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.
