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.

Designers gather in Phoenix to address shifts in the design profession

http://www.aiga.org/news-20111006/

What is the role of design in a rapidly shifting world?

I’m curious if Design has always been in such a state of flux? Things are shifting faster due to technological advances, but Isn’t change innate? Why do we spend so much time talking about it vs stepping up and trying to find answers that are needed. I’m finding a tremendous amount of articles, conferences, conversations about change. Yep things are changing, lets move on.

Interesting article on the shift of the retail environment.

http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20111115/brand-new-world

Brand New World

Our retail roundup includes kiosks, pop-ups, hidden shops, and a virtual experience activated by QR codes. All of this raises the intriguing question: What is a store today anyway?

By Martin C. Pedersen

Like just about everything else today, retail design is in a state of flux. We’re now living in a world where most items for sale in a store are also available online. Which raises a couple of important questions: What’s the role of traditional retail in an increasingly virtual world? And how will stores compete in the digital future? The reassuring news is that we still need physical transactions. The brick-and-mortar store will not disappear. Instead, it’s adapting to new realities, changing demographics, and perhaps a smaller budget. The retail roundup presented here is a snapshot of a fluid industry, with global brands attempting to put on a local face, big-box retailers mastering the art of crowdsourcing, and secret stores that are tucked away like Prohibition-era speakeasies. For designers, the shift is a subtle one, from places of transaction to spaces for human interaction and shared experience.

Would be nice to include a section of contacts where people could apply to be a part of an interdisciplinary/collaborative experience.

http://www.good.is/post/ideo-org-fellows-bring-beautiful-design-to-humanitarian-efforts/

IDEO

“Human-centered design, the framework through which all IDEO.org fellows operate, guides designers to come in with a “beginner’s mind,” asking lots of questions and observing everyday moments, resisting the instinct to jump to conclusions or try to sound smart. It’s relationships and hunches, not strategic plans and short-term goals, that are the real tools of the human-centered designer. Liz Ogbu, one of the fellows working on the water project, writes, “We are starting to think of available water services and technology as analogous to a set of Lego parts that can be applied and rearranged depending on the needs of the community.”