Ron Mace was a nationally and internationally recognized architect, product designer and educator whose design philosophy challenged convention and provided a design foundation for a more usable wo

Monty Montague, IDSA, is nationally recognized for both product development and identity design accomplishments, and he is BOLT’s Design Principal. In this position he leads multidisciplinary teams in comprehensive development programs including product and brand strategy, market and user research, industrial design, human factors evaluation, environmental design, graphic design, engineering, and production coordination.

BOLT’s clients include contemporary office furniture companies such as Herman Miller and Allsteel, consumer products manufacturers such as GE Lighting and Dirt Devil, medical equipment companies such as Hill-Rom and CheckMed Systems, and retailers such as Lowes Stores and Harris Teeter.

Montague helped found BOLT in 1985 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The firm was selected in 1994 by ID Magazine as one of its “ID Forty” highlighting the “top 40 design innovators in the United States.” Montague holds a variety of design and utility patents and has received numerous international design awards including four Gold IDEA Awards from IDSA/Business Week Magazine – considered the “Oscars” of the industrial design profession. His design work has been published by journals in Europe and the U.S; he has written for various publications including the Design Management Journal and IDSA Innovation; and he has lectured widely at universities and industry forums.

Montague is the co-founder of the Carolinas Chapter of IDSA. He holds a Bachelor of Product Design degree with honors from North Carolina State University and received the School of Design’s Distinguished Alumni Award for 1999.

Alexander Isley is president of Alexander Isley Inc., a Graphic Design Consultancy in Redding, Conn., and New York, NY.

Retail graphic program for the John G. Shedd Aquarium Gift Shop, Chicago

The Shedd Aquarium and Frederic Schwartz Architects invited us to collaborate on the redesign of the Shedd Aquarium gift shop. An exciting part of the project was working with Judith Bacal, a College of Design classmate who was an exhibit designer at Shedd.

We worked in creating the graphic approach for the shop, which has an underwater theme. Our involvement included determining the color palette for the space and designing the murals and oversized fixturing elements for the store. We created designs for large pink Lucite panels cut to the shape of coral, which glow as if they are under water. Within the bookstore section we selected passages from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Treasure Island and Moby Dick, coupling them with period engravings on large translucent panels to suggest stylized books.

Throughout the store we placed text containing educational and otherwise interesting facts about marine life, which addresses an important part of my personal design approach. I believe that it is not enough to conjure up a pretty design; I think the most successful designs leave an audience coming away with added knowledge or a more informed point of view. In this way this retail environment serves to provide a bit of education.

This assignment allowed me to do some things that are close to my heart: work in collaboration with people I respect and apply our design approach to architectural spaces. In our retail and exhibit work we get a chance to venture beyond the realm of the printed page, and I find this to be very exciting.

Rodney L.

Charles A. "Chuck" Flink is Founder and President of Greenways Incorporated, an environmental planning and landscape architecture company established in 1986 and based in Durham, North Carolina

Natalie "Alabama" Chanin is best known as the co-founder of the American couture line Project Alabama. Her designs for hand-sewn garments constructed using quilting and stitching techniques from the depression-era south have been lauded for both their beauty and sustainability. Made from recycled materials by artisans located near Natalie’s home in Florence, Alabama, Project Alabama designs earned accolades from peers as a finalist for the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Fashion and was selected as one of 10 fashion companies for the Council of Fashion Designers in America/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2005.

In late 2006 Project Alabama ceased operations in Alabama. Natalie left the company and launched Alabama Chanin where she continues to create limited-edition, rendered-by-hand, jewelry, clothing, home furnishing and textiles using a mixture of recycled and organic materials with local talent. Based on the thought that good design should be a part of everyday living, Alabama Chanin gives modern context to techniques that have been passed down through generations of women and men.

The artisans who work with Alabama Chanin represent this generational span. Stitchers aged in their early 20s work alongside those in their late 70s, producing garments in the spirit of the traditional quilting bee. Each collection emphasizes quality of cut, detail, craftsmanship, and style and each piece is a labor of love signed by the artisan who hand-stitched every seam.

Natalie has a Degree in Environmental Design from the NC State University College of Design and was named its 2007 Distingushed Alumna. She works simultaneously as designer, manufacturer, stylist, filmmaker, mother, artisan, cook and collector of stories from her home in Florence, Alabama.

William Valentine, FAIA Chairman, HOK Bill Valentine is Chairman and Design Principal of Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum (HOK), a global architectural design and services firm.

A 46-year veteran of HOK, Bill serves as a vocal advocate for sustainability with employees and clients, as well as leading the design of several projects each year and developing strategies for pursuing new projects.

Bill’s diverse, award-winning design portfolio includes projects representing the Corporate, Education, Justice, Aviation, and Science + Technology sectors. Representative projects include the Biogen Idec Research and Development Campus in San Diego; Natural Sciences 1 and Natural Sciences 2 at the University of California, Irvine; Nortel Campus in Ottawa, Canada; Adobe Systems Inc. World Headquarters in San Jose; Levi’s Plaza in San Francisco; Microsoft Augusta Site Campus in Redmond, Washington; Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco; Phoenix Municipal Courthouse; and King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Throughout his career, Bill has been widely recognized for his ability to understand, formulate and respond to client needs and program requirements in a creative, individualistic and people-focused manner.

Within the design and construction industry, Bill actively promotes his definition of ‘good design’ as a simple idea, elegantly executed and inspiring, with social significance and in harmony with the environment.

Bill earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from North Carolina State University and a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, he is a frequent speaker and author on sustainable design topics.