Super Duper Spring Break Edition

http://iconcertcal.com

sweet personalized concert calendar built for itunes.

http://www.logoorange.com/logodesign-A.php

logo design history

http://www.philippechancel.com

photographer who has done much work about north korea.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents /rc_pc_pccs_doc_22021997_ethics-in-ad_en.html

the Vatican’s ethics code in advertising

http://socialight.com

share geo-tagged stickies from your cell phone

http://www.archive.org

huge live music database, other stuff too

http://www.conceptshare.com

online design collaboration tool

http://www.yourdailyawesome.com/2007/03/02/ira-glass-on-storytelling/

Ira Glass on story telling

http://infosthetics.com

data visualization and visual communication

http://www.dailylit.com

too busy for books? read them by email

http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm

the forest of rhetoric

http://www.gapingvoid.com

cartoons on business cards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syf8olcM0z4

pulp fiction in typography

http://asuka.kiy.jp

wooden cases of all kinds

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift

media future blog

http://www.monocle.com

Euro web mag

http://www.fon.com/en/

free wifi community

http://www.kirainet.com

Un geek en Japon

http://openstudio.media.mit.edu

MIT art project

The Methods to Our Madness

by Vince LaConte

Just over two years ago, a crack commando team of ID students, faculty and staff embarked on an ambitious project: to collect in a single compendium all the frameworks, methods, tools, processes, and other handy knowledge-widgets we teach here at ID.

After a few semesters of interviewing experts, (re)drawing diagrams, condensing long-winded lectures into pithy descriptions—and of course devising new meta-frameworks to contain the existing frameworks—we’re finally starting to get somewhere. The poster all of you received in your ID mailbox the other day is the earliest fruit of our efforts. There are even bigger, juicier, fruitier fruits on the vine—but more about those in a future communication.

(To alumni and others reading this outside these halls: the methods poster is on its way to your mailbox soon. If you think we might not have your up-to-date mailing address, send it to me. We’ll get it to you.)

So, why collect methods? The methods-based approach to design—as opposed to the traditional art-and-craft, personal expression, I-don’t-know-why-it-just-looks-cool approach—is one of ID’s hallmarks, and what sets us apart from most (dare we say all?) other design schools, and sets our students and graduates apart from most (all?) other designers.

But, while we can talk about how cool methods are until we’re blue in the face, the proof resides, as they say, in pudding. So we’re whipping up a batch. We’re not just going to tell people that IDers know, create, teach and practice the most awesome, relevant, powerful methods for design, creativity and innovation. We’re going to show them. And maybe even teach them a little, with posters, wikis, web sites, textbooks, workshops, and everything else we can think of. (Except decks of cards; we hear that’s been done.)

If you haven’t been on the ID wiki lately, log in and check out the methods project section. There’s starting to be some pretty good stuff there, and it’s only the beginning; over the next few months we’ll be refining it and open it up to faculty, students, alumni and close supporters to add and improve as a community.

Our ultimate goal is nothing less than for ID to become the worldwide, open-source center of a design methods revolution. Today, the school; tomorrow, the world.

Download the poster (1.4MB PDF)

P.S. The different shaped dots on the poster matrix denote People, Offering, Company, or Market focus for each method. We just thought the column sub-headings needed some extra visual reinforcement.

Recap: recruitID

by Alex Cheek

RecruitID is still fresh in our minds from last week. Thanks to our gracious hosts, Alexis Baum and Andrew Buhayar, student volunteers and the attending company representatives, the event was a great success. More figures will follow, but suffice it to say that over one hundred Thai dinners were served and many interviews were held. Companies came from all over the US to learn about ID and its students.

In case you haven’t been able to attend a recruitID event yet, the event began Monday morning with open tables hosted by attending companies that served as an informal meeting session. The morning was closed by a great presentation from Tom MacTavish Vice-President of Human Interaction Research at Motorola, that delved into the future of multimedia in the cell phone world and the idea of affordances.

The afternoon of the first day was a chance for students to share their work with companies in a round table format. Four groups at a time presented to and fielded questions from a rotating group of recruiters. The day closed out with the ever-popular cocktail reception. More interview appointments are settled here making this one of the best chances to talk with representatives outside of a formal setting in the entire event.

With the opening day ceremonies over, the next two days were solid interviews from 8 AM - 6 PM. These were long but fruitful days. Over the next few weeks, the results will be worked out, but first, Spring Break.

Charette: Design a media cart in less than 5 hours. Go!

by Ash Bhoopathy

The Foundation Product Design class embarked on an engrossing experience last Friday in the form of a design charette. Design charettes provide an interesting design problem that must be worked through in a very short period of time (in this case, rethink the design of a classroom media cart at ID in less than a day).

In spite of the short time, a full design cycle is naturally followed – understanding, conceptualization, evaluation, refinement, presentation.
Our class split up into smaller groups, to facilitate design problem solving, decision making, and learning about team dynamics. We had foamcore and hot glue, copious amounts of sketching paper, and other miscellaneous objects. The intent was to create a tangible, visual representation of a potential future for the media cart. There were few constraints (besides those that were self-imposed).

Needless to say, the teams moved extremely quickly, in order to ideate, sketch, and finally rapidly prototype their “next generation” media carts. The intent was not to arrive at a final model that we could have manufactured next month. A charette is intended to explore potential ideas and vet them for feasiblity later on. The communication that takes place when you’re in a pinch for time is amazing– There is less worrying about what someone will think of your idea. It almost reminds me of ‘improv’, where you need to accept every statement with an “and”. You’re always looking to add to an idea, even build upon a seemingly wacky one.

As I reflected on the day, I thought about situations in the past where I was working to solve a problem in an organization. I’ve sat in “workouts” before (the GE workout, not Tae Bo)… But in no way did I feel that these sessions were as effective as Friday’s. There are no stale powerpoints to bore anyone. You’re always on the edge of your seat, making a sketch or a prototype. Its hard to imagine a problem that wouldn’t be solved in a superior way by spending in a design charette and rapidly ideating/prototyping.

Now that I have experienced a charette, I am eager to see more! It is a great model for a collaborative design environment that ID students should be confident about executing in an innovative workplace after graduating.

Spring Break Adventures

We were curious where everyone was going for Spring break, so we asked.

• Sarah Jones is going to Les Menuires, France and skiing with her boyfriend and 8 other mutual friends.
• Chris Finlay will be sailing in Miami.
• Eric Niu is leaving everything behind and going to Hawaii.
• Andrea Small is going to London and chillaxing with a buddy from college.
• Judd Morgenstern is getting loose in Los Angeles.
• Alex Cheek, Joyce Chen, Erik Crimmin, Enric Gili Fort and Margo Horowitz are driving to Colorado.
• Kayo Takasugi is going to Tokyo to visit family, meet friends, check out current events and new places.
• John Kestner is rocking out with his band in Arizona.
• Brian Brigham is going to Shanghai.
• David McGaw is going to London to visit museums, palaces, cathedrals, etc., and just wander around looking at historic sites.
• Valerie Campbell is going to Tennessee to meet friends and family and relax in 70 degree weather.
• Jordan Fischer is going to a music festival in Florida then a buddy’s place in San Diego.
• Itsuro Shibata is going to Amsterdam for work, love and friendship.