What the Hell Have We Done to Design? (Really Thinking about Design Thinking)

By Brian Matt, Founder & CEO, Altitude, Inc.

Hey, design-types, picture this. I stroll into the neighborhood party with a swell bottle of wine in one hand and my lovely wife’s arm in the other. Three steps into the house, she peels off to greet her friends and I head for the kitchen to drop off the vino. I am immediately cut off by a doughy-faced but pleasant sort of fellow wearing black pants and a black mock turtleneck in June.
 
John Public: “Hi. I’ve been waiting for you to arrive. Jill said that you’re a designer.”
Me: “Yes, that’s right. I am a designer.”
John Public: “Were you ever on Project Runway? My wife loves that show.”
Me (resisting the urge to be painfully creative with my bottle): “Sorry, no. That would be fashion. I design products.”
John Public: “Oh, you’re in finance then. My brother-in-law sells financial products too. He designs them to be loaded on the front end.”
Me: “Are you in the mood to fund my son’s iShare 529 Plan?”

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Design Korea
International Conference on Best of Class: Balance of Theory and Practice in Design Management

Organized by KIDP (Korea Institute of Design Promotion) and DMI
December 3-4, 2009, Incheon, Korea

The Design Korea International Conference will bring together design and economic experts from around the globe to survey and analyze the social influence of design on life, the business world, and economy through a series of lectures and discussions. The event is co-organized with DMI, with co-chairs/speakers Thomas Lockwood, President of DMI, Rachel Cooper of Lancaster University, and Kyung-won Chung from Seoul Metropolitan Government. Other speakers include Bruce Nussbaum, contributing editor of Businessweek, and Gianfranco Zaccai, CEO of Design Continuum.

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Registration open for Design/Management Europe 14 Conference

April 21-22, 2010
London, UK
 
Registration is now open for DMI’s 2010 European conference, which will build on the success of recent well-attended and well-received events in Milan and Paris. The venue will be One Wimpole Street, in the heart of London’s vibrant West End and convenient to London’s major tube lines. Look for updates about Europe 14 on www.dmi.org/european.
 
 

Design, Complexity, and Change Recap
DMI’s recent Annual 34 conference ended with rave reviews for the presentations and lots of thought-provoking takeaways for participants. Conference video is in production and will be posted for DMI members this month. Here’s more on this memorable event:
 
How DMI’s Conference Changed the Conversation for Me
Robyn Waters, RW Trend LLC

1. “From change is the only constant” to “complexity is the big opportunity.”
2. “Creativity is personal development, not just a business innovation tool.”
3. Not “What if?” Instead, “Why This”?
4. How can designers help keep Honest Books?

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The A to Z of the Evolved Designer
Robyn Waters, RW Trend LLC
 
Designers Are/Should Be/Can Become:
Artists (John Madea/Watts Wacker)
Behavioral Economists (Watts Wacker/Michael Schrage)
Code writers and Programmers (Ben Fry/Casey Reas/Stephen Randall)
Disrupters (Stephen Randall)

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Design and the Art of Complexity
Maren Connary, Strategist, Zoomedia
 
Without a doubt, this was another call to action for great design minds to help save our increasingly complex world from destroying itself. The message was echoed by speakers from corporate design centers within Nike, Virgin Airlines, and GE, from within design education by John Maeda at RISD…

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View conference photos on flickr
 

Pierre-Yves Panis named to DMI Advisory Council

The latest DMI member to join DMI’s prestigious Advisory Council is Pierre-Yves Panis, Director, Design and Foresight, Legrand. Pierre is in charge of all strategic and operational design initiatives for the Legrand product design department. He leads ID teams in France, US, and China. Legrand is a leader in electrical systems, with subsidiaries in more than 60 countries and sales in close to 180 countries. DMI’s 40 person Advisory Council is comprised of leaders from across the design industry, and provides key leadership and advice to DMI.
 

Webinar: Embedding Design DNA in your Business

Willem Boijens, Principal UE Manager, Vodafone
November 4, 2009, 1 pm EST

For strategic design thinking to have a truly lasting impact on an organization, it must be embedded in that company’s DNA. But that’s easier said than done. Willem Boijens will share some key insights into the ongoing process of embedding design DNA at Vodafone, plus he’ll suggest ways you can implement a similarly bold and potentially disruptive approach in your company.

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Notes on the Evolution of Design Thinking: A Work in Progress

By Craig Vogel, Associate Dean, College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, University of Cincinnati
DMI Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, 2009

From the late nineteenth century onward, the nexus between design and business is a story of ever-new challenges met with vision, creativity, and innovation. Now, as design enters a new era, that nexus continues to evolve. During most of the twentieth century, Vogel notes, “corporations and cultural institutions asked designers to play a focused and limited role in product and service development. Today, that role is expanding and the core of the field, design thinking, must expand with it.”

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