Category Archives: Design Thinking
Rules? What Rules?
Maya Lin received a B+ for her Vietnam War Memorial concept while an undergraduate at Yale University. Her unconventional design stood in stark contrast to the other 1,400 entries in the competition. But controversy surrounded her until the monument’s completion in 1982. The prevailing attitude at the time was that monuments should rise heroically above the landscape like the Iwo Jima Memorial sculpture and the Jefferson Memorial, which is based on the Pantheon in Rome. The formula for monument design dictated that any typography on memorials should be a minimum of three inches in height. Maya Lin’s Vietnam wall violated[.....]
Now Hiring: Creative Technologist
In advertising we’ve often mistaken creative technologist for someone who designs websites and also doesn’t mind doing a little coding. Or a writer who can fix your computer. But the real job description is something that is so much more. The confluence of unfettered creativity and the technology to make it happen is rare. The two things seem to live at odds in most people’s brains and being good at one (like coding) often is at the expense of the other (like kinetic movement). Ask most art directors about algebra and you’ll get the idea. I was surfing and I[.....]
Is Design Thinking Really Dead?
Impatient companies trying to incorporate design thinking into their organizations have become frustrated with the whole process and like children who’ve played with a toy so much they’ve worn down the batteries, they’re pouting and saying, “It doesn’t work.” Here’s the issue, people who don’t fully understand design thinking have made it a “codified process,” effectively pulling the wings off of it. The people I’m speaking of are the corporations looking to capture some of the magic of design thinking. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be able to do anything without making it a Stage-gate process, attempting to apply straight-line[.....]
To succeed at design thinking, look to the Bible
by Bill Winchester If you’re part of a company that isn’t using design thinking to solve problems, well, sorry to be blunt but you’re behind the curve. WHAT IS DESIGN THINKING? Design thinking, for the uninitiated, is a process that uses the tenets of the design process and applies them to other problems. Part of the reason for this is that great design has become a major player in just about everything involving the consumer experience. Product design, web design, package design, store design have all taken on extreme importance in the race to become differentiated and memorable. Smart companies[.....]