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Eric Benson

About Eric Benson

Eric is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois. He has worked as a professional designer for such companies as Razorfish and Texas Instruments. His research as a professor explores how design can be sustainable and consequently how to teach it. Eric has a BFA in Industrial/Graphic design from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Design from the University of Texas.
Sustainable Design Lectures

Sustainability: Beyond Pixels and Paper

This past Thursday (September 27, 2012) Yvette and I spoke at the INsight Design Conference at the Hammond Regional Art Center in Hammond, IN. The conference featured speakers from the... read more →
  • September 29, 2012
  • Eric Benson
  • Conferences

Designers and Architects Meet a Sustainable Farmer

During the fall of 2011, I had coffee with a Professor from Architecture where we hatched out a plan to use our respective spring 2012 courses to create a functioning... read more →
  • June 20, 2012
  • Eric Benson
  • Education, Exhibitions, Projects

Sustainable Design in South Dakota

Teaching sustainability to a new group of students always brings to attention issues with my teaching style, pace of content delivery, and strength of the project parameters. In other words,... read more →
  • June 18, 2012
  • Eric Benson
  • Uncategorized

My Design Awakening

Nine years ago I decided to attend the AIGA Power of Design Conference in Vancouver, BC to hopefully inspire my seemingly more and more laborious corporate design work. I wanted... read more →
  • April 14, 2012
  • Eric Benson
  • Conferences

Print versus Digital: The Scuffle in the Studio

Which is greener, a printed or digital piece? Naturally it depends on who is being asked. Talk to a paper manufacturer and he will certainly support printed communications as much... read more →
  • February 9, 2012
  • Eric Benson
  • Articles

New Standards to Define the Sustainability of Our Design Work, Studios, and Print Partners

Why do We Need Standards? Author and activist Paul Hawken argues that our natural resources are “the foundation of our economy.”  Without our water, timber, air and land our economy would... read more →
  • January 13, 2012
  • Eric Benson
  • Systems thinking
rightsize

Teaching Systems Thinking Helps Create More Sustainable Designers

As I've written before about teaching sustainability in manageable chunks, I took the opportunity this fall 2011 semester to continue to perfect this pedagogy. I allow the students to only... read more →
  • December 15, 2011
  • Eric Benson
  • Education, Projects, Systems thinking
educating educators

Educating the Educators

On October 20, 2011 I had the privilege to speak at the AIGA Chicago's Living Principles event with John Harris (principal at a5). The event sold out and featured a discussion... read more →
  • October 23, 2011
  • Eric Benson
  • Education, Events
EDGE

Designing a Sustainable Design Studio

This past Saturday, October 1, I presented a talk at the Denver Cumulus Conference about the findings from my 2011 Ethics of a Designer in a Global Economy (EDGE) course.... read more →
  • October 2, 2011
  • Eric Benson
  • Conferences, Education

Creating a Better Design Competition

“Clever work wins awards; smart work wins clients.” – Eric Karjuouto, founder, SmashLab   I recently had the distinct pleasure to judge two competitions that focused on printed and digital... read more →
  • September 7, 2011
  • Eric Benson
  • Articles
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