PROJECTS + COLLABORATIONS

Robin has engaged in creative work with corporations, studios, startups, and individual creatives from comic novelists to data specialists and designers.

 

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CORPORATE

PARTNER.
Developed the Design Leadership Institute @Cornish, a program for design professionals to engage with cutting-edge design leaders and regional pioneering creatives through a unique series of programming along with distinctive professional workshops. Worked with design leaders from Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Nordstrom, and other local design leaders and agencies.

The Microsoft HoloLens Team and the Design Department of the Cornish College of the Arts engaged in a unique and collaborative opportunity and leveraged the creative, problem-solving disposition of designers and creative artists, and encouraged them to explore the artistic possibilities of mixed reality with the HoloLens. READ MORE.

Cornish College of the Arts design students worked with lead designers from Amazon to develop new social shopping experience where younger generation customers could discover, share and buy products online. read more…

Amazon, Cornish, and the Mirabella, a senior community, explored Alternative Attitudes to Aging. All-day session exploring the “developmental aging” mindset which celebrates aging as a fundamental part of the human experience (in contrast to the “declinist” mindset that views aging as a series of problems).

ETHNOGRAPHER.
As a Senior Ethnographer for The Hartman Group, worked on high-profile qualitative research projects involving immersive primary research for Fortune 500 companies. Including Anheuser-Busch, Kraft, Kerrygold, General Foods, and Pepsi. Reports are proprietary.

CONSUMER RESEARCHER.
As a Senior Director for Iconoculture, provided consumer insights, qualitative research, trend analysis, and advisory services to Fortune 500 companies and international advertising agencies. Including: Moen, Scripps Network, Kohler, Comcast Cable, Lowe's. 
A Return to Heartland Values
A House is Not a Home

DESIGN MANAGER.
During eight years at Microsoft was a lead advocate for design within the product groups helping to elevate the career path for designers by working collaboratively cross-company with Design Managers to write and implement the first Design Career Ladders and provide company-wide design educational programming. Managed product design and user research teams for Windows and MSN.

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ACADEMIC

APPOINTMENTS.
Assistant Professor of Design.
Member of the core faculty teaching sophomore, junior, and senior Design students, Created curriculum with a focus on design thinking and the intersection of user experience and design research.

Adjunct Faculty. Taught "Visual Culture" in the Communication Leadership graduate program in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. 

Digital Content + Media. Through the UW Continuing + Professional Education program, a course designed to teach a basic framework for digital media creation, social media distribution and marketing.

Graduate Teaching Assistant MHCI+D.
A UW graduate program that brings together design, technology, and the study of human behavior.

PAPERS + PRESENTATIONS. |
Microsoft + Cornish: Through the HoloLens A white paper shares key learnings from the creative interaction between a large company and a small arts college. This paper was presented at the Seattle Interactive Conference 2017 and Design Management Institute (DMI) Academic Conference 2016 at The Massachusetts College of Art + Design.

Captured Moments: Defining A Communicative Framework for Social Photography An academic research paper published and presented at the SIGCHI Creativity + Cognition Conference at The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, Scotland in 2015. (Only 26 papers chosen from 109 submissions.)

Yours, Mine + Ours: Photography and Creativity in the Digital Age The current capture devices (camera, phone, video, tablet) do not guarantee the quality o f the creative expression as readily as they ensure its distribution.

FELLOWSHIPS.
Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellowship. One of fourteen fellows, chosen from a national candidate pool of several hundred professional journalists, who received a generous grant to participate in a nine-month, post-graduate program awarded for outstanding achievement in journalism at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

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COMMUNITY

2022-23 ARTSWA Advocacy Committee. Participates in advocacy efforts on behalf of the Commission. ARTSWA coordinates advocacy efforts with Inspire Washington, Washington State Arts Alliance and other partners.

2022-23 ARTSWA WAYAL Mentor. The Washington Youth Arts Leadership (WAYAL) Program is a yearly cohort of youth and young adults (ages 16-19) from across Washington State. Young artists in the program explore arts and arts administration careers with mentors in the field.

2023, 2019 ARTSWA Nominating Committee. Survey and/or interview all Commissioners about Board leadership, meetings, and similar topics; and to prepare the slate of officers for election.

2020 CARES Act Relief Grants. Funding provided by the CARES Act via the National Endowment for the Arts. Provided evaluation of applications for rapid-response funding to non-profit and fiscally sponsored arts groups and organizations facing financial hardship due to economic impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2019 ArtsWA First Step Grant Panelist. This program invests in partnerships between schools and community organizations that strengthen K-12 arts education experiences as a fundamental part of basic education in service of students, families, and communities.

Peninsula School District Career, College, and Life Readiness General Advisory Team. Partners in industry, education, and the community.

Peninsula School District Emerging Technologies Advisory Council. Partners in education and technology.

MCDM UW Task Force. Task Force of students, alumni, advisers and faculty to explore the expansion of the University of Washington MCDM programming.

The Knight Curriculum Advisory Committee. Partnered with Indiana University Media School faculty and staff on development of new interactive media curriculum.

The Seattle Times Urban Journalism Workshop. Instructor/lecturer at the two-week training program for minority high school students.

The Philadelphia Inquirer. NIE (Newspaper in the Classroom) co-managed this design and writing program created for inner-city grade-schools.