Category Archives: Uncategorized

James Victore

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“One would think that having no design education to speak of, having never learned the proper way to do, well, anything, would tend to be a major handicap. Instead, it allows me to forgo the formalities and head right to the good stuff.” (James Victore,  Victore, or, Who Died and Made You Boss, New York: Abrams, 2010. project 40, no page number)

He writes compassionately about teaching, how students come to him “standardized,” and he has to break their molds, as it were, to allow them to believe that they can really make a difference and that “love always wins.”

He got together with a bartender/actor friend to create a non-profit called the Shakespeare Project that staged plays for diverse audiences. (Example of interdisciplinary work!)

It’s important to be steeped in culture!

In Tech, Starting Up by Failing

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the pivot, interesting term for switching directions.

Article that highlights companies that change their tactics quickly and stresses the importance of failing.

“To pivot is, essentially, to fail gracefully. While the term has been in the start-up lexicon for decades, it is coming up more often in the current Internet boom, as entrepreneurs find that many investors are willing to keep the money flowing even if a start-up takes a hard left turn.” – Jenna Wortham
(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/business/for-some-internet-start-ups-a-failure-is-just-the-beginning.html?_r=2&hp, Accessed Jan 19, 2012)

how is the process of design different when it’s interdisciplinary?

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it’s not about being safe or doing what has been done before

it’s not about following a grid, map, or way of doing things

it’s about new terrain, a different path, being unexpected, and scaring the hell out of people (Brand Gap)

need to be sensitive to how other disciplines define problems and solve them

the design process is not always the answer

working interdisciplinary with a team is about patience and listening

working alone on a interdisciplinary project involves looking at the problem from different perspectives including different processes for solving that problem

when working with a diverse team you must find a common language, which often is bits and pieces of various disciplines

the goal is something that has never been done before, so the process is like no other and unique to the dynamic group who is building it

you should have a toolkit of ways to generate ideas but know that the dynamic of the group will always shift from what you are comfortable and familiar with

as an individual you are most successful with innovation the more you dive into diverse mediums and thought processes. you bring fresh eyes to the medium and subject matter

Introduction — notes

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By Zvez:

  • What is inerdisciplinarity? Various definitions, ending with our own.
  • Brief two-tracked history of academia: segmentation and merger
  • Why is this important for you? What will you gain with this book?
  • Chapter breakdown
  • A shot into the future of graphic design (how is interdisciplinarity changing/enriching the field)
  • Conclusion

Although our target reader is the designer —  student, recent grad, or seasoned practitioner — looking for a way into the interdisciplinary buzz, we hope the book appeals more broadly to any visionary thinker in search of new knowledge.

By Nancy:
In 2011 the boundaries that were once drawn between disciplines are dissolving and deteriorating. This past static perspective is getting turned on it’s head as we face new modes of communication, immigration, and environmental challenges… Within all this change new problems arise. Designers are well positioned as creative problem solvers to face these challenges but they cannot do it alone, collaborative teams of diverse thinkers are often brought together. The borders of the design field have become so far reaching, at what point do you call a project interdisciplinary? What is within and what is outside the borders of graphic design?

Flow charts

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We need to find an example of a flow chart used in an interdisciplinary graphic design process. Here are some random ones that don’t fit the bill, but it’s a start.


This medical flow chart shows tracheostomy decanulation in adults.
http://apps.einstein.br/revista/arquivos/PDF/365-Einstein%20v6n1p1-6.pdf 

This funny chart by julianhansen.com charts the process of picking a typeface. This is not a functional chart, it’s more of a statement on the barrage of typefaces out there.

What’s different about interdisciplinary design?

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Here’s the table of contents of Ellen’s new book, Graphic Design Thinking. In it, she explains the tools of the gd process. In working on the Method chapter, I’m wondering, what makes interdisciplinary design method different from the regular design method? Also, much of this comes from straight forward project management (working with others, making flow charts, accountability, etc); what’s different about interdisciplinary method? Feel free to respond to this post with an answer. Here are some of my thoughts:

IDGD is about breaking down boundaries, not setting them up. It’s about building a joint process where disciplines melt down into something surprisingly new, not done before.

IDGD is about hybrid ways of working and hybrid outcomes.

IDGD is about being visionary.

breakdown of Method in my own words

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YOU- Give a fu*k.
Finding meaning. take time to know yourself, what keeps you up at night? find projects that you care about, break your routine- do something you’ve never done before… introduce yourself to new a new subject matter
-valacenti dinner series
-taking a class
-travelling
-interview with ?? how they find meaning
-tools for gathering ideas and combining disciplines, mind map, flow chart…

TEAM- surround yourself with brilliance
Find people that are smarter then you in one way or another. Make deadlines and hold each other accountable. Play nice and think big- when everyone gets in the same room be humble, open, and ready to make mistakes. Get excited- make big big plans even though you know realistically they are not possible, you can scale down later

SPACE- where you are matters
find a collaborative working environment that excites all participants, think about entertaining all senses beyond sight- taste, sound, touch…
-stanford
-ideo

PRACTICE- moving forward
practical guidelines for moving the project forward, how all voices are heard, decisions made. How can everyone feel like an equal? Giving everyone a role. How do you move forward with no clear leader? With no clear solution?

Sample Chapter: Method — 001

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Chapter Outline
Intro: Methods of interdisciplinarity
How to find interdisciplinary work? Being ready. Being willing to let go of control. Step into the unknown equipped with the right tools. Have respect and trust for the others in your group.

Inside your mind:
Venn Diagram
Mind Map
Flow Chart
Notes (how to look up other knowledge, take notes, make charts)

Working with others:
How to make a welcoming atmosphere for conversations (Ryan’s dinners)
Structured talks
Listening
Role play

Testing in stages
Staying neutral
Observing
Good failure
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Chapter 1

METHOD

“Design is now too important to be left to designers”
(Tim Brown, Change by Design, p. 37″

Interdisciplinary work starts from within. In order to include other knowledge or other people in your process, you have to be willing to try new ways of making design. Here we will discuss mind maps, flow charts and venn diagrams as helpful means of seeing how disciplines can come together. We will then look at larger efforts in interdisciplinary work, where experts from different fields come together to produce new knowledge. How do diverse groups work well together? We will look at how making a welcoming atmosphere, choosing the right structure, listening well and role playing can help.

Venn Diagram — finding overlaps
A Venn diagram is useful when you think about the spaces where two disciplines come together to form a singular problem, need, or outcome. For example, in a freshmen design elective, students at MICA were asked to rethink hospital walls and come up with graphic patterns that would cheer up a doctor’s visit. A Venn diagram illustrated how two opposing kinds of imagery could come together to create these patterns.

(Follow up with completed images from this assignment)

Mind Map
Mind maps are great for thinking through an idea and finding associations with it. They can show us how ideas or words connect. In an assignment at OSU, Students paired up and picked a profession out of a hat. They had to mind map the strengths they held in their profession separately then list the strengths they held together. From there they had to define a collaboration between the two professions, highlighting their combined strengths.

 

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Random notes:

Example: At Hartford Art School’s Design Global Change, Natacha Poggio partners up with engineers, educators and aid professionals to construct meaningful, service-oriented projects for her students. What are some of her strategies?

Example: In an intense study abroad program, Nancy Froehlich led six OSU students and as many Indian crafters to produce a line of scarves. Nurturing trust and sharing control of the process were essential to this project.

book structure #1

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STRUCTURE #1
Each chapter has brief essay followed by practical know-how

Possible title:
Connect: A Guide to Interdisciplinary Graphic design

_introduction: the new connector
(theory, context)
historical presedents; history of disciplines; why interdisciplinarity now? inter/cross/trans; design and philosophy

_chapter 1: method (mind games, including the end user, testing, learning to talk to each other)

_chapter 2: space (flexible spaces for doing interdisciplinary work; flexible classrooms, inspiring work areas at home and work; space to put your ideas in — process books, idea books, notepads; portable spaces; school as space)

_chapter 3: scale (S, M, L, XL projects)
subdivide these into culture, science and society
this would be longer and more heavily illustrated; snazzy captions will point to relevant points
Culture (the fashion company, India projects, etc)
Science (data visualization…)
Society (Center for Urban Pedagogy, Ideo…)

Add: Interviews and assignments for educators; these can be peppered throughout on special, color coded pages.

when and how change happens

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Medici effect

“This is not to say that younger people are more creative. However, younger people
are often less constrained by their education within a field since they
have not yet had too much of it. It would follow, then, that learning a
new field, whether one is young or old, can help break down associative
barriers. Thomas Kuhn points out in his seminal book The Structure of
Scientific Revolutionsthat “almost always the men who achieve . . . fun-
damental inventions of a new paradigm have been either very young or
very new to the field whose paradigm they change.” pg 52

I go back to this text because I find it interesting that great shifts and ideas happen not within the field that you are a master of- but when you are very new to a field. Something to ponder as we trek forward.