Chippewa Valley Times

Design professionals from across Wisconsin, representing some of the state’s most prominent brands, convened on May 18 in Milwaukee for UW-Stout’s third annual Design Wisconsin event. Hosted by Milwaukee Tool at its headquarters and supported by the Milwaukee chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the event featured displays from over 20 companies, including Mercury, Kohler, Gulfstream, Oshkosh Corp., National Presto, Trek, Brooks Stevens, and Fiskars.

UW-Stout announced that it will host Design Wisconsin on its campus in May 2025. The event was initiated in 2022 under the direction of School of Art and Design Associate Professor David Richter-O’Connell.

“As our industrial and product design program serves many employers beyond Wisconsin borders, we decided to hold next spring's event here on the Stout campus and include many of our great design/manufacture partners in northern and western Wisconsin and Minnesota. The impact of our I&PD program reaches regional, national and international levels, and we feel it's important to keep telling the story of our ever-expanding outreach,” Richter-O’Connell stated.

Richter-O’Connell further elaborated on his motivations for starting the event: “To showcase the impact of industrial design and industrial designers on Wisconsin’s culture, commerce, community and brand — past, present and future. Wisconsin is an important hub of global new product innovation and development across many diverse product categories, and we want to keep showcasing that key leadership with our events.”

Speakers at the event included Richter-O’Connell himself, UW-Stout Chancellor Katherine Frank, and Tim Albrecht, group president for Milwaukee Tool. Previous Design Wisconsin events were held at DELVE in Madison (2022) and Trek in Waterloo (2023).

In addition to industry showcases, the Milwaukee IDSA chapter sponsors an annual student Merit Award competition as part of a national IDSA competition. This year’s winner from UW-Stout was Amelia Dobbratz. She presented her work at Milwaukee Tool after winning a campus competition among seniors in her program. Dobbratz will compete for the regional IDSA title later this year in Texas.

Dobbratz is a senior majoring in industrial and product design from Waupun. She showcased three products she designed: a lamp, a hearing device, and a table developed through hands-on studio courses.

Two other UW-Stout seniors were selected as campus Merit Award finalists: Jordan Dinwiddie from Minneapolis and Ananda Van Wie from Merrill. Both graduated on May 4.

The contest judges were professionals Mike Berge from National Presto; Riley Crotteau from Nordic Ware; and Angela Hastings from Rypen furniture—all UW-Stout alumni.

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