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University of Florida

Design and Belonging


UF Faculty: Maria Rogal
Department: Graphic Design
College: College of the Arts

Partner Faculty: Maria Isabel Pineda
Department: Department of Graphic Design and Corporate Communication
Partner Institution: Universidad Jose Cecilio del Valle
Title: Mira = Look: Tegucigalpa x Florida, Diseño y Pertenencias | Design and Belonging
Project Description: In this binational design collaboration, we explored how we perceived ourselves and each other, learning about assumptions and demystifying culture and everyday life by learning about designers in context. We always seek to design with purpose and with people in context. The lens through which we do this is often unconscious, but it guides our choices and decisions. It is an amalgamation of our bodies, lived experiences, contexts, where we’ve been, what we observe and experience, the people and cultures surrounding us, and so much more. In this project — a virtual exchange — we set out as two groups of designers in different locations and from multiple national origins to explore and experience telling our stories to and with each other, to unpack who we are and inform how we know ourselves, each other, and how we proceed.
Learning Outcomes:
  • Introduce participants to an international collaborative experience to build their intercultural capacities.
  • Explore how sharing culture can richly inform one’s perspective of the world and, in turn, one’s design practice.
  • Develop and/or strengthen communication skills, increasing sincerity, responsibility, and tolerance in the personal and work environment.
  • It will increase students' sense of belonging and improve their self-esteem by encouraging collaboration and enhancing teamwork.
  • Students can use skills necessary for collaboration, including communicating, responding, clarifying, asking questions, iterating, compromising, and negotiating.
  • By the end of this project, students will be able to design compositions that communicate interactions and exchanges using language, typography, and other design elements.
Participating Countries: Honduras
Number of Participants: 6 UF students; 7 students from Honduras
Discipline: Graphic Design
UF Course Code & Name: GRA 6930/6931C - Research & Practice/Seminar
Project Duration: 9 weeks
Activity Type(s):
  • Student-to-Student Dialogue
  • Student-to-Student Project
Technology Tools:
  • Miro (free)
  • Adobe Creative Cloud: Illustrator, InDesign, etc. (paid)
  • Google Docs/G Suite (free)
  • Teams (via UF)
  • Notion (free)
  • Google Translate (free)
Sequence of Activities:
  • Icebreaker Activity: Meeting on Zoom for the first time, all participants introduced themselves and shared their answers to this question: If you were an animal, what animal would you be and why?

  • Engagement Activity: We focused on the SDGs of Gender Equity and Quality Education. Participants were assigned readings in English and Spanish and encouraged to explore personality tests to identify their strengths. Early on, participants were assigned to one of three groups. A former student of Pineda’s joined the project in the third week, which was a delightful surprise.

    When we assessed our meeting options, we determined that the class meeting time in Honduras was the simplest solution for synchronous meetings. With that in mind, we met on Zoom every Monday morning as a large group; this was open so anyone could share findings, and then we opened breakout rooms for group meetings. The goal of these meetings, at first, was for everyone to learn about each other through conversations, using guiding questions and topics provided by instructors, and add their own interests and questions as they saw fit. These interactions were intended to generate content for their individual and collaborative posters and provide a way to learn about others’ experiences, cultures, and nations. Once this is developed, they will move on to the collaboration activity. Questions and feedback continued — the poster drafts became prompts for new questions, and we learned much about each other. The instructors only attended small group meetings if asked. Each Monday, they reviewed progress, questions, and notes visible on the Miro board. Beyond Monday morning, participants arranged other times to meet and used the Miro Board, WhatsApp, and Zoom to communicate during those times. They could observe and offer feedback on others' processes through synchronous and asynchronous feedback sessions and the Miro board.

  • Collaboration Activity: Each participant designed one poster and each group designed a collaborative poster. The outcomes were presented individually and collectively. With some technical revision, they would be combined into one body of work to create a multivocal and poetic documentation of people in their place.
  • Reflection Activity: UF Students wrote weekly reflections while working on this project. In addition, the members of the three teams collaborated to create one poster that reflected their cultures, conversations, and findings.
Final Project Examples: