After Visiting Sites in Utah and Japan, BYU Students and Faculty Create Designs of Peace and Perspective
This past summer a group of BYU design and illustration students and faculty traveled to locations throughout Utah and Japan in preparation for a collaborative exhibition on campus entitled “Down Wind Peace.”
Professor of illustration Melissa Crowton said, “This trip was research for a project that honored the 80th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We traveled throughout Japan, stopping at various monuments, museums and important sites to supplement our artistic projects. We each created a poster exploring the theme of peace, and the students additionally developed their own personal project in response to their perspective on the trip.”
The theme of the exhibit, which runs from September 15 to October 1, is peace. Design student Elizabeth Bodell designed a piece called “That Time Could Touch a Form.” It layers typography and topography to trace the scars left on Utah’s Colorado Plateau, where uranium was mined to fuel the atom bomb and the Cold War. “It made me think about how time both heals and reveals, how the land holds memory in its fractured forms,” she said.
Another student, McCray McClellan, created a motion piece called “Peace Resounds.” His project used sound and text together to show peace as something that ripples and carries forward. “I wanted to make something that felt atmospheric, hopeful, reflective and a touch somber,” he explained. Reflecting on his time in Japan, McCray also added, “Spiritually, I felt more connected to the idea that we are all one family — the human family. We want the same things. We are able to connect through art, design, literature, etc.”
For those who went on the trip, Japanese design left a strong impression. They noticed how minimalism, layering and negative space showed up everywhere from signs to packaging to architecture. Professor of design Luke Gibson said, “I loved how traditional and modern design fit together so well in Japan. It made me think differently about how I design, and I think the students caught that too.” He continued, “My experience in Japan showed me new ways that the technological and traditional can better co-exist.”
Back at BYU, the finished exhibition fills the gallery with color, texture and sound. Visitors are invited to slow down, reflect and think about peace in new ways. The hope of the exhibition isn’t to give easy answers but to spark conversations.
Crowton summed it up by saying: “I think people could see that peace can look different depending on who is expressing it and that’s what makes the show so powerful.”
For the students, the project was more than an assignment. It was a chance to use design to connect across cultures and to create something that carried meaning beyond the classroom. Bodell said, “I realized design can do more than just look nice — it can help people think and feel something important.”