I've returned from a wonderful trip to the mid-west!
As mentioned in the previous post, I traveled to Chicago for the International Conference on Design Principles and Practices. Not only did we have wonderful weather for February in the Windy City, but the Conference was extraordinary! I didn't hear an actual count for the number of participants, but my guess would be well over 100- and it certainly proved to be an international crowd. Speakers were representing research from all over North and South America, Europe, Asia and newly formed countries which I had never even heard of. Regardless of nationality, we all spoke the common language of Design.
Most conference attendees were also speakers and were divided into 8 different "streams". These included:
Architecture, The Built Environment and Planning
Business, Economics and Knowledge Management
Social Policy, Culture and Welfare
Design Policy, Planning and Politics
Design Research
Digital, Internet and Multimedia Design
Engineering
Industrial Design
We were welcome to join any presentation, but were grouped by stream for "Talking Circles". These provided a chance to speak about our international commonalities within Design. I joined the Industrial Design Stream. We spoke mostly about multi-disciplinary Design and how, while nearly all designers are well versed in supporting disciplines, such as engineering and business, they are often not credited with these skills. We spoke about how the term "Design" even seems to take on a negative connotation around particular fields (such as engineering). Although I will not discuss this at length here, it is a topic I am very passionate about. Please email me if you'd like to discuss further. For a summary of this discussion, we concluded that while Designers are well-rounded in various disciplines, the key is to speak in the language of others. Because Designers are creative, and are both left and right brained, they can use the vocabulary of engineers, financial planners, and marketers. This flexibility is necessary for any productive business.
For more information on the Conference, please check out the website:
Enjoy!
Posts
