Those who deride designers as secondary citizens in the world of art need only look to the work of Andrew Ault, an senior in visual communications, to realize their importance.

His project at this year’s annual Department of Design Student Exhibition is a signage system that will help warn humans living 10,000 years from now of hazardous waste sights using a series of cognitive symbols Ault traces back to nature.

“Systems in a natural environment – like the yellow and black bands on a yellow jacket or a snake – have the same effect on us as they do on other animals,” he said, pointing out that in the future, symbols that evoke our biological tendencies toward fear might be necessary should English become a forgotten language.

Pretty heavy stuff for a graphic designer. But to hear it from Jeff Haase, assistant professor of design, such a project reflects the broad array of ideas that spring forth at this annual exhibit, which will be held Monday through June 13 at the Business Technology Center, 1275 Kinnear Road. “There’s a lot of diversity,” Haase said. “That’s what’s exiting – its never the same from year to year.”

In addition to Ault’s post-nuclear symbols, the show will feature idustrial designs ranging from a more user-friendly mailbox to a redesigned golf club head, as well as works of interior design such as the inside of an animal therapy center.

In most cases, the student designers’ creative energies were used with the intent of solving a problem. The art produced by these students isn’t intended to hang on museum walls behind velvet ropes and security guards. Rather, it is art that we sit on, live in and wear out. But Haase is quick to dispel the idea that functionality negates beauty.

“All of the students have to go out and find clients,” he said. But he added, “none of it looks like something you’d have in your house. Some of it really takes it to another level of abstraction.”

Form, it turns out, will count every bit as much as function, as the show will be evaluated by a group of judges for the first time in the history of the exhibit.

For Ault, who intends to submit his design to an Oregon University contest held specifically to solve the hazardous waste quandry, the profession he is preparing for with this exhibit represents a higher calling than most realize. “When I get out (of college), I’d like to focus on designs that are not as corporate; that’s when staleness sets in,” he said. “I want to do something that will help people.”