Student Work
Our students enjoy great educational opportunities—and put them to good use, regularly winning national design competitions.
Interior Design Students Make Top Three in National Competition, Sept. 2006
WSU
Spokane interior design students Kristie Morrison and Susan Schreibe walked away
with second and third place respectively in the
National Institute for Store Planners (NISP) Student Design Competition.The competition—which took in 90 entries from 20 different colleges and universities—asked students to design a children’s clothing store and judged their designs on a number of levels.
Both students’ projects emphasized the use of lighting, but in uniquely different ways. Morrison’s elegant design, “Mother of Pearl,” used lighting to beckon customer to locations throughout the store.
Schreibe’s
playful “Sõl” welcomed children through the interaction of light and space, thus
creating a positive atmosphere for parents and children both.
WSU uses the NISP competition as part of a senior capstone project taught by John Turpin, associate professor of interior design, and Judy Theodorson, adjunct faculty member and director of the Daylighting Lab Spokane at WSU Spokane’s Interdisciplinary Design Institute.
WSU Student Wins National Competition, June 2005
Nicole Kelln, a recent graduate of the WSU Interior Design program, took the 2005 grand prize in the National Sustainable Design Competition sponsored by the International Interior Design Association—a competition that received an "overwhelming" number of entries.
Kelln designed a retail electronics store, seeking to integrate nature and
technology in her project. “I wanted to redefine the typical ‘big box’
electronic retail store by enhancing the customer experience,” Kelln said. “I
did this by breaking down the large box and creating individual boutiques within
the store to provide a more intimate experience.” Kelln also developed branding
concepts for the store.
She was awarded an all-expense paid trip to the Greenbuild 2005 National
Conference in Atlanta; her work will be published in the IIDA magazine,
Custom, and displayed on the IIDA website. Kelln said the experience of
entering competitions provides important professional credibility, raising a
student’s profile within the profession prior to graduation, and building the
resume. Kelln interned at Callison Architecture in Seattle, the largest retail
design firm in the world.
Award-winning faculty at WSU Spokane mentor students in preparing competition entries, and each year a number of interior design students win awards in competitions from the state level to the international.
See additional examples on our Thesis Work page.