“Design thinking uses just one tool: 3M Post-Its,” says Pentagram partner Natasha Jen. “Why did we end up with a single medium? Charles and Ray Eames worked in a complete lack of Post-It stickies. They learned by doing.”
“Stuffocation is that feeling you get when you have to fight through piles of stuff you don’t use to find the thing you need, or when someone gives you something and your gut reaction isn’t “thank you,” but “what on earth makes you think I could possibly want or need that?” Instead of thinking of more stuff in positive terms, like we used to, we now think more means more hassle, more to manage, and more to think about. Overwhelmed and suffocating from stuff, we are feeling ‘stuffocation’.”[Read more]
A group of dedicated inhabitants in the Spaarndammerbuurt is working to maintain a public garden by and for the neigbourhood. About which there has been a rub with the council for quite some years now. Until a recent meeting with a local councillor allowing them to prove their point. It’s now or never to make this spot our own and of the neighborhood. (more…)
Last Friday I attended a dialogue at Kennisland between their research project ‘The Wicked Series‘ in collaboration with Hivos and ‘Social Design for Wicked Problems‘ (SDFWP) initiated by Het Nieuwe Instituut, Twijnstra Gudde en Tabo Goudswaard. The Wicked Series organized by Kennisland and Hivos spanned three evenings in which 40 participants were invited to unravel -in collaboration with relevant (experience) experts- the (un)logic of a series of wicked social issues. SDFWP involves a research project in which design teams work on three different topics, one for ING/NN, a (Dutch) bank/ insurance company, one for the Municipality of Amsterdam and another one introduced by the designers themselves. SDFWP I observed from a distance since it kicked of with an ‘expert meeting’ at the conference WhatDesignCanDo 2013 in Amsterdam. In the Wicked series I attended as a participant in 2013.
What these projects share is their intention to deal with/unravel the complexity of (global) social issues. What fundamentally sets them apart is the way they both deal with context, a key-factor in ‘wicked’ issues. (more…)
Recently I was at a windowmakersshop because I needed a fence for a stairwell. It always takes some getting used to dealing with skillful craftspeople. If anything goes, you have to contemplate well about what it is you really want. And how nice that these professionals then actually are so skilled. And patient. Because they know that this one solution should be the ultimate one (for you) (because that’s what they know for sure). It is then quite useful to be able to think in terms of what can be made and what you exactly want yourself -and what is feasible (-but that will be a separate blog post). (more…)
In this TedX presentation Jane Fulton-Suri (Managing Partner and Creative Director at IDEO) inspires to be open, curious and look carefully at the world around us. She shows how nature can teach us to design for human needs and desires in more innovative, useful and meaningful ways.
A group of dedicated inhabitants in the Spaarndammerbuurt is working to maintain a public garden by and for the neigbourhood. About which there has been a rub with the council for quite some years now. Until a recent meeting with a local councillor allowing them to prove their point. It’s now or never to make this spot our own and of the neighborhood. 
