An Introduction to Design Practice

Humans have created artifacts for millennia. We have built beautiful cultures and diverse knowledge of the world around us. Design practice evolved from an individual craft to a coordinated discipline as a result of the unique needs presented by industrialization. These design practices are ever evolving, expanding, and adapting to the new demands of culture, society, and technology. The impact of humanity on the global ecosystem presents new challenges. The result of our rapid pace of change is an ever growing list of topics within which designers must be fluent. Thought leaders in design must also think critically about our practices to help the profession evolve.

The Institute of Design, the ideological successor to The Bauhaus legacy, has continued to provide the thought leadership necessary to continually redefine design practice. It developed practitioners and educators keenly interested in the development of a socially valuable profession. An Introduction to Design Practice seeks to continue this path of excellence through thoughtful practice. This class introduces the topic of design practice to new Institute of Design students as well as students of design who wish to engage with these resources. At the masters level, designers are required to consider the evolving needs of the profession in the face of pressures and new opportunities.

An Introduction to Design Practice was launched in the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Fall of 2020. The period presented unique challenges and required that we consider the systemic issues which brought us to that point. The pandemic surfaced lingering inequities and highlighted ever growing discrepancies between gender, race, and class. The conversation about who designs has become of critical importance. We continue into 2021 with so much of the world literally on fire. It is simply irresponsible to conduct the business of design in the typical manner. Designers have the power to create change. But first, we must consider where to begin and how to pull the levers of change.

In this class we first look to the past to understand our present. We begin where contemporary design practice emerges. At the turn of the Twentieth Century, the design profession was driven by the need to provide people with the products and services needed to live an abundant life. Peter Behrens along with AEG represented a holistic approach to considering design and business. Subsequently, six epochs of 20 years each leads us to the present. The historical survey concludes with the first 20 years of our current century. The class considers the impacts of our attention economy. Throughout this historical review, students consider the STEEP factors that have driven our design culture and define the artifacts we as designers create. We will also discuss the constituencies that have benefited or otherwise from this consumer economy. Creating a new vision for the design profession is central to the class.

Students will create possible scenarios describing the next twenty years of design practice. Futures Studies will be our conceptual framework for analyzing the period. “Futures studies is the systematic study of possible, probable and preferable futures including the worldviews and myths that underlie each future.” The tenets of this methodology include co-creation as a means to provide diverse perspectives. Collaboratively building multiple, diverse discourses will help students develop the empathic skills necessary to becoming effective contributors to the teams they will support. These discourses will also help guide future design studies.

An Introduction to Design Practice is an evolving course of study. In this second iteration of the class, our aim is to improve the clarity of our journey through refined topics and exercises. Futures Studies replaces the previously used Systems Theory as a framework. This framework provides a deep resource for new readings and resources. Continual exercises analyzing products from the past provides historical structure. Our final project will use personally relevant factors to distill at least three potential design futures. Welcome to An Introduction to Design Practice.