Hasta La Ideas

To the comic book geek, few issues of their favorite superhero’s stories will be more prized than the one containing their Origin Story, which illustrates the atypical circumstances leading to that character’s superhero birth. Similarly we enjoy hearing that Apple was started in a garage, or that Dieter Rams applied for a job at Braun on a dare, or that Lincoln Logs were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Design schools have origin stories too, and one many of us may not be familiar with is that of the Rhode Island School of Design as documented by Dawn Barrett, their outgoing Architecture & Design Dean. Barrett is currently in the design world news for being the new President of the Massachusetts College of Art in Design, and she’s also noted for her work on Infinite Radius: Founding Rhode Island School of Design an anthology of essays and archival materials concerning RISD’s birth in the late 19th Century.

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