Core77

This year's About, With, and For was a great experience. This time around, the theme was design's impact and interaction with the wider world, so we heard a lot of presentations about sustainable design and design work for the public good. There was also a great deal of discussion about how design research can be expanded through new methods and frameworks to better account for the complexities of the world we find ourselves working in.

As is well-known by now, AWF is run by the graduate students at IIT's Institute of Design, and previous ID students make up the majority of the attendees. But the excitement and passion of the ID students (and recent alums) act as a powerful catalyst. The key feature of the conference is its collaborative approach, so this event is much more about talking WITH others than talking AT them. Most presentations sparked discussions ran past allotted time--a good sign.

There were many excellent presentations at the conference, but one was a perfect representation of the conference as a whole. (It was also my favorite. And it was also given by a Core regular.) Jennie Winhall, from Design Council RED, described a project that combined excellent research and design solutions while showing the power of design to have serious impact in people's lives. Particularly impressive was the focus they put on "system thinking," focusing not solely on a thing to be designed, but rather on the entire social/cultural system. In this case, around Type II Diabetes care. Brilliant.

Make sure to check out the conference blog. It is is slowly but surely filling out with pictures and interviews from attendees and presenters.

Posted by Todd Wilkens