Teaching design thinking and mentoring high school students

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Marty Linder’s long-running iDo program that pairs San Francisco State University students with Bay Area high school students to imbue the latter school’s curriculum with healthy doses of design thinking and design practice.

Jefferson Award Winner: Martin Linder

The winners of the National Design Awards 2012 were just announced, and the list contains many interesting people.

Cooper Hewitt Web Page

Book Design: Water Matters

The decision to use information graphics to tell the story of water conservation makes the subject approachable in way that just maybe more people will learn and practice better water usage.
Eddie Opara's New Work

Mogul as Designer: Brookland Nets Logo

It is increasing common that a entertainer moves into "designing" (aka putting their stamp of approval) on something. This time the hip-hop mogul and part owner of the Brookland Nets basketball team is reported as the designer of the team's new logo.

The new Nets logos have a vintage feel to them and are clear in identifying the place, team and sport it is intended to represent. The element of not is the colors, black and white, making the Nets the only basketball if not sport team with this particular color scheme.

Washington Post Article: Brookland Nets to don black and white

Design Student: Jonathan Mak Long

The design student, Jonathan Mak Long, a then-19 year old graphic design student at Hong Kong Polytechnic University , whose tribute to Steve Jobs struck a cord was asked to work on a Ad project Sharing Happiness campaign for Coke.

ADAge Article:Student Creates Coke Image

The Wristwatch, Seeks to become Relevant Again

If your above a certain age you might have noticed that a wristwatch is less of a necessity for keeping track of time. Our ever present personal electronic devices have become our defacto time tracker. So what is to become of the traditional wristwatch? A few companies have begun to explore how to make the wristwatch useful in new ways and have received financial support through the idea promotion site of Kickstarter.

NY Times Article: The Wristwatch Looks for a New Use

AIGA Webinar on Data Visualization

Callie Neylan leads a great discussion on Designing with Data with Angela Shen-Hsieh is a partner at GroupVisual.io, a design consultancy specializing in data visualization and data-driven software user interfaces and Jared Waxman is the group manager for online optimization and analytics for Adobe.

Webinar: Design + Data = Power

Herman Miller Collection

The standard for modern American furniture design has been established and continues to be maintained by the Michigan based company Herman Miller.

The Herman Miller Collection includes familiar and well-loved pieces from the company's early collaborations with the giants of 20th design, many reintroduced after decades or freshly reinterpreted with new materials and manufacturing technologies. Names like Eames, Nelson, Noguchi, Girard, Bennett, and Burdick are a foundation for the program.

Rooted in Herman Miller's archives of timeless classics, the Collection takes its cues from George Nelson, Herman Miller's Director of Design from 1945 - 1972, who, in the Herman Miller 1952 catalog, wrote of the importance of continuing the creation of a permanent collection "designed to meet fully the requirements for modern living."

Herman Miller Collection

Communication Design: Data Visualization

The Google sponsored challenge to show where our tax dollars go Grand Prize Winner was:

Where Did my Tax Dollars Go?


A more dynamic example of data visualization is the interactive timeline representing the 2011 uprisings in the Middle East.

Arab Spring Timeline

Competition to Redesign parts of the National Mall

The National Mall has been loved to death. It is our country’s most visited national park, with more than 25 million annual visitors and 3,000 annual permitted events. This 700-acre park was not built to withstand this level of use and has not received adequate resources to be restored and maintained to a level befitting its role as an irreplaceable piece of our American fabric.

This is a welcomed opportunity to improve what I have heard described as the nation's living room, the national mall has been allowed to languish over the years. Now the is an effort to improve the functional and aesthetic qualities of the land making up the space connecting the institutions of our government, museums and open spaces.

Trust for the National Mall

Auto Design: Ferdinand Porsche (1935-2012)

Ferdinand Porsche the designer of the iconic 911 sport car introduced in 1963.





“Design must be functional and functionality must be translated into visual aesthetics, without any reliance on gimmicks that have to be explained,” he said.

NYTimes Bio
Tribune Bio

A Folding Bike

Tern Folding Bicycles are catching the eye of industry insiders because of its rapid growth and solid product.

Tern Website

Manufacturing in America

Herman Miller continues to churn out furniture products from its Michigan plants that are competitive with other brands. How do they do it?

Product Design: PBS Off Book Series

PBS Website

Design Synthesis: A Video Lesson

Interaction designer Jon Kolko explain his understanding of Design Synsthesis and where it exist.



His book: Exposing the Magic of Design

Exhibition: MOMA Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900–2000

MoMA’s ambitious survey of 20th century design for children is the first large-scale overview of the modernist preoccupation with children and childhood as a paradigm for progressive design thinking.

The exhibition will bring together areas underrepresented in design history and often considered separately, including school architecture, clothing, playgrounds, toys and games, children’s hospitals and safety equipment, nurseries, furniture, and books.

The exhibition, on view at MoMA from July 29 to November 5, 2012

Furniture Design Meets the Future

Can furniture designers meet the needs of users who's technology dependent lifestyles offer an opportunity to provide a different type of solution for home office and entertainment spaces.

As paper is used less is there still a need for desk with multiple drawers?

NYTimes Article: Furniture Design Adapts to Technology

Design Talk: Robert Wong - Google Lab

The power of a company like Google is demonstrate in this discussion.



Video: Robert Wong

Online Book: Wicked Problems

Wick Problems: Problems Worth Solving

This book was started with the intent of changing design and social entrepreneurship education. As these disciplines converge, it becomes evident that existing pedagogy doesn't support either students or practicioners attempting to design for impact. This text is a reaction to that convergence, and will ideally be used by various students, educators, and practicioners:

One audience is professors and educators of design, who are challenged with reinventing their educational curriculum in the face of a changing world. For them, this book should act as both a starting point for curriculum development and a justification for why this development is necessary—it should answer the question "what should design and social entrepreneurship education look like?"

Austin Center for Design exists to transform society through design and design education. This transformation occurs through the development of design knowledge directed towards all forms of social and humanitarian problems.

Austin Center for Design

Auto Design: Ed Welburn

General Motors VP of Global Design discusses his discovery of design and shares career advice.

Film: Design the New Business

This student produced film looks at the new world of business and how the integration of design is central to success.

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The worldwide release will be online on March 6th 2012.
Movie Site

Smithsonian's Museum of African American History and Culture Breaks Ground

The national museum of African American History will soon become a part of the national mall. The ground is being broken today that will produce a building opening in 2015 to celebrate and educate the history of African American's.

Article: Philip Freelon Lead Architect

Layout of the African American History Museum

Slideshow of Concept Images

Design History: Norma Merrick Sklarek

Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first African American woman in the country to become a licensed architect (1954) died recently.


Obituary Los Angeles Times

Product Designer Marc Newson

As a designer Newson seems more in touch with the materials and processes of designing than the conventional definition of beauty for the object his designing. It is his odd aesthetic that has contributed to his many of his designs being art world successes, a unique accomplishment for a product designer.

"Newson’s career as arguably the most influential industrial designer of his generation and the leading exponent of the so-called design-art movement may stand as much on the quasi-­moral power of design to affirm the social virtues of wit, proportion, elegance and simplicity, as on his obsession with futuristic forms and modernist aesthetics. Not that he has any overt agenda as a design evangelist. His motivation, apart from the business of it all, is the spirit of personal discovery, not civic edification. Each project is a fresh encounter with the material world."

-NYTimes

Article: Is There Anything Marc Newson Hasn't Designed?

Slideshow: Timeline of His Work

Product Design History: Where did the Single Slice Toasters Go?

I am surprised that single slice toasters are not available. Given limited counter space in smaller kitchens and a sizable single population one would think that option would be in the market.


The Toastmaster
Bachelor/ette Toasters

The Toaster Museum Foundation

Commuter Bike: BMW G 650 GS

I am thinking about an alternate mode of transportation and the entry level G 650 GS has caught my eye. Designed for the street and can accommodate light trail riding with 66mpg has me looking forward to summer.

How to Get a Product to Market Today

It just may have never been easier for a Designer to get a great ideal to market than it is today. With the connections afforded by the internet and programs like Kickstarter almost anyone can test out the value of their ideals.

How one company is revolutionizing product development

History: Capital of the 20th Century, Detroit Disassembeled

"There is no culture — for lack of a better word — no context of public memory and social expectation that would bind together all that the city contains.

What does it add up to, all this abandonment of lives and buildings, neighborhoods and property? It doesn’t seem to add up to anything, other than the decontextualized spectacle itself and the demographic souvenir-hunting opportunities it provides. This city is never coming back; whatever happens next will be without urban precedent because the context of city no longer applies in this place where history has finally run out. And so the reason we come to Detroit — immigrants, tourists, artists, journalists alike — is to engage a fantasy about how we can always walk away from the past, from the now blown promise of an erstwhile prosperity that was once made real for generations of Americans. There’s probably not a better place in this country, maybe in the world, for this kind of work."

- Jerry Herron

More from the Article: The Forgetting Machine



NYTimes Article: Dismantling Detroit

Kayne West Aspires to be the Next Steve Jobs

Not all creative people are designers - I'm just saying, my hope is that the skilled professionals are used to bring this vision to life.


Other Hip-Hop Moguls have made the leap to creating products. For example, Dr Dre launch a very successful product line of headphones called "the beats" in a partnership with Monster, Inc.

According to postings from West’s Twitter account, he’s been inspired not only by Jobs’ example, but also by current events and the need for change: “We need to take what Michael Jackson felt and McQueen and Steve Jobs and we need [to] make things better… The adrenaline is running… I don’t know if I can even get to sleep now… From Wall Street to the London riots to Chicago murders… I sit everyday and ask what can I do to make a difference… There are so many broken systems from the economy to school systems [to] jail systems… we need experts for this… We need scientist[s] and top world designers to directly affect governments…”

read more

Reworking the Chain Saw

The Worx JawSaw, makes the chainsaw more approachable for everyday use by enclosing the blade. The design team also added an innovative plunging motion to activate the blades cutting. Though less powerful than the standard chainsaw with the right price point it could be a tool a homeowner would consider.

Auto Design: Aston Martin One -77

The beauty of a well portioned car is a marvel to gaze upon. The Aston Martin super car has great detailing and portions, as does the latest version of the Camero. Getting the right portions is not easy and so I appauled both these vehicles for providing me with very nice eye candy.



More PhotosMore Photos

Auto Design:

Magazine Cover Design

The graphic designer, Shepard Fairey, who came to national attention with his design of the Obama 2008 campaign poster was tapped to create the Time magazines Person of the Year cover.


Shepard Fairey Designs Time's Person of the Year Cover

An Innovative Disposable Cup

This is a great idea that the likes of McDonald's and other fast food companies should consider adopting. The all-paper design has a built-in lid with sipping spout and is called, Compleat by its designer Peter Herman.

Fast Company Article

Rapper Reflects of the Eames House

Pacific Standard Time, a collaborative project launched this past October and including over 60 cultural institutions across Southern California, celebrates the birth of the Los Angeles art scene.



NYTimes Article: Ice Cube on Eames

Eames: The Architect and The Painter

It's great to see an increasing number of design related films being produced. The result is a number of films available that provide context around the contributions of designers and the issues that have shape the profession.



About the Film

NYTimes Article

A Washington DC Designing Couple Jake and Pum Lefebure

Its rare for Washington DC to have a design firm that is known beyond its borders.

Design Love Interview

Audio Interview:

Design Army Website

Nest: A Thermostat that's Different?

The legacy of Steve Jobs will be demonstrated in the work of those who learned from him the value of design as a strategic asset when developing a business and changing an industry one product at a time.

Fast Company Article: After Steve Jobs

Wired Magazine Article: Brave New Thermostat

NYTimes Article: Home Thermostats

Book: Steve Jobs Biography

The biographer, Walter Issacson, speaks about his insights on Apple's founder and creative genius.

NYTimes Article: The Genius of Jobs

The New Yorker Article: The Tweaker

MLK Memorial on the National Mall

After years of hard work the King memorial was officially dedicated on October 16, 2011.

iSad: The Passing of Steve Jobs

NYTimes: Apple’s Visionary Redefined Digital Age

The Six Pillars of Steve's Design Philosophy

"In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service."

"My position coming back to Apple was that our industry was in a coma. It reminded me of Detroit in the '70s, when American cars were boats on wheels."

-Interview with Fortune Magazine, 2000

"Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice."

"My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other's kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That's how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they're done by a team of people."

Article: Mourning Jobs

What can Designers Learn from Hip-Hop Artist?

Its hard to glean the impact of culture's impact when your in the mist of living in it. So questioning the influence of Hip-Hop and what it reveals about the state of affairs of the last twenty-five years will be the subject hundreds of books and future documentaries, but one designer has considered the subject in the link below.

Blog Post: What Visual Designers can Learn from Biggie Smalls

A Company to Consider for Design Researchers: GfK

GfK looks like a very interesting organization that would be stimulating for a Designer/Research person. There physical collection of 100,000 package designs spanning the last thirty years is rich in and of itself.

GfK's Website

Apple's New iPhone Interface: Siri

Apple revealed the step in smoothing the interaction between humans and computers with it's Suri interface for the iPhone.



Apple's latest contribution grew out of a military research project. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), under its Perceptive Assistant that Learns (PAL) program, has awarded SRI the first two phases of a five-year contract to develop an enduring personalized cognitive assistant.

Original Project Description

Fast Company Magazine Article

QR Codes are Coming

Quick Response (QR) Codes are replacing the traditional bar code as the method of digitizing scannable information. The smart phone revolution as enabled this technology to reach the hands of consumers so that organizations can quickly share information with smart phone owners.

NYTimes Article

Fast Company Article

The Obama Administration Use Graphics to Tell the Jobs Story

The White House has released a stunning, but simple slide show that explains the American Jobs Act.

American Jobs Act Address Enhanced Graphics

View more documents from White House

The White House Website

9-11 Memorial Designer: Michael Arad

It sounds like the 9-11 memorial turned out as a great testament to the people that lost their lives on that faithful day, and to their families and the country.

Michael's individual committment to find a fit tribute is core to the success of the final solution.

Audio Interview with Michael Arad

Exhibition: Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects

Interaction design helps humans relate to the computer systems framing our daily lives more with each passing year. The beauty of the NYC subway vending machines is largely in how easy its design helps users to understand how to work it. But for me it is also in the materials and color coding that is really very attractive.

MoMA Exhibition

Fast Company Article: Why-does-interaction-design-matter-lets-look-at-the-evolving-subway-experience

Review of the exhibition, Talk to Me

Dyson Designs a Heater

Dyson continues of expand its product offering with technological advances being applied to common household products.

How the Dyson Hot Works from Core77 on Vimeo.

Fast Company Magazine: Design Issue

This annual issue on Design captures the moves in the field and things to look out for in the changing face of design.

Fast Company October 2011

Article: The United States of Design