Hasta La Ideas

“Suddenly there is a whole population of designers trying to use their skills to have an impact on the world around them.”

With these words, co-chair Bill Drenttel launched the Aspen Design Summit earlier this month with the goal of generating programs and initiatives in which design solutions play a crucial role in bringing social change and innovation to as many people as possible. Having assembled leaders from the public and private sectors, and lured them to the Rocky Mountains with a bunch of designers, strategists and educators, Drenttel, of Winterhouse Institute, a co-sponsor of the Summit along with AIGA and Rockefeller Foundation, had the ingredients for an intriguing, and potentially volatile, stew. Undoubtedly a gathering of smart, accomplished professionals from a variety of disciplines could spawn an endless spring of lofty, detached, expensive ideas for solving (but not really solving) the woes of the world. But could this group accomplish the most demanding objective of the Summit: to develop feasible and fundable programs of scale and impact that could be implemented within 24 months? This was the stipulation that converted the Aspen Design Summit from a mere exercise in creative thinking into a focused, energized laboratory for social change. Those who expected leisurely hikes along the Roaring Fork River instead found themselves in late-night studio sessions and pre-breakfast huddles.

To fill this tall order, the 70 attendees were split into five “studios,” each focusing on a single project—a complex social problem that varied in scope and definition. Some projects had a specific client or partner organization, like those for UNICEF, dealing with early childhood development; the Mayo Clinic’s rural community healthcare initiative; and, the group that I joined, the Centers for Disease Control’s efforts around healthy aging. Others were looser and less defined, like the projects addressing sustainable food and childhood obesity; and rural poverty in Hale County, Alabama. Each studio group had a designated moderator and recorder, but beyond that we were very much left to find our own way through the problem without a prescribed roadmap.

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