Paula Scher: Map Paintings

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Scher combined her love of painting, lettering and maps in these interdisciplinary works that reflect on our information-centered society.

From the Pentagram website:
“In her paintings, Scher renders information and data culled from headlines, maps and diagrams in madcap fields of hand-drawn typography. Obsessive, opinionated and more than a little personal, the maps provide an exuberant portrait of contemporary information in all its complexity and subjectivity. Scher’s new book of her paintings, MAPS, was published last fall and recently went into its second printing.”
http://pentagram.com/en/new/2012/01/paula-schers-maps-exhibition-o.php 

Antartctica, 2011


 

Working with a diverse team

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The Design Difference: Using Design to Conduct a Problem-Solving Workshop

This article describes the process of working with a diverse team, where not everyone at the table is a designer.

http://www.good.is/post/the-design-difference-using-design-to-conduct-a-problem-solving-workshop/

Relevant to us? outlines a method of working with diverse people

“The timeframes gave great guidance for narrowing lofty ideas into what would be possible to achieve. Each group was given about 30 minutes in which to tackle a specific combination, then we’d be asked to switch to another assigned category and timeframe. This prevented potential burnout from banging our heads against the same problem all day.

The format of the brainstorming, or ideation, exercises moved from an unedited, uncensored burst of ideas (divergent thinking), into more actionable, physically-oriented solutions (convergent thinking). Each group began the brainstorming period by layering a page with quick ideas—or pieces of ideas—jotted on Post-its. Over time, common themes or similar trains of thought were grouped together and built upon, and the best three to five ideas were drafted into more specific concepts.”

Learning from each other

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“What Gutenberg did for writing online, video can now do for face to face communication.” Chris Anderson

Streaming video online has changed the way we work together and exchange ideas. Chris Anderson of TED speaks about how a crowd can accelerate improvement, the bigger the crowd the greater the innovation. Global recognition is initiating huge amounts of effort. It works by people sharing their biggest secret (radical openness), their greatest talent- they make a video of it and post it to the web. People across the entire planet see that video, get inspired, learn that skill, improve upon it, and then post their innovation. Video offers something the printed word and photographs cannot. It is an exchange beyond words, and talents such as dancing can thrive. Video offers new ways to learn and respond, building ideas in a participation age.

How does this relate to Interdisciplinary design projects? We don’t have to be in the same room to work together. Streaming video online has opened doors to new ways of collaborating and gaining knowledge.

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?