We practice engaged, community-based, people-centered design. By making others visible, we make design visible—including its research and process. Through this, we are catalysts for change. 

Our Vision 
We see Florida and the city of Gainesville as a laboratory for our students, working in partnership with stakeholders to develop and implement innovative, sustainable solutions to mutually understand problems. We are able to respond to the changing field of design through interdisciplinary collaborations, partnering with people in their communities to co-design responses to mutually important issues and challenges.

Process

Working first with clients as partners to articulate the problem and project objectives, we then work collaboratively to explore the questions/challenges and co-design appropriate responses that will work in context. Since Mint is also a course, one of our main goals is learning how to apply what we learn. Therefore, our projects always have a pedagogical function for students. All of our client-partners are supportive of mutual learning for growth and positive change.

What Mint Does

Communication design (i.e., visual, multimodal outcomes, including artifacts)
Design Research to understand context and opportunities
Services, Strategies, Processes
Professional Partnerships
Professional Development
Fieldwork & asking questions (exploring in context)

A Very Brief History

Mint is a faculty-supervised, student-run graphic design studio we established in 2002 with the goal to provide advanced design students the opportunity to apply design in real-world contexts. We began working with partners at UF and then quickly branched out to work with non-profit organizations locally and abroad (México and Costa Rica) and national corporations. In 2015 we moved into Infinity Hall and began working on socially-oriented projects in Gainesville, including with 352 Creates, on our own entrepreneurial projects including The Fridge, a pop-up art and design shop, and on several opportunities with the City of Gainesville government to support their people-centered government initiative. Some, but not all, of our projects are featured on this site.