Designing Design

Design is a way of solving problems, telling stories, sharing knowledge and it all starts with process.

While it is hard to visually demonstrate something that is at the end invisible, design thinking, working in collaborative groups and transforming from students into teachers is the heart of what we do.

During the summer leading up to my senior year I worked with my mentor, Professor Gwen Amos, to organize a special projects class that examined process.

The class operated at multiple levels, the foundation was a reexamination of the design process, layered over that were a series of identity projects that we worked on in groups while checking against the process we proposed. The next layer was while designing, and designing design, we redesigned the teaching of design. The next step was taking what we had learned from the other levels and apply it towards restructuring the lower division and junior level class structure and materials. Working at various times as individuals, in task driven groups or as class we created an entire life cycle of learning, testing and teaching.

Design thinking is the model of the information age, and designers are poised to change the world in ways even greater than the rail and oil barons of the past. Things have changed, our new engines run on knowlege.