Salvador Orara

I'm a designer, researcher, and educator whose work begins with a single provocation: that the systems and objects we interact with every day are designed to keep us compliant, and that design can do the opposite.

My research investigates how designed objects and systems shape human perception, and how design can create the conditions for people to see those systems differently. That inquiry has been running for over two decades, moving through graphic design, interaction design, sound art, creative technology, and the classroom.

At PNCA, that research lives directly in my teaching. I work with students across the foundation, through senior levels, with a consistent framework: make good work, understand why it matters, and for whom. My students develop craft, and the reflexive capacity to question the systems they're designing for and take a position on what design should do in the world.