Hasta La Ideas

div style=”align: right;”img src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/2010/03/0ingadora01.jpg” width=”468″ height=”436″ alt=”0ingadora01.jpg”//div

pThat’s the 47-8 Milkjug by Inga Dora Johannsdottir, a project done for her 105 Sustainability course at the Design Department of the Iceland Academy of the Arts. (The 105 Sustainability course was founded by designer Hrafnkell Birgisson and is supervised by product designer Tinna Gunnarsdottir, and aims to “stress the importance of sustainability and diversity in local areas.”) The product caught our eye, and communicating with Johannsdottir gave us a glimpse at a facet of Icelandic design education. Johannsdottir broke the course down for us and explained her project:/p

blockquote[In 105 Sustainability] we became acquainted with production methods and inside knowledge of selected companies mainly located in the postal code 105 Reykjavik, the same postal code our school is in.

pWe visited nine companies (for example, a gold- and silversmith, sowing factory, plastic factory, metal factory or cardboard factory) to get a look at the material that they have and what kind of machines they have, and how they work. Afterwards, we selected a company to work with and developed ideas for a new product in cooperation with the company, which in turn helped us making the prototype. /pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/education/iceland_design_march_2010_inga_dora_johannsdottirs_105_sustainability_project_16294.asp”(more…)/a
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pimg alt=”ac4d_logo_sm.png” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/ac4d_logo_sm.png” width=”468″ height=”79″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

pA you may already know, Core-fave Jon Kolko has launched a new educational institution, the a href=”http://www.austincenterfordesign.com/”Austin Center for Design/a, in Austin, Texas. There’s a virtual open house coming up at the start of April, so you may want to check it out. Here’s the pitch:br /
blockquotebr /
The program exists to transform society through design and design education. This transformation occurs through the development of design knowledge directed towards all forms of social and humanitarian problems. The center explicitly tackles problems related to:/p

p * Homelessness and transient housing solutionsbr /
* Healthcare access, affordability, and comprehensionbr /
* Nutrition, personal wellness, and consumptionbr /
* Education and job placementbr /
* Poverty, as a general state of beingbr /
* Sustainability and environmental impact/p

pThe Center offers an innovative curriculum that repositions creative design education in the context of designing for the public sector. Students learn the interdisciplinary skills of creative design thinking, as applied to solving complicated problems of society and culture. These skills broadly include divergent thinking, ideation, visualization, synthesis, prototyping, and the managing of complexity and data organization. Students use these skills to develop systems, services, products, and new business models that address pressing social issues./blockquote/p

pJon will be running the virtual open house on April 1st, at 6:00pm central time. Visit a href=”http://www.austincenterfordesign.com/contact_virtualOpenHouse.php”the site/a for more information and to sign up, and to learn more about the school./p

pCongrats Jon!/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/education/open_house_austin_center_for_design_16256.asp”(more…)/a
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pimg alt=”social_innovation.jpg” src=”http://www.core77.com/blog/images/social_innovation.jpg” width=”468″ height=”336″ class=”mt-image-center” style=”text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;” / /p

pThe a href=”http://www.nesta.org.uk/areas_of_work/public_services_lab/social_enterprise/methods-of-social-innovation”Social Innovator Series/a is the culmination of a major two year collaboration between the UK’s a href=”http://www.nesta.org.uk/”National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts/a (NESTA) and a href=”http://www.youngfoundation.org/news/the-open-book-social-innovation”The Young Foundation/a to develop a rich, practical resource for social innovators. It is a collection of publications and accompanying website that reveal the vast potential of a new social economy./p

blockquoteThis emerging economy can be seen in many fields, including the environment, care, education, welfare, food and energy. This ‘social economy’ goes beyond the state and the third sector, and includes social enterprises, co-operatives and social movements.

pThe Social Innovator Series surveys the methods used by innovators in this new social economy and presents a varied, vibrant picture of social innovation in practice. It features hundreds of examples, methods and tools from all over the world./p

pThough social innovation is a rapidly emerging practice, methods for developing this vital field remain relatively hidden. Having a better understanding of social innovation – the new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations – is increasingly urgent as existing structures and policies struggle to make an impact on the most pressing issues of our time./blockquote/p

pDownload the books from the Social Innovator Series:br /
– a href=”http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/reports/assets/features/the_open_book_of_social_innovation”Open Book of Social Innovation/abr /
– a href=”http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/reports/assets/features/danger_and_opportunity_crisis_and_the_new_social_economy”Danger and Opportunity: Crisis and the new social economy/abr /
– a href=”http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/reports/assets/features/social_venturing”Social Venturing/a/p

pVisit the Social Innovator website: a href=”http://www.socialinnovator.info/”www.socialinnovator.info/abr /
/pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/education/the_methods_of_social_innovation_16128.asp”(more…)/a
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pimg alt=”0dartmengi.jpg” src=”http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/0dartmengi.jpg” width=”434″ height=”289″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //p

p[image credit: John Sherman]/p

pWe’ve seen creatives generate inspiration from all manner of strangeness over the years, but this has to be a first: Professor Peter Robbie’s Design Thinking class at Dartmouth incorporates improv sessions. According to A HREF=”http://www.dartmouthengineer.com/2010/03/engineering-by-design/” an article in IDartmouth Engineer/I/A, “I’ve always thought that the quickest and smartest folks at the brainstorming phase of design have been those who do standup and improv,” says the professor. “They never say no. They never miss a beat. Improv requires players to accept what they are given, build on the ideas of others, and encourage wild ideas.”/p

blockquoteRobbie demystifies design by breaking it into systematic steps. “I believe it’s important to create classroom experiences that will increase students’ confidence in their own creative design abilities,” he says.

pUsing improv to get students comfortable with brainstorming is a case in point. “Everyone thinks that they know how to brainstorm, but in fact, brainstorming is usually plagued by problems like self-censoring, competitiveness, and ridicule,” says Robbie. “Improv is a great way for students to learn to defer judgment.”/blockquote/p

pRead more about Robbie’s process, philosophy and methodologies A HREF=”http://www.dartmouthengineer.com/2010/03/engineering-by-design/” here/A.br /
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French studio Topos Architecture have completed a nursery in Nantes where the gabled ends are clad in red polycarbonate, engraved with floral patterns. (more…)