Jeremy Myerson
Pressing the pause button
Chair of InterSections 07, Jeremy Myerson, reflects on some of the key themes to emerge from the conference and considers how design practice has widened its repertoire over recent years. Designers are also adopting new roles - as strategists, co-creators, rationalists and story-tellers. InterSections 07, he observes, was one of those rare moments in design when we press the pause button to consider where design is heading next.
Frans Johansson
Innovation at the intersection of disciplines and cultures
What’s the connection between termites and architecture, candy and computers, between sneakers and Hummer and techno music and Martin Luther King? The answer, according to Frans Johansson, lies in the Medici Effect – the breakthroughs that happen when new connections are made at the intersections between ideas, concepts and cultures.
Tim Brown
The challenges of design thinking
Tim Brown, CEO of Ideo, is a design industry leader and key promoter of the concept of 'design thinking', a term given to the introduction of design methods and culture into fields beyond traditional design, such as business innovation. Though Tim sees design thinking as a catalyst for Ideo’s work he questions whether it can help us be more optimistic about the future of design.
James Woudhuysen
Mission creep - The limits of design
As design makes inroads into business, public services and policy, it has developed greater ambitions. What are design's merits and limits? How far can design go? James Woudhuysen firmly believes in the principles of universalism, humanism and rationalism and their value for design. He calls for designers to stop the handwringing and for design to start being the handmaiden to technological progress.
Peter Higgins
Lines, words, pictures and sound
Does the convergence of architecture and communication media create a new genre? What is the role of narrative in creating environments that work? Peter Higgins of Land Design reflects on the importance of editorial control in creating unique experiences for users of buildings, exhibitions and public spaces.
Richard Seymour
Leviathan: the rise of the polymath
Reflecting on his discipline-busting career, Richard believes that designers need to adopt a wide-spectrum approach to the future, encouraging them to broaden their bandwidths. In a lightning tour covering Leviathan, lasagne and Dan Dare he argues that we now have a unique opportunity to reinvent our future and that designers need to start focusing on the real problems that matter.
Clive Grinyer
The silence of design
Clive introduces us to some of the people in his world (his father, his wife, his boss…) and describes what design does – and doesn’t – do for them. He questions our model of design and looks at how designers must step into the world and show their value.
What is the new know-how in service design?
Gillian Crampton Smith, Chris Downs, and Heather Martin
Chair: Jeremy Myerson
Services have been around for centuries, but Service design has recently become a hot topic. Designers Gillian Crampton Smith, Chris Downs, and Heather Martin outline some examples of good, and bad, service design and discuss what the core skills of service designers are whether traditional designer notions such as craft, beauty and visualisation are still important.
As designers, are we guilty of killing the planet?
John Thackara and friends
John argues that 80 percent of the environmental impact of the products and buildings is determined at the design stage; and the ways we have designed the world force most people to waste stupendous quantities of matter and energy. But for John, playing the blame game is pointless, the best way to redeem ourselves is to become part of the solution.
Clever by design
Sir George Cox and Dr Andrea Siodmok
Chair: Jeremy Myerson
Where does design fit into management thinking? What is the role of the designer in the modern economy? Sir George Cox, Design Council Chairman and Dr Andrea Siodmok, head of its Design Knowledge team discuss with chair Jeremy Myerson whether businesses are making more use of design capability and, if so, whether designers have the right skills to talk to business.
New connections: question time
Peter Saville, Richard Seymour and John Thackara
Chair: Jeremy Myerson
At the final panel session of Intersections 07, delegates had the chance to put questions to the panel, ranging from the lack of women in design, to the role of designers in creating unnecessary landfill, and how best to reconcile the desire for visionary design with co-creation. This session draws together some of the key themes from the conference.
Fashion connections
Ignacio Germade, Sarah Maynard and Tom Savigar
Chair: Vicky Richardson
Vicky Richardson, Editor of Blueprint magazine, Ignacio Germade, Design Director of Consumer Experience Design at Motorola, Sarah Maynard, Designer and MD of Maynard Bespoke and Tom Savigar from Future Laboratory discuss the influence of fashion on wider design practice. They argue that fashion is not just about the type of things that designers create, but it can be an approach to design thinking about products, interactions, space and environments.
Interaction blur
Andy Altmann, Durrell Bishop and Daljit Singh
Chair: Nico MacDonald
How is interaction design changing and what the drivers behind this? Has it managed to develop the skill sets it needs to deal with the challenges ahead? And how does interaction design overlap with other design disciplines? Andy Altmann from Why Not Associates, Durrell Bishop of Luckybite and Daljit Singh, founder of Digit discuss with chair Nico MacDonald
Are design schools the new B-schools?
Janet Abrams, John Bates and Christoph Böninger
Chair: Jeremy Myerson
Business Week has floated the idea that tomorrow's Business school might be a design school. Jeremy Myerson, from the RCA, Janet Abrams, from the University of Minnesota Design Institute, John Bates, London Business School and Christoph Böninger, formerly of Siemens discuss whether designers can really go head-to-head with the MBAs and whether students would be better equipped for the business world if they were design trained?
Feedback: Day 1 breakout sessions
Nico MacDonald and Vicky Richardson
Chair: Jeremy Myerson
Vicky Richardson reported back to delegates on Fashion Connections, the Culture thread of day one's breakout sessions, and Nico MacDonald told the audience what they had missed if they hadn't been discussing Interaction blur in the Interactions thread. Chair Jeremy Myerson told delegates all about the Business thread and how the panel had discussed whether D-schools were the new B-schools?
But is it art?
Allan Chochinov, Matthew Collings, Peter Saville and Richard Shed
Chair: Vicky Richardson
Can design fill the aesthetic and cultural vacuum left by contemporary art? Where are the boundaries between the two disciplines and is it even useful to try and draw distinctions between them? Designers Allan Chochinov, Peter Saville and Richard Shed are joined by artist and writer Matthew Collings in a discussion about the nature of 'design art,' chaired by Vicky Richardson, editor of Blueprint magazine
Can good design be co-created?
Joe Heapy, Lynne Maher and Austin Williams
Chair: Nico MacDonald
Can good design be co-created? What can designers learn from the open source software movement and 'wikinomics'? While everyone is a designer, isn't it the job of professional designers to champion good design? Writer and journalist Nico MacDonald chairs a discussion about the possibilities and pitfalls of co-design
What can design bring to strategy?
Richard Eisermann, Jonathan Sands and Ed Silk
Chair: Kevin McCullagh
Design strategy is a growing sub-discipline of design. This session, chaired by conference director Kevin McCullagh, asked what strengths designers bring to strategy building and what new skills they might need to acquire. The panel, Jonathan Sands from Elmwood, Richard Eisermann from Prospect and Ed Silk from Interbrand, covered the topic with reference to their own wide experience as designers and strategists.
Feedback: Day 2 breakout sessions
Vicky Richardson, Kevin McCullagh and Nico MacDonald
Chair: Jeremy Myerson
Vicky Richardson informed delegates who had not attended the Culture thread of the breakout sessions on Is it art? of what they had missed. Nico MacDonald fedback what delegates who had attended the Interactions thread thought about the question of whether good design can be co-created and Kevin McCullagh, who had chaired the Business thread debate on design and strategy, updated the audience on what had been discussed.