Congratulations to our 2025 Student Award Winners!
Congratulations to Jean Kuo (Graduate), Josie Johnson (Senior), Keon Vafaee (Junior) and Robert Sutherland (Sophomore) for winning this years prizes and demonstrating excellence in the application of Rowena Reed Kostellow’s 3D design teachings.
Winners received cash prizes, honoring Rowena’s wish to reward excellence, as well as provide students with the resources to travel and enrich their education as industrial designers.
Award criteria is based on creating beautiful forms, integration of 3D principles into other design work, performance in class, and communication skills. This year’s jurors included Tarik Currimbhoy, Sun Hee Kim, Molly Roberts, Jacob Turetsky, Tucker Viemeister, Silas Warren, and Allen Wilpon.
We look forward to seeing how these students create a more beautiful world with their continued mastery of 3D design principles.
Donations to the Rowena Fund go directly to student prizes. Please consider supporting these students and future industrial designers.
Remembering Alumnus William L. Porter
William L. Porter studied industrial design at Pratt and received his M.A. in 1960. He went on to enjoy an illustrious career at G.M., designing cars such as the Pontiac GTO, the Bonneville and the Trans Am. He passed away on April 25 at the age of 93.
Rowena Group Board member RitaSue Siegel recalls, "One of the teachers we had in common was Rowena Reed Kostellow. I never met Bill Porter but I heard his name as she referenced his accomplishments to us often as a designer to admire. Even these many years later, I remembered his name from those instances.”
One quote from his obituary in the New York Times reminds us of Rowena’s curriculum and teachings:
“Kevin Kirbitz, the president of the Society of Automotive Historians and a senior manager at G.M., said of Mr. Porter in an interview: “It comes down to his understanding of shapes and curvature and lines. He had the ability to look at a curve and realize it had to have a certain proportion over the length of it.”
To see more of Bill’s work and interviews, you can visit his website.
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