This is the first picture I have taken with my brand new Casio Exilim EX-S500 :) I heart it.

I'm back from IDSA in DC. While the overall networking opportunities were fine, and I had a great time hanging and drinking with friends, the content was surprisingly sparse and the general vibe from the society was almost .. meek. The attendance was the lowest it has ever been, and quite honestly, I can begin to understand why. My observations:

The educational conference was dominated by poor presentations, non-relevant content, and complaints relating to tenure. I was anything but impressed, and certainly don’t see the value in this portion of the conference in future years.

The national conference started with a wonderful introduction by William McDonough, setting what should have been a theme of sustainability, intellectual stimulation and a call to action. Unfortunately, the content plummeted directly downwards. With the exception of a compelling talk by Eames Demetrios, the great talk by Don Goeman, and an engaging presentation by Justin Petro, the remainder of the speakers made no attempt to integrate ideas presented by McDonough or to address the topics of sustainability at all. The low point, clearly, was the presentation by Ken Parkinson, Executive Director at GM, who wasted forty-five minutes attempting to persuade the audience that General Motors was actually an environmental friend rather than the world-destroying beast it has proven itself to be.

The portfolio review sessions served only to emphasize in my mind that SCAD’s Industrial Design department is clearly on the right track; the work from other schools was simply not very good. Although inconsistent, the SCAD work was generally of a high quality.

Finally, I again am questioning the necessity of relating with professional organizations like IDSA at all. Our school had thirty students present (more than double the hosting school!), four professors in attendance, a wonderful booth, two presentations by professors at the educational conference, and yet continually gets shafted and ignored by the organization under the guise of “evening the playing field” through NASAD accreditation.

I’m thinking, in the future, I’m going to stick to CHI and other more established and useful conference.

It is good to be home. I missed J and my cat.

Some pictures from IDSA, 2005.

IDSA | Main Conference | Notes

I'm at IDSA in Washington, blogging free-form notes on the presentations. Warning: these notes are a mess :D

Don Goeman

Design tenants of history and culture. A key theme throughout Herman Miller's history. Abandon traditional design thinking and strive for dominant design.

Dominant design abandons the familiar, the tried and true, the movements and signals of your competitors, existing assets and process, and conventional business wisdom. Reaquires the affirmation, however, in the design community, in new customer adoption, and market segment shift, and in the decline of sales of former dominant design, and mimicking a whole industry.

Eighty years ago, DJ DePree founded Herman Miller, focused on durability, unity, integrity and inevitability. Truth is not transient; it never wears out. Truth bears repeated examination. The memory of truth I hard to efface. A design must have long life and usefulness. Unity is another mark of truth. Unity in purpose of design, in materials used; it makes for order and consistency. Integrity it closely linked to unity. It demands that anything contrived merely for the sake of effect and not organically related to the purpose of the product must be ruled out. This principle relates to other things, such as art and literature. A design must give final and inevitable expression of an idea.

The Rohde era. Gilbert Rohde. Proposed new answers to the design of products; had arranged for these new products to be showed in the Chicago Worlds Fair. This arose out of the desperation of the depression, where they thought they would fail. In the DePree house, there was a sectional sofa. Had a traditional dining table, with straight-backed chairs; most of the house was switched over to modern furniture. As a grade school kid, DePree was aware of modernism.

George Nelson replaced Rohde as director of design for Herman Miller; was a strong influence on DePree; when nearing a decision on moving towards working with Eames, Nelson was magnamonous. They took on the role of marketing specialist and teacher, rather than just designer. As the company grew, one of the key criteria for architectural selection, the question was "which finalist would teach management the most". Products were looked at through the eyes of designers. As business people, they learned to listen to the designers.

George Nelson guided Herman Miller into the second forty years through tenets:
What you make is important; design is an integral part of the business; the product must be honest; you decide what you will make; there is a market for good design. Design is a response to a social need. Thus, a value proposition is created focused on work; design integration capability that understands facilitating creative vision with the world view of manufacturers and developers. A research understanding that we must look at contextual understanding.

Nelson brought in an era of innovation, and disrupted comfort zones of traditional thinking.

Bill Stumpf. Mark Goetz. Studio 7.5, Germany.
The notion of inevitability. A product of a solution that has a truth to it; the truth about the nature of the object. The best design is design where you learn something about an object that you did not know before.

Plausibility and probable changes in the workplace. Technology is the untethering people from a single workplace. Collaborations; connections and network are becoming the norm. Information is ubiquitous. Globalization is certain. Holistic experiences are increasingly sought after by individuals. Increasing number of conceptual knowledge workers needed by organizations. Design continues its democratization. Workforce is becoming increasingly Tran cultural and trans-generational. Multiple kinds of new behaviors and activities are occurring in the workplace.

New solutions will not be viewed from a "furniture perspective"; they will be health positive, and will adapt to users. They will be best in craft, not best in class sensibility.

Design is the catalyst for this; the red thread.

Reduction design is currently plaguing the world, and assumes that the user is stupid and is motivated only by price, brand, style and convenience. Reflect on a product idea, or concept, and consider these questions:

Design checklist from Stumpf. Is it original, and is there a "wow"? Is there a story to tell? Does it advance technology ,or environmental state? Does it advance an art? Does it provide value for the dollar, and is it profitable? Does it satisfy a need or want? Is it artful? Good goods? Eames believed that Good Goods sell themselves.

"Primus Inter pares" - first among equals.

Ken Parkinson
Executive Director, Truck Exteriors
General Motors; Responsible for body and frame

When describing what he does in the US, the result is "are you an engineer". When describing what he does in Japan, they understood what he meant.

Believe that most people see GM as a deaf, dinosaur led by a "bunch of tired old white men" in a smoke filled board room, unwilling to turn the ship around. Some of the negative perception is justified, by the history. From 1900 to now, approximately 30% smaller in North America. Fewer employees than Ford. In 1992, 12 distinct engineering groups in North America; cut to two globally.

JD Power Initial Quality Study; top three plants in N and S America. Six of the top 10 plants, including the top 3; more awards than any other manufacture with regard to quality. GM Design is a multicultural, and relatively young, team. Largest automobile company; but the company is changing and is adapting to a new world. Create the opportunity to change perceptions of the company; to understand, we must look at What is real, and What is truth.

GM has embraced change, and is rethinking who we were and looking at what to become. Opposing views are the norm; one of the things that make us adults is the ability to make sense of conflicting viewpoints. Two real worlds at GM: the world inside, and the world outside.

The world inside GM is a full line manufacturer. All segments, 100,000 people - millions - who want to choose, and buy the vehicle that meets their lifestyle. Focus of GM is on people (?!). One thing is clear: the era of easy oil is over. What we all do next will determine how well we meet the energy needs of the entire world in this century and beyond. David O'Reilly, chairman of Chevron. It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil; we will use the next trillion in 30.

Hybrid powertrain. Hybrid power bus; fuel economy increases 60%, and noise levels are the same as a passenger car. 2007; new powertrain that will show a 25% increase in fuel economy. Fuel cell technology. Goal is to have hydrogen powered vehicles in our driveway.

Hired thirty designers in three months. GM Design Centers worldwide; Australia, Brazil, California, China, South Korea, Germany, Sweden, England. Employee over six hundred designers.

William Durant created GM in 1908. Strategy was to simply buy as many companies as possible and leave them loosely related. Alfred Sloan followed Durant and was perhaps the first businessman that understood design. Harley Earl, the man who invented "stylist" as a job position. The philosophy of the organization forced designers to focus only on styling, where engineers would tell designers to "make this look pretty' and was considered a necessary evil. Today, design is a valued member of the company. Design started their own house; design is now disciplined, getting their work done on time, and has allowed product development to focus on other areas that need improvement. This has allowed them to foster a level of respect that did not exist prior to this.

Exterior designer, color and trim design designer, creative sculptor, interior design, design engineer.

Design has a new self esteem at GM, as it actually gets respect from engineers.
New world information / customer needs / engineering.

Designers must take a leadership role in leading the way towards vision of success, both in and out of the corporation. Less Bad Is No Good. LEED Certified. Leadership with energy and environmental design. 95% of the entire automobile population is recyclable. 85% of each vehicle on average is recyclable. GM is the largest industrial user of landfill gas and thermal energy in the US. 20 plus models that achieve over 30 mpg, more than anyone else.

Peter Bressler
Design Business
Bresslergroup, Inc
Doing well by doing good

An irony, that ID tries to make better, but uses resources in order to do it. We have a responsibility to do better; to keep things out of landfills, to create objects that people didn't have before.

Attempt to get the right projects. You don't want to work on "crap"; you want to bring value, and help people. But you also have to eat; bread and butter projects that allow you to sustain yourself.

Traditional design business models.

Royalty/speculative projects, require capital, patience, self promotion, ego, and a high risk tolerance.

Corporate employment, gives you a higher initial salary, apparent stability, equity opportunities are usually limited

Consultancy. Brain power by the hour. Highly competitive, standard multipliers (2.4 - 4.x); 1/3 goes to overhead, 1/3 to profit, 1/3 to salary. No short term stability or long term wealth. Most firms, however, see 10% profit.

Missed opportunities. Micros Retail Terminal. Designed in 1975. Sold over 150,000 units at over $2,500. 5% royalty vs $20,000 in fees. $18,750,000 in lost opportunity.

Edmunds Astroscan Telescope. Designed in 1976. Sold over 200,000 units at $150. 5% royalty vs. $10,000 in fees. $1,800,000 in lost opportunity.

Traditional residual models. Take on external royalty projects. Success is dependent upon other decisions and uncontrollable factors. Produce what you design; cease being a design firm. A manufacturer, or a marketer.

IDSA | Main Conference | Notes

I'm at IDSA in Washington, blogging free-form notes on the presentations. Warning: these notes are a mess :D

David Brancaccio

Designers have saved millions of lives. An industrial designer figured out a simple thing; a spoon, plastic, and on side is a table spoon and on the other side is a tea spoon. They give that to people in developing countries; dip the big part into sugar, the small into salt, and it becomes a rehydration fluid for babies dying lack of fluid.

I have a problem. I got no less than Kurt Vonagatt to come in for an interview. His latest books have a dark point of view. We would go to a dark place with the interview. I wanted to make a connection, so I thought a particular place would get him talking. Some of his artwork is in the new book; there is a self portrait. Iconic; it has a fuzzy mustache; drawn on an old piece of stationary that he had lying around. Saab dealership! Discussed Saabs; the Saab cost him the noble prize for literature. They're weird, aren't they? I went around saying that; the Swedes have short manhood and long memories.

A small voyage I've been on for several years. You have to understand yourself before you understand the world and how it works. I've been getting something wrong. Anchorman syndrome; I'm in a little desk, in a bunker, with no view of the outside. No natural light. And then you tell everyone how the world works, with no actual contact with the real world. It may be a danger in all of our pursuits. Have all the data one could possibly need, but don't actually know why things are happening. I need to get out, a little more, and get back to reporting instead of just anchoring. We used the money that we would have spent on a newsroom and spent it on a way to get to actual stories. We would be asked "what are you doing with that show" and we realized we were anthropologists. We were on the outside looking in, and were people who were able to communicate to other people what was going on in the world. Important to look for signs like this in your life; signs that you aren't doing something right. The signs aren't always that vivid.

Was talking to an old professor, discussing the need to connect with the people to understand them. He is an expert in African proverbs; what is the proverb, if you could only pick one, that you live by? He said, One must come out of one's house to begin learning. That's where self knowledge - and real knowledge - starts. Get out of the assumptions of your peer group; of the bubble of your career; of the publications you tend to read - that's when you start to understand what is going on in the country. "I don't understand this country". We stick ourselves in bubbles, and we forget to understand how the world around us is going. Debating is tiresome; people challenging your assumptions is difficult. We tend to take the easy path in information gathering. If you break out of the bubble, you find intense and useful information.

Visited Guantanamo prison; pretty wild there. Was in maximum security facility. Seems like a dog kennel. When you get out of your bubble, you realize that members of congress also visited, and they felt that it "looked like a vacation resort".

Social good that designers can bring the world. Saw some examples of industrial design in the prison. In the maximum security cell, there is a little hook to hang your clothes. It supports just enough weight to hold your clothes, but immediately flips down if you try to hang yourself. The commanding officer was trying to make the case that he doesn't think bad things happen here, but there are certainly none going on under his watch. It's amazing when you leave the protective bubble around us.

James Dobson. The reverend. Has more radio listeners than anyone on the planet. If you want to really leave your bubble, listen to James Dobson. Hear his call to defund the federal court system so it effectively chokes off their fund. Where I really left the warm embrace of my bubble; intolerance is a good thing and tolerance is a bad thing. Who could ever say that? We have video from a documentary that PBS ran; comments of a sweet young woman from Texas who is deeply Christian; has a pledge in abstinence. She believes that, given the fact that all these kids are getting STDs in her high school, they need some education. There is a scene where she sits down with her pastor, having a heart to heart; the pastor thinks her work is immoral. He says "as you know, Christianity is the most intolerant religion". The idea that you could get anywhere near not embracing the understanding of tolerance. Diversity is a bad word. Some people think that diversity is a code word for all that is bad in the world. Diversity would imply that richness should be diverse.

If you go to St. Thomas, PA; rural Pennsylvania; a company wants to put in a quarry near a school. The quarry operations would probably not be good for the school. There are three elected officials in the town; a debate occurs. A man runs on a platform against the quarry. He gets in! He gets ready to go to his council meeting; the lawyers from the quarry deliver a note to the councilman to tell him that he can't act against the quarry or they will sue the entire town out of existence. Get out of your bubble.

Some of the lowest paid workers in America work in our fields. Tomato workers. Work fast; make no money. Brutal work. Long standing campaign to understand the end user; look at the supply chain? The fast food restaurants are at the top. Pressure the top of the chain to do something about it. In the end, Taco Bell increasing what they pay just one cent per pound of tomatoes doubles the salary of the tomato workers. $100,000 a year for Taco Bell; amazing results for the workers.

When Vonnegat was in with the dark vision of the world; it's too late for the earth; politics favor the winners by definition. A whole chunk of America is not represented by politics. He said "Life is almost worth living. It's because of all of the saints you meet. By saints, I mean the people who behave decently in the midst of an indecent world".

Outside the bubble, you get to see the other side.

You learn something else about America when you get outside of the bubble. How can you bridge such a gap? It may be against what you are hearing and reading; red versus blue, and what the polls seem to show. What America really is, are people who are stressed by economic insecurity, but aren't really engaged in politics. They don't really have deep feelings for or against the government; they are struggling to keep their families going. Incomes zig and zag dramatically among families. Among middle class families; among lawyers. When dealing with that sort of shift, you aren't thinking about the wider problems of society.

So why aren't these people rioting? Shouldn't there be a revolution? Something is masking the effect. Is the system rigged against the majority of the country? What is masking all of this is the real estate market. American families are living off of the vapor of rising home prices. Property values only go up! People are living off seven or eight times their salaries-worth-of-home. That won't go forever. When that unravels, people will begin to understand that they simply aren't in a good place.

I knew it was time to leave the business reporting game when The Story That Couldn't Be Topped came my way. CFO magazine has an award the celebrates the CFO of the year. Four years earlier, the worldcom guy won. Three years, tyco. One year, enron. Who won this current year? CFO of Veritas Software. Said he went to Stanford Business School but hadn't. Other thing that caused my shift was the idea of Can We Matter; can we be a force of good in what we do. I know that what I do on the radio was a force for good; it was educational. The world of economics, so they wouldn't get exploited; engage people. Someone gave me evidence that I was doing the contrary. Experiment on human subjects. Graduate students with fake stock portfolios. One group were given business news; the other group was given no news (traded in a vacuum). The people who traded in the vacuum did much better than those who were given the news media. Why? No data without context. An analyst will give you a hypothesis.

I realized I had no oriented my career towards a force for good.

Come out of your bubble; begin learning. Look more widely to move out; to redefine your orbit.

Vonneget says "Join a gang". To find like minded humane people, surround yourself with them; when you come back from outside the bubble, you will have some sane people around you to nurture you.

Eames Demetrios.

Design Process. Communicate, preserve and extend the work of Charles and Ray Eames. A realization; as beautiful as the objects are, the ideas behind them are even more beautiful. The goal is to connect people to the ideas; to allow them to draw connections between them. People are in this room are perfectly situated to affect change to the problems we are encountering. We require process to understand how to use the various chemicals and materials in a positive way.

Guest/Host relationship; understanding humanity. The relationship is a primal relationship; exists in a palace, in a tent, at an inn. The role of a good designer is that of a good host anticipating the needs of a guest.

Who would say that pleasure is not useful? Take your pleasure seriously.

One of the challenges we face in the virtual age is to go back to the "real stuff"; to get back to making physical objects. Design has "never been hotter", yet most people in the media don't understand design - they mean style. Go back to the things relating to process; there is a much deeper understanding within the process.

The eames office never delegated understanding; the learning occurs in the office. Many different species of fish lived within the office; the design must flow from the content. Charles and Ray anticipated desktop publishing; it was not a big deal to make a film, as they had the tools and knowledge in order to create the deliverables that were required. Full darkroom, full wood shop. Were able to experiment first hand.

Authenticity. More than just a stylistic manner; critical to understanding design. Valuing this is important; what is authenticity? Has to do with hands on; physical experience. It sounds like an abstract or intellectual concept; to be very close to the "real thing". The idea that there is one painter, one canvas; but in design, its different. One designer, multiple canvii (?!). Authenticity is not the object as much as the experience. The experience is not a "one off"; it needs to be repeatable. Design is the search for truth; the search for a three dimensional truth.

The details aren't the details; the details make the product. Design is not just silhouettes; it is a three dimensional truth of the honesty of their creations. The sketches aren't the only part of the process; the models are important too.

We need to surrender to the learning process and the design process, and embrace the designs coming from it. New covetable should be objects that gain value when more people have them (maps, language).

Tomorrow's housewares: How designers can respond to how people live.

Paul Hatch; TEAMS Design
Douglas Burton, Apartment Zero
Tom Igoe, NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program
Lillian Shieh, Rebecca Trump. NEST Homelab.

Topic of discussion: how is the American home changing? How do people live in their homes today? And how might they live tomorrow? Focus is on the insights regarding behavioral trends, and create ideas for design principles (aesthetics, functional and interaction); inspiration for the design of housewares, furniture and electronics.

Behavioral trends include a focus on personalization, reinvention within the home, mobility, escape and hide and seek.

Personalization indicates that Home is a repository of "me"; people use tools to express themselves through their products. The desire to express yourself through products in your home; digital wallpaper; IKEA website. Interactive visualization tools on the web. FLOR tiles; sub-zero fridges are modular, and allow you to "cobble" things together in a way to create an ideal product solution for you.

Highly specialized products; kid versions. Fujitronic child refrigerator; Dora the Explorer mouse and child's computer; Kimchi refrigerator. Design for specialized use. Tools personalized for specific markets (Islam, Korea, Japan, etc). Seems to be a trend away from globalization; niche based marketing implies a segmentation away from a single product. Single product may compromise itself or the market it is in.

Advertising is ahead of design, in that research has always been conducted before advertising to a certain place. Chevy Nova, for example. Design research for global markets. Campaign from Samsung in Korea; a musician designed a song and the song has made it onto the hit charts, but it is a ring tone for a telephone.

People are living collectively. FLOR, for example; cheap and multifunctional. Shelter and Surface magazine tell us a home should look a certain way. Items like FLOR allow users to alter the way their home looks in a manner that is personally interesting to them.

If the creative control is given to the end consumer, how much control over the brand exists? How much control can actually be given to the consumer with regard to changing a product? You create a set of choices for the consumer so they can "mix and match" and make their own design. They end up with an intelligent choice set that directs them towards the "right solution". Nike allows users to design their own shoe, and its "still a Nike". But there are still controlling aspects; for example, the logo and the placement of the logo. "Do" (a company) allows users to create products that aren't actually realized until you do something with them. Do Break Lamp.

Boutique fabrication. Just in time creation of customization.

Customization isn't the trend; the enabling technology is the trend. We are final able to actually do some of the things we have always wanted to do. Not a trend that will only last five years. Think of the thirty or fifty year scope of this.

Ability to maintain personal settings. For example, Kohler fixture; allows you to maintain your own temperature in a low tech manner.

IDSA | Main Conference | Notes

I'm at IDSA in Washington, blogging free-form notes on the presentations. Warning: these notes are a mess :D

William McDonough

We ask two questions when we first designing; the first is "how do we love all of the children of all species for all time".

Living in a house designed by Thomas Jefferson; makes you realize that Jefferson saw himself as a designer first. Last designer. Leaving a record of his legacy; of things he has designed. Declaration of Independence; Life, Liberty, Pursuit of Happiness. Free of Tyranny. Called for revolution; yet, here we are, tyrannizing new generations by creating designs that are highly toxic. Equipment to analyze other pieces of equipment; if we turn them on themselves, it would scare us. So what is it that we do? What are the values? What are trying to accomplish, and what do we leave behind?

Common currency of language talks about sustainability; not really mentioned in McDonough’s work, as it is a lot of sounds. Is it all we are looking for? "Mr. Sustainable"? Not that interested in sustainability. Sustainable .. implies maintenance. The value system seems wrong; what are our values, and what do we know? We know quite a bit since 1962; the first "bellwether" of looking at chemicals. We know about the toxification of the planet. Yet we persist in our work; what happens when there are no larks?

Where are the birds?
Are the birds singing?
What is a bird?

We design birds; rubber ducks. What kind of species produces a rubber duck that produces cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm? California Proposition 65 warning.

As designers, realize that design is a signal of attention, but it has to occur in a world. We need to understand the world to add intelligence to the designs. As we look back, we need to go to the primordial condition to understand the way the planet works. The exciting part is the good news that is there; the news is abundance. Not the news of limits. Our culture tortures itself, now, with concerns over limits and fear, but we can add this other dimension of abundance driven by the sun and starts to imagine what it would be like to share.

Design is the first signal of human intention. What is our intention as a species? We know we dominate the planet; what is the first question: how can we secure local society, create world peace and save the environment? Is this the mission of a government? How can we generate prosperity? Not greed and collection; these two syndromes are fundamentally different. The guardian vs. commerce.

Three and a half billion dollars of lobbying money chasing 550 public legislators. Commerce is creative, effective, fundamentally honest; we can’t do business with each other if we aren’t honest. The question of the relationship of our species still exists. Our current society has a strategy of tragedy; there is no end game. The work has no ending; having it "not our intention" .. our designs continue to persist. They aren’t part of our plan? They are, because we have no other plan.

The tragedy is persistent because we killed the clean air act; mercury from the coal companies; about to put mercury into the environment and take the brains of the children of ohio and pa down 3 and 4 iq points. Brain death for all children; no child left behind. Say so: make the end game explicit. The infinite game; endocrine disruption. There is only tragedy. The game should go on forever: Our goal is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world, with clean air, water, soil and power – economically, equitably, ecologically and elegantly enjoyed.

We want diversity; not uniformity. We want clean water as a human right; clean air matters to all; soil has a serious problem, as we lose it to farming due to erosion; dead zones in the gulf of Mexico. Global warming; strategies of wind tunnels that are cheaper than fossil fuels, but we realize that monoculture is modified structure.

DJSI Dow Jones Sustainability Index; world performance. These issues are outperforming their competitors. We see the designs that are toxic, automotive steel that can’t be recycled into cars because its treated in chemicals that are then mixed with other items; this becomes building steel, useless for anything else. Product of service concept articulates a distinction, where a product continues forever, with no degrading due to a complicated mixture of chemicals that don’t biodegrade.

Grew up in Hong Kong; 6 million people in 4 (?) square miles. Farm land has been farmed continuously for 4000 years; in ancient China, it was impolite to leave a home "without leaving a deposit". Chinese eat everything that is self mobile; you eat your protein before it slithers away. Spent summers in WA; lived in a world of abundance. Grandparents were careful, however. Studied architecture at Yale; the style was known as "brutalism".

Don’t look at it negatively; look at is a way to move forward. If we look at history since the 70s, when asked "what will you do with the price of oil", what will you do with alternatives? Now, the price of oil is rising again; coal has become ubiquitous. The Saudiis are ready to free the price of oil. There is so much demand; this will transform the entire making of things.

Business Week; Is Your Office Killing You. Throw things away. Where is "away"? What happens to the products? If we look at the Pacific Ocean, we find "6 times as much plastic as plankton". The Giant Toilet that Doesn’t Flush.

Cradle to Cradle; it’s a plastic book. Why make a book out of plastic? The first chapter is called "this book is not a tree". Why make something as simple as a sheet of paper out of something as elegant as a tree? Design something that makes oxygen, fixes nitrogen, build soil, provides habitat for hundreds of people, and self replicates … and cut it down to write on it? Design humility. It took 5000 years to put wheels on our luggage. We aren’t that smart.

Cost, performance and aesthetics. Fun, Just, Ecologically Intelligent.

Survival of the fittest; we destroy each other. Fittingest. The idea is more, not less; growth is good. When you follow the laws of nature. Do environmentalists say that? What if we loved the fact that we had more products, not less?

Theory of relativity. C is a very big number; then you square it and it gets larger. We get a lot of energy from the sun; we get too much energy from the sun. We can solve the energy problem with the income. We can’t afford to toxify the planet; we have no income. If you put the two together, you get magic; biology, life itself.

DNA. Francis crick. Growth, free form of energy, income. Needs to have an open system of chemicals operation for the benefit of the organism and its reproduction. Humans can actually design based on this; what if human artifice could be a living thing? Looking at how products can be part of the living organisms of the world. We need about 4 planets as a basic operating system; how can human artifice follow the rules? The question then, is no longer growth or no growth, but "what do you want to growth"? Grow things that are positive. In the world of biology, we want full diversity. We want new products, new clothes, new birds, new fish. We don’t want full diversity in technology; 400 kinds of French plastic; it would be incoherent, and they can’t be put into infinite cycles.

Biological and technical metabolisms, where things go back to soil or industry. Forever. Nutrients flow in cycles. In technical nutrition, we have the same cycle. Design for disassembly with safe chemicals in infinite loops.

McDonough Braungart Design Protocol. Eco-Effective Design Criteria for a Product of Consumption Design. www.Mbdc.com = free access to protocols of the database. 6000 of the 104,000 chemicals used in the majority of manufacturing.

Supply chain sustainability exchange. Can send questions to the makers of the things you are going to use to find out how one can use materials that are made out of good and not bad.

Building like a tree. A building that makes more power than it needs to operate. Have more buildings than less; it purifies water and makes energy. Building like a garden (the Gap). First industrial revolution in Deerborne; 1200 acres. 2 billion dollars; 20 year project. Produce shareholder value  Roof like a meadow. Largest green roof in the world. Saves 35 million dollars a year.

A city like a forest. China will build a new housing system for 400 million people in the next 12 years. Equivalent of rehousing the US in 4 years. Looking for new materials; new ways to manipulate the world around us. China has adopted Cradle to Cradle as national policy. The circular policy. A virtuous cycle.

Waste = food. Sewage becomes a way to make methane. Energy comes from the sun; photosynthesis, the city will be manufacturing solar collectors at a large scale. Move the soil to the roof and build underneath.

We have to work quickly; systematically, and integrated into everything we do. It isn’t efficiency; what if you are doing the wrong thing the most efficiently? Do the right thing the right way. Look at effectiveness. Ecoefficiency becomes the statistical quantification of lean production. But that has lead to degenerative technology. You may be making a beautiful car, but its causing global warming. It’s nice that you have made a pretty car, but you have destroyed the earth; what have you done?

Is nanotechnology good or bad? Is efficiency good or bad? The statistical qualification of clean production; must lead to regenerative technology. Do the right thing; THEN do it the right way.

Certification process: how to get certified materials. Started with chairs, surf wax, concrete additive, running track, skateboards, diapers. http://c2ccertified.com .. Design is the signal of human intention. Give all of the products in the world a cradle to cradle cycle.

IDSA | Educational Conference | Notes

I'm at IDSA in Washington, blogging free-form notes on the presentations. Warning: these notes are a mess :D

1. The Evolution of Interactive Products | Jimm Budd

   Speak and Spell; early example of speech synthesis.
   Tomagotchi; Furby. Nurture based interaction.
   Philips Vision of the Future; 10 year vision of what technology could drive within product design and development. Creations like "emotional containers" that could hold memories and sensory information.
   Sony AIBO; various generations of the product that are happy, sad, etc.
   NEC PaPeRo
   Banryu - guard robot from Sanyo
   Honda's Asimo
   Ambient Intelligence, via networked. Ubiquitous computing.
   POD - Toyota and Sony concept car that can sense and express emotion
   BMW - Speech recognition software in vehicle
   Montreal's new parking meter system

2. Caught in the Headlights: Design Education and the Fate of a Digital Planet | Bill Mak, Microsoft

   1997 or 1998, first interactive design event in the tri-state area. People didn't know what the interactive produce and product design was; frustrating, because people didn't see the connection between the web and software and industrial design. The feedback was nearly a rejection: why should we care?

   Amazing possibilities for the profession of Industrial Design. Bill's goal is to give feedback from industry to the educators in order to best shape the students (but certainly shouldn't be beholden to what industry needs or wants).

   A global digital evolution: What's Coming? No - What's Here.
   Everywhere connectivity. Internet2 mass deployment. Executable web. Global personal digital grid. Hardware miniaturization. Gentle evolution where things grow and improve.

   Everywhere connectivity. A huge public broadband access support system; WIMAX. Supplemental commercial access, with "terrestrial hotspots". Satellite and low orbit vehicle. Localized wideband interconnections. Access becomes free; "specialized branded experience" costs money. You get extra - there needs to be value to the payment.

   Internet2. speed is no object. 10 gigabyte a second; 1.5 hour movie in 3 minutes.

   Executable Web. Anything desktop software can do, web based apps can do also. Xhtml, css standard based presentation; dynamic display and interaction. Pay per use applications. AJAX.

   Global Personal Digital Grid. Transparent personal and distributed data storage. You can be on any device, and access your material the way you want it.

   
   These technologies support services; software becomes services. Memories, communication, productivity, learning, gaming, tv, movies, music. And then, you end up with connected devices - where Industrial Designers fall.

   Who is qualified? People good at software? People with a PhD in HCI? People who can code?

   Why do people pay us? Interaction designers grow business value, live in the future, and can be the key strategic driver for business formulation, product planning, design and innovation.

   Why are we unique? Create a bridge between technology and people with flare; to create brand equity, product differentiation; etc.

   Teach students to observe, think and be masters of the universe.

   Partner with counterparts; computer science, social science, engineering and business. Partner with industry; professional, employers, and capital.

   Industry perspective: survey of interactive design management. Managers, directors, general managers, creative directors, producers. What qualities would a graduate need to succeed?

   Empathy for people
   Creative problem solving, balancing function and aesthetics
   Deep understanding of the iterative process of interaction design
   Solid visual design skills
   Being creative in a constrained situational to identify trends and apply them to changing technological boundaries

   Ability to desire to work collaboratively and globally
   The ability to clearly communicate
   The ability to understand the big picture
   The ability to articulate and defend design decisions

   Understand why design is important to a business, and what design contributes to business goals
   The ability to think broadly about technology and impact on brand

   Dedicated program for interaction design
   Require internships in interaction design
   Have professionals actively teaching in classes, not just dropping in to speak

   Teach collaborative skills; students must be able to work in a global multidisciplinary digital environment
   Have more interdisciplinary studios
   Have cross functional learning, with computer science, human science, marketing and business

3. A Rapid Digital Modeling Method for Concept Design | James Wronecki

   Most modeling techniques are based on existing methods of mass production (casting, etc). Using Stereolithiography; Selective laser sintering; Aimed Deposition Parts. These processes are becoming similar to the steam engine; if we apply these in the right way, they will solve our problems. We don't have to worry about draft angles; we can use these to make new tools. Not talking about "customer-made" (build a X); instead, micro-mass production is design based. We need to rethink customer made; There needs to be a reconsideration of human-centered design and focus on activity centered design.

   Micro Mass Production version of a Shoe. Digital model of the purchaser's foot; the designer analyzes the foot and tailors the shoe to maximize performance. The company then produces one of a kind shoes for the purchaser using rapid manufacturing techniques for customized parts.

   What does the micro mass production model look like? Who controls the machines? Where will the design intelligence reside?

   Potential models:
   Central designer, distributed production, central assembly. Central designer exerts control over the final product, but can miss opportunities to learn from producers and assemblers.
   Central designer, distributed production, distributed assembly. Preexisting house plans; typically a low volume model. Designer creates the design, and the design is then adapted to specific conditions or requirements. Value to the end user is provided by the designer and the producer.
   Distributed designer, distributed production, distributed assembly. Can address localized design needs.
   Open Design. Individual designer creates a solution and publishes. Another designer adopts and changes this idea. Create and serve a market at a low cost. Develop collaborative partners. No direct way to make money, however.
   The Designer/Producer. Designer uses rapid production techniques; designs and fabricates pieces which are then assembled into a product. Low volume.

4. Building a Career with Passion and Good Sense: The 2005 IDSA Portfolio / Interviewing Seminar | Randy Bartlett

   Confidence. Confidence in your portfolio is the key to building a career. The confidence has to be real. Resumes, cover letter samples, envelopes, self-promotional pieces, and the portfolio. A package; should be visually and contextually connected.

   Each page of the portfolio should be visually captivating. (typo :D)
   Your story must reflect total confidence.
   Good sense.

   Portfolio is a documentation of your work; it allows you to review progress and reflect on your accomplishments. It expresses your interests and your design philosophy. It is your best pieces of work. It should abilities including uniqueness, ingenuity, and judgment. Demonstrate that you can look beyond the first impulses and experiment with different possibilities. Primary tool to promote yourself to prospective clients. Clarity and be self explanatory. Should anticipate the concerns of the employers.

   Employers look for a business like attitude, and evidence that your product designs are usable, and can be manufactured and be commercially viable. They look for specific skills such as freehand sketching, technical drawing, model making, 3D computer and CAD development. These are embedded in each project.

   Genuine passion will be developed as the portfolio is assembled into a cohesive package.
   

   Jon at 09:43 PM : 0 Comment(s)

    

IDSA | Educational Conference | Notes

I'm at IDSA in Washington, blogging free-form notes on the presentations. Warning: these notes are a mess :D

1. Methods and Tools for Educators | Craig Vogel

   A strategy for Design Education Pragmatic Innovation: Integrating ID - The Role of Industrial Design in Innovation

   In Education, we have the same challenge that corporate has. How do we center ourselves in both corporate and academia?

   Integrating ID becomes more important; important to solving problems that companies in the world need to address. We have a responsibility to make ID as powerful as possible.

   CDRI (?) - Center for Design Research and Innovation at DAAP. Tension between research and innovation; committed to leading as well as researching. What is the CDRI?

   Structure of the center.

   Disciplinary breadth, global/local tension, and time. Research space that you can frame and think about. Projects at the center; Relationships between projects and research; research is where insight is developed. Short term deliverables within projects, but a broader responsibility within the research issues relating to the world at large.

   History oriented research themes at DAAP; also, considered Future oriented research themes. Redesigning Therma Care (p&g); attempting to reposition design within the corporation. Also looking at bio-informatics and interface design, partnering with the medical school.

   What does the CDRI do - pragmatic innovation. What is the role of design within this? Consider quality. Quality has become a commodity; innovation and replaced quality as the primary themes companies are looking for. Innovation is not considered invention; Innovation is driven by value and not by technology. Innovation is a human-driven consideration. This is a shift from the industrial revolution viewpoint of focusing on technology; design has a much larger role in innovation than in invention.

   We don't own design; we just own part of it. There is a Pan Design consideration, thinking of changing existing situations into preferred ones - Herb Simon. Little d's support this activity. Consider engineering design, business design, visual ergonomic brand design, and design research.

   Innovation gives us more visibility. So what is ID? A field that starts qualitatively and moves to quantitative. Comfortable at the "fuzzy front end"; can manage change. Generative - more generative - than analytical. Conceive and represent multiple comprehensive alternatives of future possibilities.

   Can create clear brand identity.

   What is Design Research?

   Action Research - the most comprehensive level of research encompasses both translational and basic plus reflection and communication. You don't need a formal objective in order to analyze potential; research and be much more flexible. Translational research (biomedical) takes ideas from the lab and gets them to the marketplace; we have large capability for this. We could convert these into translational methods. Finally, basic/research of understanding the world around us.

   Innovation and translational research - the science of the artificial. Innovation requires translational research.

   We need to better communicate and structure our approach to translational design.

   Create world as it is VS create world as it could be.

   We are translational researchers. We don't look for constants; we attempt to generate these into new possibilities.

   Understanding the dynamic nature of decision making within a corporation; companies have about seventy key decision points to make, and if they don’t make them well, the product fails.

   Understand how to connect culture (historical trends) to a product development; value opportunities of form and function fulfilling fantasy.

   The Design of Things To Come - new text. Connecting strategy, brand and innovation. We need to produce more students who want to be managers - who don’t only want to design, but want to manage the process. Example, Chuck Jones of Whirlpool. Track innovation, understand its impact, and make it visible throughout the company.

   From undergraduate to doctoral education. We have a fundamental challenge to understand the distinction between PhD/Master/Bachelor of ID; Europe (and China) has a much larger vision of PhD as the terminal degree - understanding and valuing high education. How do we structure this continuum? Polytheism vs. Monotheism. Some of us are more committed to a specific issue as compared to a multiple perspective view. Try to understand the view of many different designers; must struggle to broaden your perspective. Try to integrate many viewpoints (Jay Doblin, Victor Papanek, Eames, Kostellow, Moholy, McDonough, Syd Mead).

   Design as business, art, social science, manufacturing, environmentally responsible - it needs to be all, not just one. Students can't have a limited framework. Design is interdisciplinary; we can't limit ourselves. We need to view design just like it is in the corporation. We must both teach and learn from others.

   Design programs should operate in a similar way to design in industry. Undergraduates work on projects with graduate students in team projects. The role for undergraduate is to prepare practitioners; grads are for management positions, updating practitioners on emerging trends; doctoral, then, is on conducting research on advances in the field and interpret the value of methods and ideas from other fields. To propose new theories for practice. To analyze and interpret history to support and inspire practice.

   New definitions for practice. Design implementation, product research, HF, manufacturing, product planning, brand managers, strategic planners, upper management, entrepreneurs.

   Balancing implementation and strategy. Engineering and business have moved too much into strategy and away from implementation; Design could also move into theory, but - perhaps - shouldn't; we need to keep a tension between understanding how to implement and actually implementing what we make.

   Similar to mind/body experience; theory/application; diagnosis/theory.

   Need to have business, technology, arts and crafts, social science and humanities.

   An opportunity for design education to become a major player in translational research.
   

2. Intuitive Design | Mike Glaser [SCAD]

   Design Sense. Innate knowledge; where did it come from? Have an idea; really believe in it. Value as a designer was the ability to read between the data. We see something different, something that we can create. Intuition. Sense of knowing that I have an idea and am passionate about it. Ultimate design tool. Separates us from everyone else that looks at data in a linear fashion.

   We learn to comprehend reality. We will use our senses to build reality, or we develop knowledge. Opinion/sense - Science/dialectic - Illumination/intuition.

   Logical leads to truth; intuition leads to reality.
   Research influence, measure of confidence, range of ideas.

   Research
   Permission
   Expose
   Confidence

   Intuition can't be taught. But it can be experienced; made a leap of faith and it turned out well.

   Key points. Be vague. Snap. Crackle. Pop. Flow. Broad to Narrow focus, in and out, very quickly within a studio class. Start designing from day one. Dumping ideas; eliminate crap ideas. Build a reality. Presentation.

   Experience in order to learn; throw dough in the air. Go to the beach. Designing in stairwells. Recreate the reality. Immerse yourself in the reality. Bring in scents, bring in audio. Show the five senses of the reality.

   Wants, needs, and desires. Less tangible.
   Ideate, draw, ideate, draw
   Validate. research added, pinch cycle, defense presentations.
   expand, rework, add/learn, final presentation
   

3. Design as the repository and envisioner of information | Steve Wilcox

   Really good design research requires collaboration between designers and scientific training. Designers don't have an adequate understanding or respect of research. However, the other side is true: researchers don't respect or understand designers as collaborators in the research process. Research without science isn't valid; science research without design isn't usable.

   Outsourcing of design. Manufacturing disappears; then cad modeling drifts over to Asia; now, design is being churned out in the far east, and the reality is that they charge $20/hour. And are good. If design leaves, what do we have left to teach the students?

   Decision making in meetings. In corporate, designers are making decisions in groups and in meetings. What kind of information tools work and afford an interdisciplinary group in a meeting?

   Designer as user expert. Expert on human beings.

   Designer is last renaissance person. The whole world is specialized, but we still need to be specialized in generality.

   Envisioning of Information: An alternative role for design.
   Industrial Design departments role is no longer to design products but to be the communicator - the disseminator - the collaborator - of crucial information that is primarily for decision making.

   In order to envision information, the information needs to be valid. Validity, in practice, is what upper management will accept. Unfortunately, most of what we do in user research is not considered valid by executives. Designers are not good at being skeptical.

   Some ways of envisioning information: Procedure maps, personas, scenarios, wish lists, plan views, guidance documents, databases, video, multimedia. Abstract representation of processes.
   

4. DesignStudioPress.com | Scott Robertson

   8 DVDs, 5 books. Father was an artist, and grew up in the Oregon countryside. Fifteen years of styling based industrial design products.

   Studio Press: Where concept art and education meet. How can he create a product that includes the circle of friends that he has and extend that in his current professional career? Also, what product could be invented with a low barrier to entry (simply product to manufacture), and what skills do I have to do the entire product?

   Read a book / Write a book / Print book / Sell book. Repeat.
   



5. Delta Project

   Collaborative between UC Business and Design. University of Cincinnati.

   Song is the only unit within Delta that is actually creating profit. Question: How do you design an experience? Senior level designers and pre-junior level marketing. What are the deliverables when presenting an experience?

   Decision was made to allow the deliverables to develop, rather than dictate what they should be. Service and experience: a new frontier in business and designer. Intense emotional content, and must be transformational.

   Interdisciplinary: Blending, conflict resolution, and growing respect for inter-disciplinary creation.

   Process.
   Brainstorm / Braindump of the flying experience. Team building, and develop an understanding of the discipline.

   Contextual research. Curb-to-claim experience at Delta. Go through the airport from ticketing through loading, onto a 757, identify issues throughout the airport, and then answer questions.

   Case study examination of both brands and products.

   The heads of the Song experience came in and discussed their project.

   Initial concept presentations. Skits, roll playing, and other unconventional presentation techniques.

   Concept involved brand identity, product solution ..
   



6. The Fog of Design - Social, cultural, political: 5 insights into the complexity of practice | Uday Gajendar.

   Design framed within a product development platform - the chaos that makes it difficult for designers to operate. Designer is not that maestro of form, but instead is the adaptive leader. Effective change agent in an organization. Advocate, evangelize, and make it a reality.

   External view is the form; design is an object. Beautiful, hip, cool, stylish; hi-status. Bringing out the evocative nature of a product. Does this do a dis-service to the young designers who are entering the marketplace, as the designers view the object as the practice? Design is not the central player, but there is a much more complicated set of interdependencies within the business environment. Design is one competing element within a larger, more complicated system. Quality, documentation, service, marketing, business. Competing budgets, timelines, resources.

   Fest emerging conditions: outsourcing of key product development phases; the fragmentation and combination of markets; the economic volatility due to wall street values, and the rival platforms, standards and formats.

   New kinds of problems: enviro-friendly transit systems, public housing unit for progressive economic policies; network lifestyle devices for aging boomers; the refugee housing and farming systems for poor nations; online systems for voting, taxation, legal reforms.

   The dark truth about design is that: it is a hard, messy journey, from concept to product; it demands teamwork with non-designers; people inherently resist change; satisfice, not optimize.

   Designing anything involves satisfying constraints, making choices, containing costs, and accepting compromises.

   What do we do: give insights for designing products (software or hardware).

   1. Designers should be like ecologists, mindful of the integrated system of invisible consequences. Eames > Saarinen > Mau and Koolhas. Context of product development: species goals/needs/wants. A system of product family, platform, modules, features .

   2. Asking critical questions can be more valuable than specific domain knowledge. Anchored in humanistic perspective: values, assumptions, goals. Focus on what is necessary and sufficient; scope a problem, extract relevant data, identify key risks; initiate key conversations, show curiosity, quick thinking during changes.

   3. process artifacts capture knowledge, rationale, and visual evidence to guide team dialogues. Not just about "superstar showcase" but for product development; sustain critical path of development and design cycles; various types of artifacts: exploratory, interpretive, generative; electronic communication of artifacts is vital: trust, feedback and iteration.

   4. Design is easy. Influence is hard but necessary to get designs built. Persuasive communication is essential to foster support. Cultural observations, team dynamics, sense-making are key. Difference between concern and influence and collaboration to unite. Interests-rights-powers model of teamwork.

   5. Design leadership has hidden dependencies upon cross-domain colleagues. Myth of the lone genius doesn’t work in cross collaborative environments; use the hidden infrastructure of knowledge: peers, liaisons; support for decision-making comes from social network; transposing chaos into meaningful, actionable order.

   Preparing the next generation of design professionals; the adaptive, humanist leaders of design.
   



7. From School Projects to manufactured Products: Asian Design
   Hong Kong Polytechnic | Lorraine Justice

   HKPT School of Design; 100 faculty members (?!), 50 support staff. 1000 students. 1/3 Chinese, 1/3 canadian/american, 1/3 European faculty members.

   100% employment (?!!)

   Very strong student models
   Bright colors
   Simple, stark design language

   Government in China supports design; the united states government does not. Government supports design with grants; local governments create design centers for education.

   Childhood level of curiosity with regard to making and breaking and playing, aren't done in mainland china. Students don't take their projects home with them; 900 square feet at home. students live at home. Some of the small differences are important. Also, education in Hong Kong is rote-memory rather than synthesis. Moving students from high school to design experience means that we have to loosen their minds so they can take apart and build things. Need to free their mind. More of a mind/body distinction rather than a skill set distinction.

   Students are shy; don't question professors responses. They want to get it right; get a good grade. They don't want to make mistakes. They focus on doing well. Failing is not an option. Very driven students.

   We are trained to do the elevator speech; to brag about our work. In China, you don't do that; it is unprofessional. Less business oriented there. More culturally oriented.

   Sustainable design (eco-design) is of huge interest in China as well; huge grants are available there.

   All students speak English.
   

8. Collective Wisdom: Issues in Design Education |
   Lorraine Justice, Martin Smith, Craig Vogel, Ron Kemnitzer

   Martin Smith. Art Center. 25 instructors, each teaching one day a week. dichotomy between trans and product; split into two separate tracks. Was Director of Automotive Projects at Design works. Within the culture of Art Center, how can he create an identity and increase the momentum of product? Styling at the expense of "nuts and bolts" design. About the emotional quality of selected products.

   Craig Vogel. Cincinnati. Jay Doblin was his cousin (?). Attended Pratt. Craig started teaching at IIT; took the visualization elements from Rowena Reed, brought to IIT. Intended to teach visual design, but IIT was focusing on design and business. Joe Ballay then invited Craig to CMU; tension between art/science, and art/business.

   Blink.

   CMU is like working at a company, where they never let you feel too good about yourself. Business and systems thinking at IIT from Jay sunk in to the other things; mix Design History. CMU allowed Craig to do all of those.

   All of the sudden, the chemistry began to come loose. After ten years of IPD, there wasn't anything left to do with the class. P&G relationship, Bob Schwartz, University of Cincinnati.

   A confident humility; feel that you can never learn enough.

   There are alternative models to art education. It's OK to embrace a certain concept and model.

   Ron Kemnitzer. Virginia Tech. 8 marker colors when he started college. University of Cincinnati. One female design student in the entire school. Free-range children (?!) children who come up with things to do on their own. As well versed as students are in some things, they are scarce in other things. Went to graduate school; got "tricked" into teaching. Started at Michigan State. Got assigned teaching after two weeks of school already started. Learned about politics right from the beginning. Educational politics can take on corporate politics any day. Moved to Kansas City Art Institute (school of Walt Disney - threw him out). University of Kansas; opened a Design Firm. Balanced consulting and teaching, invigorating. Helped to develop what he could do as a teacher, role he could play, what he could bring to that experience. Nuremberg Chair at CMU; recruited by Virginia Tech.
   

I'm in Washington DC for the IDSA conference; in addition to all of the academic stuff, Mike and I spent some of the day wandering around the city. We ate some hot dogs, saw the Washington Monument from about eighty different locations, and took touristy photos.

More academic notes tomorrow.

This must be the most out-of-date blog on the 1nt3rnet. I must do better.

The quarter is coming to a close, and I'm going to DC for the IDSA conference (both the national and the educational conference); that should give me some good content to post - at the very least, I'll have sweet pictures of the condo we are staying at.

Yay.