Design at Southern Illinois University

Design at Southern

This web site is a celebration of a half-century of design at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale (SIUC). The Design Department at SIUC has been training product, shelter, and visual designers since 1955. R. Buckminster Fuller brought his comprehensive design science approach to the school when he joined the faculty in the late 1950s. This is a collaborative history project put together by interested alumni and staff from throughout the country. This web site is not officially associated with Southern Illinois University or any SIU Alumni organization. The views and opinions expressed are those of the individuals who assembled the various pages. For more information go to the Contact page listed in the main menu above.
Elastec oil skimmer
Rapael Wimple IV an art creation engine
the SIU design / Bauhaus connection Many SIU design department teachers studied under Moholy Nagy at the New Bauhaus in Chicago, Illinois. Later it was renamed the School of Design. In the 1950s it was incorporated into the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) as the Institute of Design. There are many pedigogical and philosopical links between the SIU department of design and the broader Bauhaus movement.The Bauhaus-- founded in Germany at the end of World War I--was dispersed during the 1930s by the Nazi party. Bauhaus teachers and students settled at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and at the New Bauhaus in Chicago. In the 1950s, New Bauhaus students from Chicago and Black Mountain came to Carbondale to carry on the Bauhaus tradition in rural mid-America. Click for more . . . SIU design moved to Pulliam Hall in 2015 Take an on-line tour of the purpose built facility that replace the “Blue Barracks.” The design wing opened during Design Days 2015. Click for more Take an on-line tour of the purpose built facility that replace the “Blue Barracks.” The design wing opened during Design Days 2015. Click for more . . .
close up of silk screened logo on hand painted sign

Professor Harold L. Cohen

passed away on Tuesday, November 2, 2021. Trained in the Bauhaus tradition of art and design at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Cohen was the chair of the Southern Illinois University Department of Design in the 1950s and 60s. For more goto the: Obituary in The Buffalo (NY) News A Man Called Bucky by Mary and Harold Cohen • 1995 talk University of Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning obituary Stories from former design students This website started in 2004. Every now and then we receive new stories from SIU design alums. Here are some recent additions: