Assistant Professor of Design
University of Michigan-Flint
Graduate Thesis project at VCU—Ethno-graphic Design
Week one of my graduate studies at VCU.
Benjamin Gaydos is a Detroit-based designer, filmmaker, artist and educator. Ben is interested in experimental media and production, “ethnographic design,” and design for social change. Ben has conducted research in design and anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he received an MFA in Visual Communication/Design. His experiments in design, sound, film and video have been exhibited internationally. Ben has presented his work at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Case Western University, and MIT’s Media Lab, among other institutions. He is co-founder and principle of goodgood, an interdisciplinary design firm with offices in Detroit and Boston, a producer and designer for Sensate Journal at Harvard University, and co-founder and programmer at Mothlight Microcinema in Detroit. Ben is Assistant Professor of Design at The University of Michigan – Flint, where he directs the Design Studio.
Work
MOTHLIGHT MICROCINEMA, 2013-
When goodgood opened an office in Detroit, we noticed a lack of film venues in the immediate downtown corridor. Co-founded with filmmaker Julia Yezbick, Mothlight Microcinema screens experimental and avant-garde film, video and animation by local, national and international filmmakers.
GANZ GUT, 2011-12.
Promotional poster for goodgood.
SUBSTRATE: PRINTED MATTER FROM THE RUST BELT, 2014.
Substrate was an exhibition curated by Ben Gaydos. It explored the politics and poetics of print in the Rust Belt, and asked the viewer to think about the relationship between landscape, the material environment, and printed matter.
WE WILL IMAGINE, 2010,
with Karen Stein, Matthew Shanley, and Namita Dharia.
Commissioned by the Fort Point Arts Community in Boston, We Will Imagine was created to spark dialogue and remind residents of this quickly changing neighborhood of their own power and creativity.
Benjamin Gaydos on the web
Design
Projects
Social Media:
What mattered about the MFA in Design, Visual Communications
The MFA program offered balance and freedom rarely found in other programs. The faculty was (and remains) a collective of impassioned design educators who provided direction and guidance free of artistic and aesthetic dogma. I model my own approach to design education from the example they set. At VCU, I was surrounded by inspiring peers who shaped my work and life. This includes colleague Karen Stein (VCU 2008). In 2009, Karen and I co-founded the design firm, goodgood, in Boston. We (loosely) named goodgood after another amazing designer, artist, and peer, Shuangshuang Wu (VCU 2006).