Technology can facilitate this.  Individuals with technology can do so much with it and strike out oin new direction.

There is an element of fear to go from education to setting up on your own. Better to gain industry experience.

80’s thatcherite notion still with us in the institution.

Time effects the way we work, curriculum and in fact we need to spend time to get things right,.  Perhaps our relationship with time needs to change and in particular how this effects education.

Mervyn talked about a film based on the notion that prior the invention of the clock our lives were regulated by the rythyms of nature.

A more holistic approach to education which counters this notion of time to become a more rounded human being with the freedom to make a contribution to your community rather than becoming a unit of labour.

When asked how this might be achieved – balancing the technology with a human approach to life.

Paul Minnott – Institution  will buy cheapest food possible.

Suggested community eating, gathering and discussion could help to create a better context.

Brian Eno project.

Long nail project is about trying to promote longer term thinking and the implications of our actions. Design should be about long term thinking. Commercial world is about the opposite driven by the marketers.

Where is the new thinking going to come from ?  It is ok that some people are just workers .  Not everyone can be visionary.

Students under pressure – not sufficient time for thinking?
Need to set aside time to not do stuff.

PM project experience onto students which is perhaps unfair.

Do need to be trained to get something done.  Very important .  Other training needs to be visionary – art school is an opportunity when you can use it to develop thinking.

Need to be able to realise your ideas.  Thinkers need to be able to do as the doers need to be able to think.

BobM likes all the graduates to come with new ideas.

As design community employers can some time help new graduates to think through a problem  Education teaches the thinking but design community help connect the thinking to the parameters .

Working in industry as a junior is tough.  Being in education allows time to make mistakes and explore things.

How do universities teach this?

Why are we doing this and how are we going to do it.?

Majority of commercial briefs are more mechanical and relate to budgets and deadlines.

The designer’s role is to identify the real need – the need of the client, society,

Suggested need to teach and improve communication which was felt to be lacking lacking to enable the to articulate the idea and thinking.  This is important in terms of academic capability.

Pointed out that we need a change but not necessarily a revolution. Perhaps we need to think more.    Need to use time at University to develop thnking.

Do you think there is something missing?  BM employed about 8 students wish I had been taught some of the basics to help me do my job – little things about topography etc to help them.,  need fresh thinking but also basic skills to enable individuals articulate their designs.  Design community can help offer this guidance.  Basics need to be there.

In otherwords Unless you know how to do it the ideas are meaningless.

Experience is valid but it does mean a fixed way of being.  Sometimes we need innovation instead of experience.  Education and free thinking does not stop here at University.

The new designer needs to take a more rounded more responsible approach.  It is no longer just about new ideas and being skilled enough to produce them for commerce.  Need to be more knowledgeable.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTION:

To teach some communication skills, experience some commercial pitches, etc.  This was raised during the session and I talked to a number of students about it afterwards and all felt they would really benefit from and really wanted some tuition in this area.

Understand more fully what is lacking in terms of the basics when students go into the work place.  Suggest further discussion with Bob Mytton.

I was in the discussion group with Karen Blincoe in the Hub

• Sustainability must be an integral part of education not a bolt on.• Not money V sustainability but a balance.• Thomas Matthews - Design For Planetary Balance.• Transport Sustainability.• Show client sustainable alternatives.• Demand will make sustainability cheaper.• Clearer sustainability message - design it.• Where do you start?• Simple - write on briefs to consider social and environmental issues.• The triple bottom line.• The designer finds a solution. Educate the client• Base the design on the whole ground research.• Work in a team across disciplines not just design.• A lot of it is common sense.• Need for more information.• Design the system not a physical thing but the solution.• There is still work and it is still designed.• It is about communication and ways of doing things.• Sustainability can be profitable, it must be future proofed.• Collaboration.• Ideas need not always have a physical output.

My Thoughts-I like the idea that as designers we can come up with solutions to problems, or opportunities, by creating systems and not just physical things. We can design with more creative and balanced outcomes which are purer in a sense. Manifesting our ideas and creativity not in objects but in ways of doing things. I think that we can still have aesthetics and form without always needing to mass produce things. And as will so many things demand can make things cheaper and I guess that a designer has the power to make the demand. And so making sustainable things more desirable is a great way to do this and we can do this.

Allister Jones.

• Redefine the ego of the designer.• Yale don’t grade.• Commercial V visionary.• Money V Creating solutions to problems.• Bringing these together to doing what you want.• Doing something real and meaningful V something superficial.• How can you change a problem into an opportunity.• The audacity of wanting to change works.• Design being an ecology of its own like a conversation.• Conversation and approach is important.• Care about form and the world and bring the two together.• How do you build in and adapt to differences in community?• Addressing all issues.• Focus on needs that need to be met?• Conversation and approach is important.

My Thoughts-I think that what all this means to me is that design is a bigger arena that it used to be. We have to consider much more than had previously been considered. For me this is finding solutions that bring together the duality of visionary work with that of needing to make money and I believe that this is possible.
It is about the designer taking the responsibility and making a difference, taking on the challenge.
Design evolves constantly especially so today and to maintain a successful career we as designers need to evolve also and I think it is this, as designers, that we are good at. We can be creative, flexible and influential. To ignore the importance of the issues above and that of sustainability is to ignore our future importance and the magnitude of our role now and in the future. It is an exciting and important challenge and one which will see design become even more important. It is our ingenuity that can bridge the gap between the two dualities. We can earn a living and make a difference, why not? It is within our vision, power and scope.
But we need to be inclusive in our work and listen to others, communities and consider real needs and again, I feel this is what we as designers are good at.
We will hopefully have very interesting roles to play which are varied and worthwhile.

1.30pm - Rupert Bassett
A420

• Sustainability Mapping.• Financial, Social, Environmental, Personal.• Balance.

My Thoughts-This is a fantastic resource for designers to see visually the relationships and balance between the various four aspects above. I think it is a great start in helping designers have access to the type of information needed in meeting certain key requirements in a design. It is devices such as this which can help bridge the gap and bring together the elements of vision and marketability in a most effective way.

Allister Jones

• What can we do to change the world?• It is a huge task and not clear.• What actions can we take to change things for the community.• How we look after each other socially is part of sustainability.• A grass roots - go and talk to communities and find concrete things to make better.

My Thoughts-This is a great source of work and ideas for design. For me it helps to broaden the scope of the amount and types of work that a designer could do. I feel there needs to be more support and recognition in government and society to promote and encourage more of this type of work. I think that it is starting to be more valued.

11.31am - Sheila Levrant de BrettevilleGraphic Designer…Conversation, Communities… Part 2

• Ellipsis for what is missing.• What is missing approach to design, what is there?• Inspiration from other than design.• Other perspectives, hear what people say… listen.• Learn what’s going on.. what’s needed.• Asking, listening, paying attention.• Diversity and finding hope.• Giving form to democratic pluralism.• The people in the street are her clients not the people who pay her.• For a meaningful contribution integrate everything we can learn about behavior, resources, ecology and human needs.• Taste and style alone are not enough.

My Thoughts-Working with Sheila on the masterclass and listening to her lectures helped me to better understand her approach to design. Communication is the key thing, I feel, and to communicate effectively it is necessary to have a good understanding of the subject you wish to communicate. I think that her work reflects her deep commitment and understanding of communities and diversity which make her work so successful. She communicates things that really matter. Her work directly represents a community and has an effect on it in a positive way.I really like the idea of finding out what is missing and communicating this. I also find inspiration in her whole attitude and desire to help people in her work and that she lets us know from the start that she also has an agenda.I particularly liked her idea of giving something out but getting something back in return. If you have a real love and passion for the project it will be done in an effective way whether it was self initiated or not.Her ideas about non hierarchy and the importance of everyone are very comforting ideas to me. She really does address sustainability in a social context.Not only that but she has a fun, approachable, non judgmental attitude which must be one reason she is so good with communities and helping them to have a real voice.

Allister Jones