The Uptown will host Design Elevated: Appalachian State Senior Industrial Design Showcase on May 1. The show will display projects the industrial design senior class has worked on during their four years of college.

Chris Brewer, a senior displaying work at this event, says the exhibit will be set up similar to a museum. For the show he created graphic work, making posters and postcards, as well as working on posters for projects that don’t include models.

“[The work] ranges from furniture to electronics to humanitarian projects, so it’s a wide range of things,” Brewer said. “We’re just displaying our work and what we’re proud of.”

Projects to be displayed include a pair of gaming glasses, a helmet for avalanche rescue, and a backpack that folds out into a tent.

Industrial design is a lot of different skills used together to create and present projects, Brewer said.

“We have to do market research and we have to come up with names for businesses and stuff for our projects. We’re not engineers but we still have to sort through the mechanical things with each project,” Brewer said. “For us, you just kind of have to know a lot about everything to be able to make it happen.”

Alexander Ravan, another senior industrial design student involved with the show, enjoys the hands on experience within the major.

“Something about seeing my ideas come to life and them having meaning intrigued me,” Ravan said.

A lot of these projects focus on humanitarian efforts to better the community, according to Ravan.

“What’s really interesting about most of the designers and their projects is the emphasis on issues within the world or community, a number of them being humanitarian based,” Ravan said. “It shows the forward progress we hope to make in the world, starting right here in Boone.”

The Appalachian State Senior Design Show is free and open to the public at The Uptown on May 1 from 6-9 p.m.

Story by Molly Flinchum, Intern A&E Reporter