A look at the shifting role of designers

“We should always remember that no detail is too small, those elements that we obsess over are still important. But we must take on a new strategic role, placing ourselves at the center of business, in a marriage of creativity and rigor, to show the possibilities of business and effect change. It’s our ability to create ideas that will allow us to find new opportunities, and with our design language we can illustrate the possibilities that were never even considered.”

What a wonderful exerpt from Carol Scheffler’s piece about the ever changing definition of what we do and who we are as designers. 

Please have a look: http://www.eastwick.com/blog/2011/10/26/the-future-of-design-a-look-at-the-shifting-role-of-designers/

COMMON + Project M

For those of you that aren’t aware, John Bielenberg & Alex Bogusky have teamed up on a new social endeavor that allows for collaborative creation within communities in which actual products or companies will be formed.  

Benefiting people, communities, society, the environment and future generations is the new advantage in business. Our new capitalist brand is about transitioning from competitive advantage to collaborative advantage. COMMON is a brand that is community designed, community owned, and community directed. It is a single open source brand — a living network — for rapidly prototyping many progressive businesses that unleash creativity to solve social problems.

As an active member in the Project M community, I began to brainstorm some ideas in which Project M (which consists of mainly designers and other creatives) could still engage and be a part of the collaborative of COMMON, while still remaining its own entity. Project M has grown in such a way that perhaps it may be worth limiting the amount of self-sustaining sessions it takes on each year. (Meaning those that function independently from COMMON). A major benefit of being in an M session is the ability for its participants to collectively (or individually) decide what sort of project they want to employ. In linking up with COMMON, the mentality of M would change slightly in that the topic/idea/product will have already been established. That won’t change the format of M, though, in it’s ability to infuse rapid prototyping and creative energy. 

Potential Outcubation Process: 

1. COMMON begins a two-week process of intensive prototyping and planning for a particular topic. Participants include those most passionate about the idea. The concept is developed through a facet of disciplines (most notably those with skills outside of design).

2. After one week, the project m session is brought in to hear the current ideas that were generated and assist in solidifying a proper goal. Business plans, etc. Are formed through common, but all capable bodies from M collaborate to rapidly create the product or business. It is in this zone that both teams work together in a sort of blitz mentality. 

3. Project m session then takes on the role of the design team. Branding and identity guidelines are set for the product/business. Project m is responsible for creating any collateral for the aforementioned idea. 

By combining talent through the common denominator, what would potentially have been two separate two–week sessions has now been combined into a three–week outcubation that combines immense talent.