A beautiful way of solving problems
Who says business, industry and technology can’t be beautiful? Certainly not Joseph Ballay.
After graduating from Carnegie Tech in 1960 with a degree in industrial management, Ballay went on to earn two additional degrees: a bachelor’s in industrial design from the University of Illinois and a master’s in design at CMU’s College of Fine Arts. And that combination of skills led Ballay, a native of the Pittsburgh area, down a path that ultimately saw him, and his wife Sue, founding the Joseph Ballay Center for Design Fusion at Carnegie Mellon with a $10 million gift in 2022.
Ballay joined the CMU Department of Design shortly after completing his master’s studies, quickly moving up to head of the department. As its leader, Ballay retooled the department’s focus and curriculum. Those changes resulted in the department being elevated to a full school within the College of Fine Arts.
Ballay also co-founded MAYA Design Inc., an interdisciplinary design consulting business that applied design theory and practice to complex contemporary problems.
Upon presenting the gift to the university, Ballay explained that design can and should be something to be relied upon, even in areas where it might seem to be unconventional — like when he was a young man working in his family’s hardware store just outside Pittsburgh.
Longtime faculty member Joseph Ballay (right) helped establish CMU's School of Design.
For years, Joseph Ballay championed the importance of design, both as a faculty member and head of the School of Design. And in 2022, Joseph and his wife Sue Ballay solidified that importance with a $10 million gift — the largest single gift ever given to Carnegie Mellon’s College of Fine Art — to establish The Joseph Ballay Center for Design Fusion at the design school.
EXPLORE JOSEPH BALLAY’S IMPACT
