Reimagining Design Education: Stevie Bales and Zoë Edington on Climate Action
Season 4: Episode 17
This is a special three-part series for season four that you suggested to our listeners! We’ve entitled it “Changing the System - Back to School.” All of our guests and organizations in this special series want to impact climate in the classroom or through the school itself (think renewable energy!) We hope you enjoy this bonus series as it came from you – our listeners!
In this third episode of our Back to School series of Climify, Eric welcomes Stevie Bales and Zoë Edington as they discuss the New Wave Research Project, a Climate Designers initiative aimed at integrating climate awareness into design education. They share insights from their research on students' engagement with climate issues, the systemic challenges faced by design educators, and their vision for an inclusive, action-oriented climate design curriculum.
About our guests
Zoe is a freelance UX/UI Designer based in New York City. After completing a boot camp design program in 2022, she reached out to Climate Designers to learn how to combine her passion for sustainability with her design skills and to network with link-minded people. She was specifically drawn to the New Wave project due to the research component, something she first gained an interest in while a student at UC Berkeley, and her desire to learn about the experiences and wishes of current design students. Outside of design, Zoe is the co-founder of the nonprofit, The Dahlia Collective, and her hobbies include escape rooms, archery, and learning new languages.
Stevie works at the intersection of Design, Education, and Wicked Problems, using design as a tool to bridge-the-gap between theory and real world innovation. She is an active designer, performer, and instructor of Graphic & Digital Design. An alumna of Drury University, she studied Theatre & Graphic Design before moving to Edinburgh Scotland to study Interaction Design. Working at a variety of traditional, digital, and in-house positions she eventually found her way into the field of Wayfinding & Placemaking. After the events of 2020, she shifted her focus to the classroom where she works to teach students real world skills to solve big challenges. In her free time, Stevie is a circus performer including aerial, stilt-walking, juggling, and cyr wheel.
Resources Mentioned in Episode
Social Media
Music in this episode
Nature sound effect by bbc.co.uk – ©2023 BBC
Climify Theme Song by Casual Motive
The Season 4 Climify Team
Eric Benson (Host)
Cam Burkins (Producer)
Bhavna Bhavanishankar (Experience Researcher and Multisensory Educator)
Adam Dziaba (Designer)
Jacqui Himmel (Multimedia Journalist and Scriptwriter)
Abigail Zhuk (Design Researcher)
Climate Design Assignments
At the end of each episode, we ask our guests what their ideal climate design project would be. They have four weeks with a class full of design students. We translated their response into a project brief that you can use for your class.
