Flux Student Design Competition Nomination

Studio Collective, the official design journal of the Virginia Tech School of Architecture has been nominated for this year’s Flux Student Design Competition in the publication category.

Flux is a nationwide competition that recognizes outstanding design work produced by students in the categories of Identity, Packaging, Poster, Publication, Social Impact Design, UX/UI, and Video/Motion Graphics.

Studio Collective is modeled on the open format of our studios, the journal is released each semester as an archive of conversations about design through the work of our students, faculty and alumni.

Volume XIX (Photos 1-3)  is a place where solace is sought in the seductive glow of saturated reds and electric yellows. Bright lights above cast an unrelenting glare. Cartoon mascots, larger than life, plastered on the walls, grinned manically with eyes that promise joy but deliver nothing more than processed pleasure. These grotesque caricatures of joy stand sentinel. The air stays thick with the tantalizing scent of frying grease, a seductive mistress that beckons even the most stoic of patrons to abandon all pretense of restraint. The relentless beat of the kitchen, a fiery inferno of grills and fryers, offer up a hypnotic, sizzling chorus, a rhythm that underscores the reality that this is not a place of nourishment, but rather a temple to the unending hunger of modern life.

Volume XX (Photos 4-6)  is a look at the fabric of a society, and the placement of the citizens within it. Consider the individuals who carry the burden of society’s underbelly, assigned to toil in the confines of immorality, they are often societies lower-class.  It is within these dens of iniquity that all men are tested and found wanting. We task  others with overseeing those who have transgressed society's order. Constant exposure to depravity will erode any man's moral resolve and forever reverberate within the confines of their conscience. Erosion leaves marks. Few can be unscathed when immersed in an environment where the darkest recesses of human nature are exposed. We are designers in the pursuit of justice.