Alabama Contemporary Art Center is excited to work with Auburn University School of Industrial and Graphic Design to bring you FretHaus 2021, the Industrial Design Senior Thesis. This collaborative exhibition is curated by Rich Britnell, IDSA. This exhibition will open to the public Saturday, April 25, 2021.

Auburn University School of Industrial and Graphic Design

Industrial Design Senior Thesis
Curated by Professor Rich Britnell, IDSA

Guitar Technical Director: AU Professor of Practice Keith Medley
Mobile Futures Program Director: Professor Randall Bartlett, IDSA

Director of Shop Operations: David Gowan
GTA’s: Andrew Vincent ‘19, Yu Li ‘20 and August Lin ‘21

Industrial Design (ID) is the professional practice of designing products, devices, objects and services used by millions of people around the world every day.

Industrial designers typically focus on the physical appearance, functionality and manufacturability of a
product, though they are often involved in far more during a development cycle. All of this ultimately extends
to the overall lasting value and experience a product or service provides for end-users.

FretHaus combines fret, a common guitar component, with the German word “Haus” that was used in the name of
the famous design school in Germany Bauhaus. Auburn’s nationally ranked Industrial Design Program has its
roots in the Bauhaus lineage as the program was founded by students of original Bauhaus faculty.

This FretHaus exhibition includes work from ID thesis students from 2019, 2020 and 2021. Due to Covid-19, the
2020 cohort was unable to finish their physical guitars and are represented by their 2D work in this show.

AU Mobile Futures Studio 3rd year students worked closely with the FretHaus team on the design and fabrication
of the custom mounts that display the guitars in the gallery. Special thanks to Professor Randy Bartlett and his
team: Brian Kuo, Roshani Trivedi, Xijian Li, Rylie Gulledge, Changyu Li, Blake Allen Evans, Brenner Oakes, and Zhaoheng Ningand.

Additional support was provided by Dean Vini Nathan and the AU College of Architecture, Design and
Construction along with the AU School of Industrial and Graphic Design Head Clark Lundell.

2019 Students
Garrison Bullock
Justice Evans
Cayman Frederick
Samantha Haeffele
Richard Herd
Mackenzie Leatherby
Jared Long
Thomas Ozmint
Rex Seaman
Katy Shoemake
Layne Taylor
Jonathan Walden

2020 Students
Wes Andrews
Lindsay Boos
Dillon Hollingsworth
Kimmy Jarvis
Kendall Falkenburg
Christine Lakeman
Luke Hayworth
Claudia LynnSara Masaschi
Olivia Smith
Allie Taylor
Tianyun Jiang
Erin VanMeter
Yunfan Zhang
Dawei Zhao

2021 Students
Collin Burney
Cole Bush
David Dembicki
Will Goering
Kaelan Harrison
Nate Kelton
Yunfan August Lin
Noah Stewart
Hongyi Sun
Josh Vaughn
Hagen Wasden
Carson Webb