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Jim Dawkins

Chair

Associate Professor

Department of Interior Architecture & Design

Over three decades of diversified experience as a corporate officer, architect, designer, and university professor define Jim’s career in the world of architecture and interior design. After receiving both his Bachelor of Arts in Design and Master of Architecture degrees at Clemson University, he went on to practice both architecture and interior design as a licensed architect and corporate officer with design firms in Atlanta, GA and Vail, CO.  His twenty years in professional practice featured highly successful, award-winning commercial, hospitality, single-family and multi-family residential projects of various scopes and scales. That time was marked by a proven desire and ability to contribute to successful company operations, positive corporate profitability, critical client relations, project design, staff development, standards implementation and project construction administration. Jim’s subsequent years in higher education have allowed him to explore opportunities for research, creative activity, and service that add to and reinforce his ability to literally and figuratively preach what he practices while leading and mentoring engaged and energetic young designers.

Education

Master of Architecture, Clemson University, 1988
Bachelor of Arts in Design, Clemson University, 1986

Teaching Areas

  • Graduate and undergraduate interior design studios
  • Graphic techniques courses (hand sketching and hybrid hand/digital drawing)
  • Experimental graphics

Research Areas

Dawkins’ primary research interest focuses on the notion of thinking through drawing – graphic facilitation, communication, and mediation of ideas through hand-drawing techniques and their realization in traditional hand and digital hybrid forms of computer aided design. Secondary research currently involves the analysis of and instruction in hand sketching skills through the cognitive framework of expertise theory.

Current research pursuits are centered on a timely examination of the role AI (machine learning) can/does play in conceptual design, its growing ability to generate rich and robust imagery in that process, and the impact it has on the beginning design student’s growth and development. This ‘calculator moment’ of the 2020’s provides a rich opportunity for analysis, discussion, and reflection on the role of both humans and machine learning devices in interior design both educationally and professionally. Notions of morals and ethics will be debated and challenged. Authenticity and originality will be called into question. Indeed, even the role of the designer in the design process will come under scrutiny.

Service

Jim currently serves in the role of Department Chair, is a member of the College Leadership Team, and represents the Department in the University’s Academic Leadership Group. Additionally, he is a member of the department’s Faculty Affairs and Finance & Operations Committees.

Areas of Responsibility

Areas of responsibility include chairing the department, representing the department at college and university events, teaching select classes of upper level undergraduate and graduate students in interior architecture and interior design project solutions, and instruction in graphic techniques for quick sketching, design ideation, and project brainstorming.

Select Works & Awards

Henry E. Sorenson, Jr. Memoriam Prize, Design Communication Association (2024). The drawing, Via dei Neri 25, was awarded the Henry E. Sorenson, Jr. Memoriam Prize at the 2024 Design Communication Association Biennial Conference in Bozeman, Montana.

University Teaching Award (2022), Florida State University, Office of the Provost

Dawkins, J. (2021, October). 2020 DCA Juried Design Communication Exhibition[Drawing: Perception to Execution]. KSU Architecture Gallery (virtual), Kennesaw State University, Marietta, Georgia: Design Communication Association.

Dawkins, J. D. (presented 2020, January). Narrative Drawing as an Agent of Memory Re-Collection and Retention. Presentation at Experiential Design – Rethinking relations between people, objects and environments, Architecture, Media, Politics, Society, Florida State University. (International)

Dawkins, J. D. (presented 2019, March). Agents of Retrieval, Re-Collection and Retention: Sketching and Its Role in Memory-Making. Presentation at 2020 Interior Design Educators Council Conference, Interior Design Educators Council, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. (National)

Dawkins, J., & Pable, J. (2018). Sketching Interiors at the Speed of Thought, Second Edition. New York, New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Dawkins, J. 2018 DCA Juried Design Communication Exhibition. Three drawings exhibited; 39% acceptance rate. Martha Van Rensselaer Gallery, Cornell University, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: Design Communication Association.

Dawkins, J. (presented 2018, February). Is it Me (f)or a Moment? Reconciling Past and Present with Time Windows. Paper presented at Design Communication Association Conference 2018, Design Communication Association, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. (International)

Dawkins, J. (2017, September–November). 27th Annual All Florida Juried Arts Show. Two drawings exhibited; 10% acceptance rate. Court House Cultural Center Gallery, Stuart, Florida: The Arts Council of Martin County.

Dawkins, J., & Webber, S. (presented 2016, September). Emotional Intelligence in Sketching: Framing the Process with Expertise Theory and Emotional Intelligence. Paper presented at 2016 Design Communication Association Biannual Conference, Design Communication Association, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, USA. (International)