Domus Academy School of Design Director Elena Pacenti Lands Cover of HATCH Magazine

Elena Pacenti, Director of Domus Academy School of Design at NewSchool, appears on HATCH Magazine’s Summer 2016 issue. The publication, which launched in 2016 by San Diego Magazine, highlights what’s “cool” in San Diego along with great San Diego success stories. Elena is also featured in the issue’s article “The 12 Most Important People in Design Right Now.”

In the article, Elena expresses her viewpoints on her passion of design. “For me, design is about envisioning what does not yet exist. In design, we must be visionary about the way we live, move, eat, and work. In order to do this, the design culture has to be a complementary mix of local, international, and global influences all at the same time. Ensuring we are exposing ourselves, as designers, to diversity allows us to observe the behaviors that encourage us to be innovative. We need to desire to see design as a culture and not just as profession, and to me, culture means recognizing the human being and how design can touch every human sense. Design is never without thinking about humans. It is an exciting time to be here in San Diego, as its design industry is reinventing itself and finding its place among the global design industry. This momentum is being fueled, in part, by Domus Academy.”

Elena is currently focused on establishing and enhancing the Domus Academy School of Design at the NewSchool of Architecture & Design, centered around “learning by designing,” where students solve real-life design problems through collaborative projects. This living, urban laboratory combines world-renowned Italian design methodology along with the innovative style of California creativity.

The “most important people in design right now” list also included Chad Q. Martin, Senior Designer at HP/Head of UX Speakeasy, Scott Robinson, President and CEO at FreshForm, Don Norman, Director of The Design Lab at UC San Diego/Author of The Design of Everyday Things, Katie Rast, Founder and Director of Fab Lab San Diego, Ron Miriello, Principal & AIGA Fellow/Director of Miriello, Patrick Hadley, CEO of Hadley Media, Nate Spees, Partner at Grizzly/Strategy Director and Co-Founder of Creative Mornings San Diego, Sharon Carmichael, Senior Designer/UX Lead at Intuit, MaeLin Levine, Partner at Visual Asylum/President of Urban Discovery Academy, T. Scott Edwards, Chief Operating Officer at Port of San Diego and Paul Roben, Associate Vice Chancellor, Officer of Innovation and Commercialization at UC San Diego.