Samira ShiriDevich is an Iranian designer and entrepreneur whose work in graphic, motion, UI/UX, Interaction, and participatory design is focused on exploring and addressing the complexities of freedom, equity, and agency through design. To do this, she uses a human-centered, horizontal approach, emphasizing participatory and community-engaged design with people as they bring their own expertise and agency. She asks “how might we use design to identify their depth of knowledge?” as she works with people in context to draw from their experiences, identify knowledges, and tell their own stories to communicate with audiences. Working with people in their communities has confirmed her belief that there is a world of hidden, and often undervalued, resources and a wealth of information in every person's story.
Since early 2020, ShiriDevich has been actively involved in ongoing design research with Project YouthBuild (PYB), a Gainesville branch of a national AmeriCorps organization devoted to high school degree completion and career training for youth forced out of public schools. Using a co-design process which is central to her practice, she collaborated with PYB stakeholders to design a social media campaign to increase their visibility and recognize their accomplishments. Through a co-design process, she facilitated sustainable communication and collaboration between local East Gainesville community members and PYB students, whose campus is in East Gainesville. She also collaborated with the University of Florida Shimberg Center of Housing Studies on a white paper, data visualizations, and information design as part of their National Science Foundation Grant proposal to study the impact of sea-level rise in vulnerable Florida communities. Her work helped demonstrate the importance of visual communication to better communicate the value of their proposed research and make their proposal more formidable.
Prior to joining the Department of Art & Art History as a tenure-track assistant professor, she taught graphic design as instructor of record at the University of Florida and at various institutions in Iran before coming to the United States. ShiriDevich received her MFA in Design and Visual Communications from the University of Florida, where she won the Harold Garde Studio Art Scholarship and earned an MA in Design and Visual Communications from the University of Art in Tehran.
With over a decade of professional experience in Iran, ShiriDevich worked as an art director for both the Avaye Sadra Resaneh Advertising Agency and the Municipality of Tehran, and as a graphic designer for multiple Iranian design agencies. Her work and research have been featured in national and international conferences, exhibitions, and publications. She presented the academic article “Visual Analysis of the Capital Cities of Developed Countries’ Portals” at the International Conference on Arts and Humanities (2018) in Sri Lanka. In 2020, she co-led an interactive panel entitled “Social Distancing???!!! Perspective for Nurturing Environments for Hybrid/Remote Multicultural and Multidisciplinary Collaboration” at the Digitally Engaged Learning (DEL) Conference and presented her work “Iranian Design History” on the Teaching and Learning Through Digital Archives panel at the University & College Designers Association (UCDA) Design Education Summit. Most recently, ShiriDevich presented her work at Project YouthBuild (Gainesville, FL) and participated in the 2022 UCDA Design Education Summit, “Agency” where she presented on the Expanded Practices: Positionality and Plurality in the Field Panel and shared her poster, “Connectivity through Community Asset Mapping.”
She is fluent in Farsi and English and proficient in Turkish. Visit ShiriDevich’s website to learn more.