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Get ready to create

With the vision of bring together students, faculty, industry, and community, the Nancy Richardson Design Center was truly created by and for everyone.

Nancy Richardson leads with design

A 1982 interior design graduate of CSU, Nancy Richardson and her husband Curt Richardson are co-founders and owners of OtterBox and Blue Ocean Enterprises. Read more about her excitement for the Design Center she helped make possible.

Nancy Richardson greeting a student at an event

What is Design Thinking?

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that seeks to understand users (empathize), challenge assumptions, (re)define problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. The process bounces back and forth to incorporate learning from failed attempts, feedback from users, and flexibility for new ideas to permeate – ultimately resulting in implementation.

Who benefits from the RDC?

Students

…who want to be more creative in their thinking as well as the way they solve everyday or socially significant problems.

A student using the band saw in the Wood Lab

Faculty

…who are looking to form interdisciplinary collaborations around design-based learning, research, and creative scholarship.

An instructor teaches a student how to use the panel saw in the Wood Lab

Departments

…that value interdisciplinary innovation for its potential to increase teaching effectiveness and faculty productivity.

A wooden Rams head that made with the CNC router in the Wood Lab

Industry and Community Partners

…who need help understanding the nature of the problems they face and resources to design and test solutions.

A hand holding a 3D printed block of letters that spell `RDC`