Hasta La Ideas

In Business Design: The curriculum of 2012, Ryan Jacoby offers some informed fantasy in developing a complete concept for an educational program, with credits, practica, course codes, titles, and of course, nicknames.

Putative students will select courses from Prototyping, Piloting and Living in Beta (Mo Beta, 4 credits), Design for Emotional Connection (Not Ads, 3 credits), and Organizational Design and Culture (Charts & Farts, 3 credits) among many others. For the practica, in Entrepreneurial & Intrapraneurial Finance students would be required to raise money for (or bootstrap) a $25,000 venture, while in Creating Options, students will act as a Business Unit president in a dynamic simulation and create and decide amongst many options as the context and competition changes all around them..

Ryan’s detailed out the whole program, so check it out. And someone fund it!

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You know Project M from their latest Buy a Meter project and John Bielenberg’s “thinking wrong” mantra (amongst many others – projects and matras!) This summer, they’re bringing the show to Falls Village, CT, home and office of Winterhouse, where twelve (lucky) participants will have the opportunity to work on a unique design project. Here’s the pitch:

We are pleased to announce that Project M is coming to Winterhouse from August 15-30, 2009. Twelve select individuals will get to participate in a unique collaborative enterprise to create a single design project of lasting value in a rural community. This project is sponsored by William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand of Winterhouse, with the active participation of John Bielenberg, the founder of Project M. Design Observer will provide an interesting array of visiting critics and will publish the project. Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation will provide input and serve as an advisor. Application deadline is June 15 with notification of selected participants by June 30. Cost is $1500 plus travel and expenses.

Critics will be Michael Bierut, Julie Lasky, Alice Twemlow, Lorraine Wild, and Core77’s Allan Chochinov. Get more info and application guidelines at the site.

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I recall a quote from John Thackara that pointedly articulates one of contemporary design’s biggest opportunities (and challenges). He said, in essence: “Whatever you decide to do, don’t do it alone…. We’re all designers now.” The idea of collaboration is nothing new, but truly productive collaborative design for sustainability’s sake is easier said than done. British designer and thinker Alastair Fuad-Luke believes “co-designing,” designing together, makes good sense not just for design’s sake, but as a generative process with the potential to improve markets, economies, societies, and our environments. Fuad-Luke is the author of multiple books on the subject of sustainable design and design activism, and leads workshops on co-designing to teach a process in which each participant is both teacher and student.

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Want to add InDesign to the list of skills on your resume (after “Adobe Illustrator” and “British accent,” and before “shuffleboard”)? What are you doing on the weekend of May 30? That’s when the mediabistro.com mothership is hosting “InDesign for Designers,” a class in New York City for Mac-based designers ready to make the switch to Adobe’s page-layout flagship. Art director and graphic designer Patricia Ryan will guide you through InDesign’s myriad features and capabilities to get you up and running quickly. And by the end of the weekend, you’ll be able to lay down an Inner Glow, an Outer Glow, and a Drop Shadow with the best of them. Click here to learn more and register.

In our continuing design school commencement speaker/honorary degree recipient round-up, we bring news that graduates of the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles will hear from Nike president and CEO Mark Parker (pictured), who will deliver the commencement address at the Saturday ceremony and receive an honorary doctorate from the school. Parker, who joined Nike as a designer in 1979, has been involved in many of the company’s most significant breakthroughs (Nike Air, anyone?) and held leadership roles within seemingly every business function, from product development to marketing. “I speak on behalf of the entire Otis College community when I say that Mark Parker—an artist, designer, and collector in his own right—truly honors us with his presence at commencement this year,” said the College’s president, Samuel Hoi, in a statement issued by the school. “He shares our conviction that art and design matters, socially, culturally, and economically.” True enough, but we still think it would be hilarious if Parker remained ruthlessly on-brand with a three-word speech to the graduates: Just do it.

Previously on UnBeige: