Design in 7 Cards | 2023

THE 13 TH ANNUAL

DESIGN IN

DESIGN IN 7 7 STORIES, 7 MINUTES

Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Co man Memorial Union Theater

What can be shared in just seven minutes?

Listen in as seven professionals from the fields of apparel design, architecture, graphic design, interior design, landscape architecture, product design, and retail share thought-provoking, inspiring, and often humorous tales from the design trenches. Talk it up!

#D7in7 and @UofMDesign design.umn.edu/Designin7

THANK YOU

Emcee Tane Danger Director, Westminster Town Hall Forum; Co-founder, Theater of Public Policy and Danger Boat Improv

Illustrator

Mortimer Ackerman @morticry

Graphic Designer

Kevin Vi @vikevinn

Sponsors

Honors Dean’s List

1 Samantha Tousey

Samantha Tousey Director of Women's Buying

MartinPatrick 3

Samantha Tousey is a buyer who specializes in luxury retail. She spent over twelve years in New York leading buying teams at CHANEL and Christian Dior. As the director of women’s buying for MartinPatrick 3, she hopes to bring luxury retail for women back to the Twin Cities.

Tousey is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Retail Merchandising Program with a minor in business management. In her free time, she enjoys riding horses, biking, and spending time with her husband and daughter.

2 Ashley Adamma Ochiagha

Ashley Adamma Ochiagha Interior Designer, Engagement Strategist

Fancy Meeting You Here

After graduating from the University of Minnesota and working as an interior designer for some of the best firms in town, Ashley Adamma Ochiagha took a giant entrepreneurial leap and transformed a passion project into a full-blown business. Fancy Meeting You Here is a boutique design studio with a soft spot for emerging entrepreneurs looking to create flexible work spaces and unique hospitality experiences for clients.

Wanjing Ji Landscape Architect, Design Director Coen+Partners

Wanjing Ji is a landscape architect, culture observer, a listener, and a storyteller. Influenced by her own cultural background and travels to di erent parts of the world, she is intrigued by the way unique cultures and ecologies shape people’s approach in place-making. Her work experiences range from highly crafted residential gardens to complex urban open spaces with big teams. She brings philosophical thinking to projects and believes beauty combined with rich analysis and research leads to meaningful design.

Jeremiah Albrecht

Jeremiah Albrecht Creative Director Chandler Inc.

Jeremiah Albrecht has held creative director and lead design roles at firms including Carbon Collaborative, HGA Architects, Worrell, and Make Retail. His projects range from retail environments to corporate interiors with clients including Whole Foods, The Home Depot, Sony, Target, Google, Andersen Windows, and Best Buy. Albrecht’s creative approach to design always includes a manufacturing element with the aim to create impactful branded environments that can also be built. Albrecht received his degree in furniture design from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

5 Maxine Britt

Maxine Britt Founder

Mx Apparel Design

Maxine Britt (she/they) is the founder of Mx Apparel Design, a brand that creates bold, gender-neutral fashion in sizes

XS-6X. The brand was founded when Britt was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota in response to case studies and the bland and non-inclusive landscape of genderless fashion available in the marketplace. Today, Mx Apparel has an international audience and Britt is grateful to be making clothes that resonate with the underserved trans and nonbinary market while broadening perspectives on what genderless fashion means.

6 Gabriel Keller

Gabriel Keller Designer, Founding Principal

PKA Architecture

Gabriel Keller is a co-founder of PKA, a nationally recognized residential architecture firm. An active leader with AIA Minnesota, he has served as co-chair of its Residential Architecture Committee; as a member of its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee; and with the Intercultural Leadership Program. His work has appeared in local and national publications including recent commentary on the need for licensure alternatives to increase diversity in architecture, and opportunities created by incorporating sabbaticals in one’s profession. As part of his own partial sabbatical, Keller serves his community as a paramedic.

7 Hannah Edwards

Hannah Edwards Designer, Illustrator, Educator, Founder Greater Than

Hannah Edwards is a designer, illustrator, educator, and entrepreneur with a background in graphic design and journalism. In addition to teaching design, she takes freelance work when it's a good fit. She recently completed a board game called Three Days on Callisto and is the designer for Enter magazine. Edwards is also busy nurturing her new business, Greater Than, which provides personalized, one-on-one graphic design education to help designers and illustrators improve their portfolios and reclaim their voices through self-authored work.