The 2025 AIGA Design Educators Conference: Weave was held at the Illinois State University during summer in June. The conference brought together educators, students, and practitioners to explore how diverse perspectives interlace to shape the transformative futures for design education.

Associate Professor Liz Sanders opened the conference with her keynote address, From Participatory Design to Collective Dreaming. An inspiring range of research and creative work from our faculty and graduate students was also presented at the conference:

• Assistant Professor Adam Fromme presented a long paper, Beyond the Basics: A Normative Design Framework for Teaching the Design Process.
• Assistant Professor Shadrick Addy led The Ethical Designer Workshop: Co-creating a Code of Ethics.
• Assistant Professor Kevin Ward shared a short paper, Critical Play with Generative AI.
• Graduate student Victoria Novas presented Navigating the Family-Based Green Card Process: Insights from Experience Mapping and Online Communities.
• Graduate student Kahmin Ong presented Reframing Wheelchair Acquisition: Weaving User Autonomy and Design Collaboration.
• Graduate student Borami Kang presented Weaving the Future of Brand Design with AI: Balancing Human and AI Creativity.

Associate Professor Yvette Shen, a current committee member of the AIGA Design Educators Community, co-chaired this conference.

Their contributions showcased the department’s leadership in advancing design education through research, collaboration, and practice.