Tim Brown on LEGO and Vermeer | Design Thinking

I was quite impressed with the Lego movie and its celebration of creative play. Tim Brown thinks the same [Link] and makes some great connections with Tim’s Vermeer – the documentary that challenges our assumptions about the relationship between art and technology. (And following on David Hockney’s insistence that artists regularly used technical instruments –…

design thinking – cultural ecologies – better teams

There’s a great recent post on Tim Brown’s Design Thinking blog from Tim and Jane Fulton Suri – [Link] They present four tips, inspired by biology, to create better teams: 1. Design a Fertile Habitat 2. Create Simple Rules 3. Be Productive 4. Expect Collaboration I think Tim and Jane are again raising the question…

the culture of the Academy – lessons from design thinking

Across on archaeology.org Chris (Witmore) has taken issue with a comment  Tim Ingold has made about the notion of a symmetrical archaeology.[Link] Symmetrical Archaeology? Like many others, Archaeologists regularly  do all they can to separate what they do from what they study, their work in the present from the past, past artifacts from the stories…

the politics of design – the T Character revisited

Topic – how to be interdisciplinary – and more Quick recap. For some time I have been interested in the notion of the “T character” – an attitude or disposition, a skill set, that facilitates the kind of interdisciplinary practice that is the heart of good design, bridging the different expertise and interests in a…

Optimism and transformative design

Transformative Design, my class about design thinking that makes a real difference, run with Meghann (Dryer of IDEO) and Bernie (Roth of Stanford Engineering), opens again soon in the d.school. I got thinking seriously about its themes this weekend at a fund-raising event organized by Castilleja School, where Helen teaches and Molly learns, on the…

Au Bons Crus

design – cultural literacy

This post is in a series of commentaries on a class running at Stanford, Winter Quarter 2010 – “Transformative Design” ENGR 231 – [Link] This evening – a group of friends and colleagues discussing education and schooling with Tony Wagner. Our warm and welcoming hosts were Joan Lonergan and John Merrow at Castilleja School. Topics:…