Designers 7 & 8

Melody Jackson

Melody started off her presentation with an image of an RV. She explained that this had a lot of meaning to her because it has reflected what her career has been like. She then told all of us that she attended the University of Kentucky. Melody was actually pre-med before finding her love for design. After being inspired by Leonardo DaVinci, she immediately switched out of pre-med and began focusing more on design. She went to grad school at Cornell and her love for designed blossomed even more. She took a liking to Scottish castles. She was given a grant to travel and study the design of these castles. She documented 48 different tiles in her notebook and attached a quote with each one of them. 

After showing us her grad school work, she immediately began talking about her 2 children. You can tell they are her everything and she claims a lot of her work is inspired by then. It was obvious that she's a cool mom after showing the class the amazing pieces of art she creates for them. She designs everything from birthday cakes, birth announcement cards, Christmas cards, sports event photos and even makes them a mixtape each birthday!

Melody shared some of her amazing work that she completed for the 2010 World Equestrian Games. She also shared pics of her barrel paintings and residential work she completed like a 9 car garage.

When asked what her favorite project was she said it was hard to choose, but it would have to be designing her own house. She explained that her friends call it a beach house, but in her mind she has created a perfect barn out in the country. 

She is currently working on the Bluegrass Stockyard that just recently burned down. Her blueprints of what's to come in that area look gorgeous! 

In her very limited spare time, Melody teaches first year design at UK. She loves the students to share crazy drawings they have done and they create cardboard projects. 

When asked where the future of design is headed, Melody immediately said that virtual reality glasses are the next big thing. 

“Whether its outer space or Lexington, Kentucky...find that creativity, have fun with life, be inspired and do good work,” said Jackson. “I love design on all scales.”

Lindsey Fay

Lindsey teaches in the School of Interior. She too attended the University of Kentucky, but did not start in design. However, she did love design from a young age. When she was little, she was selected to help design a new playground for her school. She made it in the newspaper!

She explained to the class that design is everywhere and that every building we look at is touched by a designer. At UK, she uses this knowledge to do post-evaluation forms on our new hospital. These forms force her to gather information on how consumers are liking the layout of the new building and see if the space is meeting the needs of the students and staff. The reasons she is given this job is so that the designer of the hospital can repeat their successes, not failures. 

In California, Lindsey focused her work on co-housing communities. These communities share space for dinner and social events, but have separate living areas. These make for a very tight-knit community. She also did some residential work in Alpine Meadows, CA. Lindsey remodeled houses and spec homes. 

At UK, Lindsey teaches and believes in hands on work. She takes students every other year to Thailand for a little over 3 weeks to explore the lands. She is also a UK representative for Habitat For Humanity. 

When asked where the future of design is headed, Lindsey stressed that, “We can use to design to impact peoples lives and make a change.”