This weekend, Dirk+Weiss was at A Better World By Design conference in Providence Rhode Island. Held at the RISD and Brown campuses. The conference had workshops and speakers covering all aspects of design, systems, and critical thinking. Exhibitors showed off their new projects, and crowds piled into hear some of the newest, freshest solutions to some of the worlds largest problems.
I had the pleasure of co-facilitating two workshops with Project-M‘er Marc O’Brien, and Ben Gaydos and Karen Stein from GoodGood Design. Workshops: Thinking Wrong and Rapid Prototyping; each workshop deals with staying open, and creative, to all possibilities when working on projects and initiatives. Energy was through the roof, and the paradigms of design were blown wide open. Participants started projects on Friday with a Think Wrong session, and then brought their projects to life on Sunday with Rapid Prototyping. Projects varied from education reform to marine life that can help produce renewable resources for cities and towns.
Dirk+Weiss would like to thank Marc O’Brien for inviting us, and all of the staff and volunteers that made A Better World By Design 2011 a huge, inspirational success. Here are some photos:
We have released a new update to the Art Institute of Boston app today. This update brings a new interface, that loads faster and acts more efficiently. There are now four blogs included of different departments at AIB.
App features include:
- News from the AIB Facebook feed
- Shuttle Schedule from all the Lesley Campuses
- Mobile view of student artwork
- Library searching
- Links to department blogs
This app update has been rebuilt from scratch on an HTML5 and CSS architecture, using the PhoneGap open source web-app framework. This allows for faster, more efficient design, usability and updating.
If you already own the app, update today! If you are interested in the Art Institute of Boston, download the app to see all that AIB has to offer.
If you’re under 25, you’re probably saying, “Paul Who?”, and if your over 30 you’re probably saying “Paul, Mr. IBM, Rand”. Truth is, Paul Rand had a very successful graphic design career before the time of internet and mobile phones (fax machines and copy cameras?).
Well it seems the Paul has resurfaced, and is now designing great 140 character messages for the graphic designers of the 21st century. Now, in comes “The Angry Paul Rand”, and the greatest bit of graphic designer sarcasm since AnyoneCanSwiss (a small plug).
Example genius: “In my day I had a name for stupid clients who would not listen to my brilliant design advice. I called them “David Carson’s clients.” – The Angry Paul Rand.
We are designers here too. We were even trained in print design (like, on paper). While we recognize the work that Paul Rand did was indeed influential in his day, we also try not to harp on the past, and romanticize about “how design used to be”. @SwissMiss tweeted about him, and we also suggest that you go check him out. I hear he’s really old now, and please, don’t forget to laugh. @AngryPaulRand
A quick sketch to visualize the concept of ‘Our Design’, and the focus of a working theory on creating value based design.
Dirk+Weiss practices ‘Our Design’, and believe that value does lie in knowing that what we are designing and developing, actually is working. This working theory focuses less on (but does not disregard) the upfront, aesthetic design process, and approaches every project with the assumption that design has a formula, yet is not formulaic, and is calculable.
The project to be presented is a digital lab, used in professor Scott Benjamin’s science classes at BHCC. The lab’s subject matter is understanding Evolution by Natural Selection. Matthew worked directly with Scott to translate a previously analog lab, comprised of seeds, paperclips and bits of paper, to a Flash driven, interactive experience.
The process of creating this lab involved collaborating with Scott on every step, from graphic design to Flash Actionscripting.
The results of translating the lab to digital media, has proven to be quite successful. Scott has collected statistical data from his students, including pre and post lab usage. Based on his testing, Scott sees a definite increase in concept retainment after students have used the software. Matt and Scott will split the presentation between the design and development process (Matt), and the statistical data and impact of this digital lab in the classroom (Scott).
The 13th Annual Massachusetts Community College Conference on Teaching, Learning and Student Development happens on April 9th, 2010 at Bunker Hill Community College.
