoscape
23 Drydock Ave., 5th Floor, Boston

This hands-on session will merge the worlds of 2D and 3D design into an interactive VR experience. Participants will help finalize a digital design, using a variety of existing assets, to be composited into a virtual Boston area scene. They will also learn how these elements are programmed and translated for Virtual Reality and then experience their own creation with GearVR. The workshop session will include an interactive demonstration of the latest Virtual and Augmented Reality technology including Microsoft’s HoloLens, the HTC Vive, and the Oculus Rift.

MassArt’s 16 Hours to Glory Industrial Design Competition
April 8 | 8am – Midnight
April 9 | 10:00 – 2:00pm
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Kennedy Building, 2nd Floor, 621 Huntington Ave., Boston

Are you interested in problem solving through design thinking? Are you up for a challenge? Participants, working in teams or as individuals, have 16 hours (8am to midnight) to research, draw, design, and solve a problem to be given at the start of the competition. Presentations, deliberations and awards will be held the following day when teams have an opportunity to pitch their solutions to a panel of distinguished judges. Please register by March 31.