On Thursday Nov 7th, Associate Professor Rebekah Matheny organized and facilitated the Global Student Retail Design Fest for the Design Research Society's (DRS) Designing Retail and Services Futures group. The event included a discussion with Yinka Ilori on his work with brands like North Face, Nike, Apple, and pop-up shop designs for his products. A panel discussion followed and included designers from Nike (Portland), Arcadis (New York), Bermeyer (Boston), Levi's (San Francisco), and Farm Rio (Rio de Janeiro) to discuss how retail can be more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable.  

 

Over 300 students from London, India, South Africa, Copenhagen, Brussels, and Italy attended with 28 students, including 7 from Ohio State Design, participating in the design sprint where they applied their learnings from the speakers. The design sprint allowed for teams of students from around the world to virtually collaborate in the design of a pop-up-shop for a fashion brand that reclaims textile waste to design new garments and household items. The outcomes from the sprint will be displayed the DRS Retail and Service Design Futures colloquium in Millan this coming May. 

 

Momentum Textiles, whom Yinka Ilori collaborated with for a new collection that launched at NeoCon in 2024, sponsored the lunch for the student's participating in-person at Ohio State. They also sponsored a dinner that evening in honor of Yinka with our interior design alumni including Fabian Perez (2023), Tyler Hatton (2020), Raine Dearing (2017), Katherine Hunter (2021), Morgan Mitchel (2018), and Aaron Remone (2025).