Design at La Roche

The final week for our design seniors is full of high-energy events. We host our portfolio show in CC square and we present capstone and honors capstone projects. This year, one of our Graphic Design seniors, Marisa White, was awarded the Richard G. Kotarba award for the best honors capstone project. We’d also like to shout out another Graphic Design senior Alexis Boesse and Interior Architecture and Design senior Annalise Seifert for being nominated for the Presidents Leadership and Scholarship award, our two Graphic Design Departmental award winners, Zach Hassan for best portfolio, and Marisa White for best capstone, our Interior Architecture and Design Departmental winners Annalise Seifert for best capstone and Grace Hewitt for best portfolio and finally Design Studies graduate Kaylee Slavik for best capstone.

We’re very proud of all of this year’s class and look forward to seeing where their careers take them!

A big thank you to our reviewers who helped our seniors practice presenting their portfolios..time to polish up and hit the job market!

This year’s seniors in Graphic Design, Interior Architecture and Design, and Design Studies will present their capstone projects on Thursday, April 23, 2026. The senior capstone represents the culmination of their academic experience at La Roche, inviting students to pursue an in-depth exploration of a topic of their choosing. Each project is grounded in research and supported by a substantial body of work that reflects the knowledge, creativity, and skills students have developed during their time at the university.

Our juried student Design and Art show, Positive Space, is less than one week away! Please join us for our opening reception and awards show on Thursday March 26th at 5:00 pm in the Cantellops Art Gallery and CC square

We joined an excellent tour of the new airport terminal last evening led by the lead wayfinding and environmental graphics team from Gensler and the Pittsburgh airport authority. Such an interesting space and great example of how clear communication and artwork can help to create a successful user experience

Thanks to our SEGD community group for putting this together

We want to thank all of the high school students who attended our Meet Design Day this past Monday. We’re thrilled to share our programs, faculty and students with you all and hope to see you back as students with us!

If you missed us this time around and are interested in learning more, please attend our spring open house on Saturday April 11th.

Registration link is in the bio

Reminder! Meet Design is right around the corner - February 16th 2026!

Meet Design is an event for high school students to attend and experience what it’s like to be a design major here at La Roche. We offer major specific experiences for Graphic Design and Interior Architecture and Design. Attendees will also have the chance to meet students, alumni and all program faculty.

Details and pre-registration link are in the bio

February 12th is the last day to pre-register for Meet Design Day.

We will accommodate walk-ins and last minute registrations. If you’re unable to pre-register you can email [email protected] or simply show up February 16th at 8:30 am.

Attention all High School students and interested transfers – Join us on Presidents Day, February 16th, for an immersive experience with the Design Division majors. At Meet Design you will interact with design faculty, current students, and alumni, you will participate in classroom experiences and learn more about what makes our design programs truly special. If you’re interested in studying Graphic Design, Interior Architecture and Design or Film, you don’t want to miss this opportunity to experience design at LRU.

Preregistration is required. Link in bio

Over the course of a semester, students of UXII worked with the Washington County Watershed Alliance to redesign the nonprofit’s website. The students followed a typical UX methodology which included conducting and analyzing research based on interviews, surveys, observations, analytics, and so on. Then they synthesized this data to generate insights and created designs using Figma. From here they validated the designs with real people through usability testing. Based on what they found, they iterated upon the designs and eventually built a live website using Wix - the client’s preferred platform. At the end of the course, students presented directly to the client.

The La Roche Graphic Design seniors and juniors enjoyed a visit to Collide, an organization focused on retail design and print production. Students learned about prototyping, display building, printing types, substrates, finishing, and more. This invaluable hands-on experience helped students envision how their future design work will be transitioned into real-world printed materials.