Rhetorical Précis

Brown, Tim. “Change by Design” How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Inspiration. Harper Collins. 2009

Interpretation 

Tim Brown, author of “Change by Design” (2009), explains how ‘design thinking’ allows for organizations to gain successful and more innovative solutions for the end results of a design project. This is done through collaboration. He discusses that in the reality of this concept, there is no one specific recipe that will allow rewarding outcomes but there are useful starting points to help guide one through the creative process. These landmarks may include but are not limited to the acts of; ‘inspiration’, the problem or opportunity that motivates the search for solutions; ‘ideation’, the process of generating, developing, and testing ideas; and ‘implementation’, the road that leads from the project room to the market. Projects may revisit these concepts more than once which makes room for new creative direction that should not go undiscovered.

Brown supports this idea by providing examples of different corporations such as IDEO and Mattel who have embrace the practice of ‘design thinking’ and provided working deliverables for their audience. Brown also exposes how the affects of professionals from different background disciplines working together with a design mentality, will allow for many new opportunities for innovation to take place.  Senior VP, Ivy Ross of design for girls’ products at Mattel realized that it was difficult for various disciplines across the company to communicate and collaborate. To address this, Brown mentions that she created Platypus. This was a 12 week program experiment which allowed for participants in the organization where invited to relocate their office space with the objective of generating new and out-of-the-box product ideas. This experiment received it’s name because of the term platypus being defined as an uncommon mix of different species. This process allowed for the participants to explore new directions for girl’s play and came up with a series of innovative product concepts. By the end of the experiment they were ready to pitch their successful ideas to management.

Collaboration efforts allows for one to connect with the target audience in a more affective way. Keeping the value in the forefront that it is all about the people. John C. Maxwell mentions that connecting is never bout the design team. It’s about the person with whom the team is communicating. Connecting will require the team to focus from inward to outward. This is usually missed when the team becomes more focused on themselves which does occur often if not focused. [1]

Browns purpose to make his viewers aware of the changes occurring in the 21 Century design industry. It is no longer the routine of a designer just chained to a desk in a studio shut away from the team in an organization. We are in a time where the designer needs to be just as comfortable to hold weight in a boardroom with other executives or professionals. On another note, he explains that the idea of ‘design thinking’ is not just a concept that should be embraced by designers alone. Brown mentions that the skills of ‘design thinking’ needs to be dispersed throughout organizations and into the areas of executives and those responsible for strategic planning. When a team of talented, optimistic, and collaborative design thinkers come together, Brown asserts that a chemical change occurs that can lead to unpredictable actions and reactions. Collaboration through a practitioner does not come to a situation with fixed, predefined problem statements, but undertakes investigation and engages in dialogue through which appropriates emerging metaphors.[2] This effort will allow for the organization as a whole to position themselves to experience successful results.

Brown establishes himself to present his idea of ‘design thinking’ to an audience of educated individuals and corporations that thrive for creative and innovative solutions that will appeal to their audience. Brown is challenging companies to incorporate design into their organizational DNA. However, he is also challenging designers to continue the transformation of design practice itself. He mentions that the ever so changing industry is calling for a new design practice. This demand creates a need for collaboration in such a way that amplifies , rather than subdues the creative powers of an individual. It is a practice that is focused but in turn, flexible and responsive to unexpected opportunities.  Brown tells his audience that the next generation of designers will need to begin to look at every problem from adult illiteracy to global warming as a design problem.

Additional Resources

Maxwell C. John. “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect”. Thomas Nelson. Page 29. 2010.

Wild, Lorraine. “Looking Closer Four: Critical Writings on Graphic Design.” That Was Then, and This is Now; But What is Next? Page 140. Allworth Press. 2002

Discussion Questions

1. How could a freelance designer embrace the concept of ‘design thinking’ for successful exploration of open opportunities.

2. How may one facilitate a collaboration session to assure focus of the meetings.

3. What happens if the idea of joining a diverse number of professionals from different disciplines to generate creative concepts do not work? Do you eventually start over with a new team of individuals or continue with the same group but revisit the situation.

The world around us of design is changing drastically. For designers ourselves, we are being pushed to no ideas of our practice by not sitting behind the desk but also performing in the boardrooms. It seems that the focus of graphic design has always been and individual behind a desk creating a logo, brochure, poster, etc. The role of the graphic designer is now expanding in ways to interact and view everything from adult illiteracy to global warming — as a design problem. Today, graphic designers are working with professionals from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. Psychologist, Lawyers, Doctors, Architects are all joining the team of collaboration and beginning to think like designers. These practices open the door for designers to become more innovative and fresh on their projects. As designers challenge themselves to take risk and explore, allows for a more successful approach and are more than likely to become more deeply engaged. In turn, designers will become more motivated and more widely productive.

I work for Calvary Christian Center as the art director and only graphic designer. We have a pretty large church but our staff is very limited as far numbers of employees. My goal in my environment is to try to establish more of these principles of collaboration. Being that we are very scarce in employment, it has been to my advantage to seek out individuals to brainstorm with and create innovative ways to communicate our message to our audience. Even on our staff we have pastors that may have business, communication or marketing degrees which also generates a lot of diversity in our collaborative efforts.  It is also interesting to pull in members of the congregation that attend services and events regular to record their input to the conversation. As we continue to push forward with this method I believe it will allow for our organization to produce materials that will be more effective to our congregation and how they are informed.

I have to say that as I begin to further think about the process of writing a thesis, I was under the assumption that I needed to be an inventor. I was so focused on trying to be truly original in the topic of choice. Where some of this may be true, I begin to shift my focus a bit on just staying in line on the subject matters that I am very passionate about. Clark mentions that sometimes we wait for a strike of lightening for a great idea when in turn it is really just a process of going after that idea as it begins to formulate over time.

If I really take a look at the things I am passionate about in the area of graphic design, it is the church (my faith) and teaching. With that being said if I had to choose one area that I am the most passionate about, it would be my Faith. Digging into spiritual aspects can be very contriversal. I have asked my self on multiple occasions about, what is it that needs to be communicated? Why would people care? Who will care?

My goal is to research and explore how churches or non-profit organizations can benefit from the discipline of graphic design. I’m not really sure in which direction to take this where there are man facets in graphic design. Below I have bullet points of a few circumstances:

• How Churches can benefit from a strong methodology system in creating print  collateral.

• How Ministries can communicate more effectively through print media.

• The Innovative Church: Reaching people through ‘design thinking’.

• Budget Smudget: Understanding the importance in value in visual  communications for       your organization & ways to do it with a budget.

These are a few ideas that have formulated and I understand that some are still a little broad. For the most part the church has the ability to really position itself in a community to bring hope, inspiration and help those whom are in need. There are many ministries that are progressive and doing well while there are several that are small and may not have the necessary resources to produce efficient marketing materials. I would like to have the opportunity to developed information that informs strategic examples of how ministries can still ‘think big’ even though they may be working on a limited budget.

When it comes to print collateral and how it is being used for ministries to reach there audience it is important to embrace sound methodologies to produce working design solutions. From time to time you often here reasons of ministries not having the funds to hire a professional. In-turn, this may often result in noneffective materials being produced making it a challenge to really reach people through visual communications.

thesisbrainstorming

Graphic design in my mind is creative visual solutions to solve communication problems. These communications are tools to display a message to an audience through print, screen, and other exploratory forms of mediums supported by typography and images. While this may be true, I have explored throughout my experiences that graphic design can also be much more. In this course unit we learn from Phillip Meggs that design can be described as an “essence”. Meggs mentions that essence is to give order to information, form to ideas and expression and feeling to artifacts that document human experience.  As a result to this I believe graphic design is also an experience and
an emotion.

Although graphic design is solutions through type and image it is also an experience that is supported through design thinking.  I have learned from Tim Brown that design thinkers observe how people behave, how the context of their experience affects their reaction to products and services.  When I think about the experience on a highway, it is rare that I, myself think about graphic design. Despite that, the highways are a form of a design system that is developed to improve the human traveling experience. They allow us to travel faster and it is a service providing commuters with direction to their destinations. All in support of a form of graphic design.

Brown also mentions that designers take into account the emotional meaning of things as well as their functional performance. As consumers we are confronted with all sorts of advertisement forms presented in several types of media such as: print, screen, radio, etc. When we are introduced to these forms of advertisement we react in some shape or form. I am pretty big on gaming. I can remember when I was first introduced to the Xbox 360 ads. Today, there are many game consoles to choose from but for whatever reason the Xbox is what stood out to me the most. The branding for the Xbox and design caused me to react differently towards the other game consoles out there. Graphic design plays key in the end result of a product. A great method and design will result in a successful product.

I will have to be honest to say that when I first took an interest in graphic design, I thought it was all about type and images coming together to communicate a message. While this is true, we can also see that graphic design uses an experience and emotion to cause an audience to respond in some shape or form. With this in mind, we can see that graphic design also involves the emotional or humanistic side of things. Graphic design is creative process that allow the executor to merge art with technology to help provide functional solutions that we experience in our lives on a daily basis. Whether if it is commuting or being moved to purchase a hot item on the market.Graphic design is everywhere.

Welcome to Blog.scad.edu. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Refer to the Technology Policy in MySCAD or your handbook for complete guidelines and procedures surrounding the use of SCAD accounts.