PROJECT

Austin Center for Design

In Austin, Texas, a school is launched to help designers build economically 

viable careers working for social betterment.

By Kaomi Goetz 

t’s a design school at least 15 years in the making, an idea that simmered in the 

back of Jon Kolko’s brain. The interactive designer (an associate creative director 

at Frog Design in Austin, Texas) and one-time Savannah College of Art and Design 

instructor had long wanted to create an environment that could help designers find 

more meaning in their careers. It was a concern of many of Kolko’s former 

students, who were working at what were considered dream jobs, places like

Nike and Starbucks. 

“They’re doing the things that everyone was led to believe one does in design 

school, and now they’re questioning it,” he says. “They feel that they’re adding 

to the consumptive nature of the world.”

http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=13388