John Chris Jones, Welsh designer and author of the book, Design Methods, wrote these 2200 words in 1981. Timeless advice, they are still worth a read over 17 years later. Here is his introduction and the questions he covers, go read the rest,
The real difficulty in design is the designer!
(I remember Charles Eames saying that in a lecture.)
[...]
What follows may seem elementary. It is - but it is more difficult than it looks. To carry it out requires some modesty and a willingness to learn, to change, and to share your thinking with others. Though the text is addressed to an individual most of the methods are intended for collaboration.
1. designing your design process
2. what to do first?
3. what if I can't think of a solution?
4. what if I have too many ideas?
5. what if my ideas seem good but do not fit 'the problem'?
6. what if my perception of the problem changes?
7. what if I get into a muddle?
8. how can a first attempt be improved?
link thanks to Victor Lombardi
Anssi Tuulenmaki, Research Manager at the future Aalto University's first project, the Design Factory, offered some of us a tour of the creative space being made available to a variety of designers, students, start ups, researchers and even corporate representatives. To be formally launched in the very near future, the space was certainly inspiring in the way d.school spaces, design studios and other such places where creativity is meant to thrive usually are. Some things stood out however - bunk beds in every lecture hall (?), 'always on' videoconference screens with schools such as the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and the main hall where a tractor can be driven in. Yes, this space used to be a former wood research lab at the Helsinki University of Technology, a stone's throw from Nokia HQ in Espoo, Finland.
What is Aalto University? And what is the thinking behind the concept of the Design Factory? These questions answered after the jump.
continued...
From the Coroflot portfolio of : Tamsin van Essen (Prague, Czech Republic)
Featured Project : Medical Heirlooms
Tamsin van Essen has drawn the line between communication and industrial design, allowing her objects to function as well as educate. In her words:
"Exploring contemporary attitudes to disease and obsessions with perfection, Medical Heirlooms is a collection of ceramic apothecary jars that appear to have been affected by various hereditary diseases -- osteoporosis, psoriasis, acne, cancer, syphilis. As heirlooms, the jars can be passed down through the generations of a family in the same way as the medical conditions: a legacy of ill health."
Also check out her Contamination project we saw at the London Design Festival last week.
More images after the jump!
continued...
The School of Visual Arts has just announced the launch of its website for the MFA in Social Documentary Film (SocDoc). The goal of the program, chaired by the director/producer Maro Chermayeff, is to encourage filmmakers, journalists, social activists and others a chance to make documentary films that will influence social policy.
We're always getting "Is it Coro-flot? or Coro-flow?" Finally, a cousin here: Sock-dock or Soh-dock?
(An information session will be held on November 8 at 141 West 21 Street, NYC, Room 101C from 2:00PM to 4:00PM.)
Is "Good Design" enough? The recent emergence of design criticism and writing programs at a number of design schools suggests that the answer might just be, "no." This past fall New York City's School of Visual Arts (SVA) added an MFA in Design Criticism to their range of studio-based MFAs, in October of this year the University of the Arts London will launch its new MA in Design Writing Criticism, and in March 2009 Victoria University of Wellington's School of Design (NZ) will debut a new undergraduate degree program in design criticism. These programs and others like them represent a much needed response from within the design community to the growing presence of design across popular media, from mainstream news stories on Target's latest design conquests to the proliferation of lifestyle magazines promoting a popular (if watered down) kind of design literacy. Alice Twemlow, co-chair of SVA's D-Crit program, said in a recent interview for subtraction.com:
To me it's clear there's momentum gathering around the need to clarify design criticism's purposes and processes. D-Crit will work alongside these other initiatives to improve the quality of public discussion about design. Our specific goal is to help provide a new generation of critics with the tools to generate writing and thinking that is imaginative, historically informed and socially accountable.
While architecture and the fine arts have a long tradition of theoretical and critical discourse, the comparatively young design disciplines are just beginning to establish a supporting body of critical writing. The slow development of criticism within design may in fact be related to the very concept of "Good Design," which traditionally has prioritized rationalism, functionalism, and aesthetics over a deeper recognition of the broader cultural and contextual implications of design. But the reign of "Good Design" may be coming to a close as the discursive floodgates open, fueled by design criticism graduates with new ways of thinking and writing about design.
Episode 3 of Michael and Rocko's sketch demos. This month, Michael and Rocko tackle the current Core77 1 Hour Design Challenge and sketch up a hydrogen powered Dodge subcompact car... in 6 minutes. This is not sped up kids, this is the real time stuff. Notice how he works the overall form of the vehicle before he starts to visualize what the details are. Form before detail always. Rocko's music pick went a little more obscure, to make the bonus name that tune a bit more challenging. If you missed the first 2 episodes, see them here:
Episode 1:
Core77 Show+Tell: Converse Design Director, Michael DiTullo, Sketches a Sneaker in 4-Minutes
Episode 2:
Core77 Show+Tell : Converse Design Director, Michael DiTullo, sketches an i-Something in 4-minutes
For those of you waiting for core-fave Jessica Helfand's newest book, Scrapbooks: An American History, you can tide yourselves over with the website, The Daily Scrapbook. Here, you can check out (amazing) specimens, watch video, get a great list of links, and indulge your inner scrapbooker. For people who like stuff--and goodness knows designers like stuff--The Daily Scrapbook will be a nice way to start off your Thursday.
Image above from Dorothy Abraham
We know you love our photo galleries but if you are in need for more visual inspiration, check out this National Geographic Photography page. For over 10 months, they have been featuring photo galleries that make great photo stories on people, places and nature from all over the world.
For a touch-point with design, we recommend you start browsing the "Design by Nature" gallery with lots of examples on biomimetics, a young science of adapting designs from nature to solve modern problems, as demonstrated by the boxfish project.
"The boxfish's surprisingly streamlined form inspired Mercedes-Benz's bionic concept car. Flowing vapors during wind-tunnel tests in a Stuttgart facility show off the car's aerodynamics, which helps boost its gas mileage to as high as 70 miles per gallon." (photo by Robert Clark)
If this photography is your kind of game, then you might want to submit your top shot for the 2nd Annual National Geographic Photography Contest (before October 31).
Project H Design needs two clicks of your mouse! The humanitarian product design nonprofit founded by Emily Pilloton (who wrote A Call To Action For Humanitarian (Product) Design), is in the final showdown to win $10,000 from Ideablob for their Design For Education project and needs your votes this week. After making it into the Top 8, they're mustering up all the votes they can get from September 22 to September 30 in the hopes of winning the cash to better fund this humanitarian design initiative. The project team is designing educational math toys for a school for AIDS orphans in Uganda, and a sister product for the US market. The toy will combine elementary math concepts with play and craft, and will be implemented at the Kutamba School for AIDS orphans in 2009.
Ideablob hosts a monthly contest that awards $10,000 to one great idea, aka the one that receives the most votes.
Please help Project H fund their Design For Education project by voting for them on Ideablob!
VOTE HERE !
continued...
Green Prefab Architect Michelle Kaufmann has released a white paper calling for "Nutrition Labels" for houses. The white paper highlights the need for a universal sustainability labeling standard that would empower homebuyers to make smarter, more sustainable homebuying decisions.
"Nutrition labeling allows consumers to purchase food according to the quality of its nutritional content. We want homebuyers to be empowered with the same sort of information when it comes to making a decision about what house to live in," said Michelle Kaufmann, founder and chairwoman of Michelle Kaufmann Companies. "We have to start holding the houses we live in to the same standards as the food we eat. Our habits concerning both are vital to our own wellbeing as well as the wellbeing of the environment."
The white paper is available for download at www.mkd-arc.com
The New School has announced that Bruce Nussbaum, one of the leading thinkers and writers about the intersections of innovation and design, has been appointed Visiting Professor of Innovation and Design. He will work broadly across The New School, with a faculty "home base" in the School of Design Strategies at Parsons The New School for Design, which houses degree programs in design and management, integrated design and environmental studies.
Nussbaum will surely find a highly stimulating environment in an excellent university so defined by its rich history of dissent and democracy, European exile culture and social research. In short, we couldn't be more pleased.
Congratulations, Bruce.
LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL 2008
FREEDESIGNDOM 2008
ManufRactured EXHIBITION
VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM SUMMER WORKSHOPS
BICYCLE
FARNBOROUGH AIRSHOW 2008
CERAMICS AND SOUND EXHIBITION
100 PERCENT DESIGN SHANGHAI
HAMBURG HARLEY DAYS 2008
BERLIN DESIGN FESTIVAL 2008
NEW YORK DESIGN WEEK 2008
MAKER FAIRE 2008
