After two fast-paced weeks the Integrated Design Studio came to a close this Monday with the presentation of the 4 final projects below.  We had a great time being Hokies for two weeks, and probably learned as much from the students as they did from us (hopefully they learned a little). 

 The premise of the project was to explore the possibilities and power of interdisciplinary collaboration… challenge the students think differently about design. All four teams should be proud of what they achieved. The quality of the work was high and there were many intangible moments throughout that equally validated the process. 

Jonathon, Brad and I left invigorated, and ready to try it again next year.

Well armed with a seemingly endless supply of Red Bull (I’ve heard tales of a Red Bull dealer in one of the studios) everyone is steadily generating renderings and laser cutting model parts. With the finish line in sight, concepts coming together and a full moon outside the freakout level is low… but it’s early.

All 4 groups seem to be working well together, have a clear(er) direction, and are making final refinements in preparation for the presentation on Monday afternoon at 3:00. A press release went out today on the front page of the university online news site inviting the public to the presentation… no turning back now!

To see the preliminary concepts from each group checkout the links on the sidebar to the left on this page under the heading “PROJECT INFO”.

This first studio has a been an adventure for everyone and we’re confident that the students will respond on Monday with presentations that will set a high bar for future studios (no pressure).

Below is some process work showing where the groups have been heading since they presented concepts Monday night. 

With such a diverse group it has been revealing to see how the different disciplines approach communicating their work. We were speaking with an architecture faculty member this morning who commented that ID students tend to have a noticeable human/user focus to their presentations as compared to the architecture students… which we have found to be true as well.

That conversation made me think that it could be just as valuable for the students to take this rare opportunity to present their personal work to students of other disciplines as it is for them to present to us.

There has been more talk in the studio about how these projects can proactively connect with the community… think about how the proliferation of Shepard Fairey’s work and message relates to the themes we have been discussing.

P.S. – Rebecca gets the credit for the Fairey reference.

http://www.egawazbryk.com

 They waded back into their research and re-examined their core ideas based on the feedback from the presentation Monday night and a desk crit Tuesday. This is EXACTLY what all of the groups should be doing (hint, hint). They got their ideas up on the wall, evaluated them, and immediately started sketching…  good job.

You can even see the progress from the street at night.

Watch this, be inspired and amaze us and yourselves…. 

All four groups did a good job of communicating their ideas, their progress, and their unresolved questions. The group as whole also did a great job jumping in and giving meaningful feedback to each other about questions and opportunities.

But there is not time to rest. This second week will be a sprint to the finish to get a single concept refined.

Here are some overall thoughts to help focus the refinement phase:

WORD OF THE DAY

Distill: def – extract the essential meaning or most important aspects of.

THE IDEA – DON’T FORGET THE RESEARCH

Go back to the research framework established last week – use it as an organizing tool for your thoughts and reactions. The presentations last night forced all of the groups to synthesize their ideas – and in most cases realize that their ideas aren’t quite there yet. There were a lot of good comments and suggestions offered, more than enough material to launch the final concept phase. Now is the time to rigorously evaluate the questions, comments, opportunities and ideas that were stirred up at the presentation. Remember, the goal is to come up with a single CLEAR IDEA.

PROCESS IS IMPORTANT

This studio is as much about how you work as it is what you produce. Now that all of the groups are moving into the refinement phase it is critical to start adding detailed thoughts and ideas about the sensory aspects of the final solution. Everyone talked about interaction in general, but not many people talked about the experience… how would a seat feel? What is the impact of shade/light? How does material selection impact how long someone stays engaged (how long would you sit on a steel plate bench versus a cushion-backed seat)? How do sound and smell factor in?

HAVE FUN

This a unique opportunity to work with students you wouldn’t normally get a chance to collaborate with… make the most of it.

Interviewing an employee at Hokie Spokes revealed that when gathering for a ride, they all seek out the one small patch of grass to protect the metal clips on the bottom of their riding shoes and protect themselves from slipping. This opens up the potential for the creative use of surface materials with a purpose.

Saturday morning they observed and interviewed a VT cycling club as they gathered for a group ride at Bollo’s Cafe & Bakery. Jon Taylor and I stopped back their later in the day for our afternoon espresso fix and coincidentally met some of those same riders. Reid and Andrew were nice enough to share more thoughts, revealing opportunities for social interaction with the hub (most of which they had already shared with the students). Cycling advocacy for the public and ride etiquette/education for the cyclists is an opp. About 7oo adults and 250 children cyclists die each year from automobile accidents. Centralized and available ride maps, trail tips and schedules would be beneficial. It would also be a central place to gather for club meetings. These came from asking more about their culture, interests, lifestyle and routine than the typical ” If you had a place like this what could you use it for?” 

Thanks again Reid and Andrew, ride on!

Today was a combination of conceptual design charrettes and ad hoc portfolio reviews. The reviews were good, gave us a chance to see more of their work and where they are coming from. Hope our perspectives were helpful.

above: “The” Richard Miller dropping some knowledge

We have been excited to see that each team is approaching the projects as “designers”, not identified by their studied discipline. They also seem to be appreciating the value of simultaneously evolving their written design statements while coming up with illustrated conceptual designs. I can tell that they are getting in a groove… discussions are more heated (Ben is a pot stirrer!) and they are gaining more ownership of the project.

The teams are transitioning between research and concept design. As they do that many are using words to describe the experience they are trying to create based on results from the research.

We briefly discussed the lessons learned from the Medici Effect – “When you step into an intersection of fields, disciplines, or cultures, you can combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas.” Good read, check out the excerpt on the sidebar.

We hit the ground running on the first day! A 2 hour QUICK FIRE design charatte gave everyone the chance to get in the right frame of mind and stretch their design muscles.

The challenge – redesign the ordinary. Construction scaffolding is quickly making for a homogenized look in dense, urban cities… especially cities like NYC that feel like a constant construction site. As both a spatial condition and a surface condition, scaffolding has the potential to raise many issues in design today (the full brief is under project info).

This group accepted the framework as an efficient solution and developed a surface application concept of an “urban quilt”. It’s designed to be a multi-sensory experience within a grid of controlled chaos.

Other proposals will be posted shortly.

READ: Chapters 1-3 of “The Medici Effect”  – This link is to a downloadable pdf excerpt from the book . Don’t worry, they are short chapters. This book is about the exact subject of this project – the power of interdisciplinary collaboration.

LOOK: Mike Sinclair is a photographer and friend who has a gift for documenting moments of daily life in ways that reveal things most of us wouldn’t notice. Review his photo sets, particularly the “personal” set. One of the things we will be discussing throughout is how design relates to experience. Understanding how design influences all of the senses allows you to remain focused on the fact that successful design is always rooted in human experience, not abstract aesthetic. Mike does a good job of capturing this.

It is a natural tendency to categorize people and what they do… students do it, professors do it, clients do it. You are all getting specialized degrees, after all, not general design degrees. However, we believe it is the common experiences we all share that create opportunities for collaboration and ultimately better design.

As you get ready to begin the project we ask that you consider the following goals/objectives:

Process – The best answers come from asking the right question(s). An important part of this project will be understanding, developing and evaluating research techniques that will help you methodically determine the scope, context and constraints of the design problem… before you start designing.

Participation – Collaboration is an intellectual contact sport. The way to get the most out of this short project is to embrace the differences between disciplines and try to learn as much as you can from your temporary classmates. For these two weeks you are all Designers, not specialists.

Pay Attention – Part of being a good designer is developing an intuitive understanding how people interact with the world around us. The world is not black and white. There is richness and nuance in almost every circumstance if you are paying close enough attention. Learning to see and interpret those details of daily life will help you become a more empathetic designer. (Refer to Sinclair Photography link)

Have Fun.