Bio

Peterson’s research and scholarly design work lie at the intersection of community, higher-ed, and design pedagogy. The ultimate goal of this work is to develop innovative and equitable design pedagogies that equip various socio-economic, diverse, marginalized, and undeserved community members to learn and apply design to their lives, conceivably empowering vibrant living. 

The research, produced in tandem with college design students, engages through community design-oriented workshops, placemaking efforts, design thinking sessions, and various qualitative research practices. Outcomes are shared, experienced, and modeled through versatile tool kits and sustainable solutions pointing to the numerous systemic social issues we face as community members. 

Lastly, the research is central to designing students’ learning by applying first-hand facilitation, co-design practices, human-centered design, design thinking, and implementation skills while building real-life experience.

Peterson’s social practice consists of various founded and co-founded community-oriented arts and design-based programs and organizations such as Itlookslikeitsopen (2007-Current), Video Support Group (2007-08), Open & Build (2008-09), and, most recently, Marion Design Co (2016-Current). As a design facilitator, Peterson employs a co-design process to help foster vibrant community-in-reach research through large-scale public interventions such as fashion shows and community remembrance projects. 

For the past seventeen years, Peterson has taught Design across the US at universities, including the Herron School of Art and Design, Ohio Dominican University, The Ohio State University, Indiana Wesleyan University, North Carolina State University, and the South Carolina School of the Arts: Anderson University, where he currently serves as an Associate Professor within the Graphic Design program. 

Peterson holds a BFA from Herron School of Art and Design, where he studied Photography and Visual Communication Design, an MFA emphasizing interdisciplinary research, focusing on Visual Design and Education from Ohio State University, and is currently working on a Doctorate in Design at the College of Design at North Carolina State University.