IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2012 - 52

CONFERENCE REVIEWS:

I’m kind of obsessed with conferences, the more cross-disciplinary, the better. They’re great vehicles for inspiration, networking, and learning new ideas, but also for revisiting familiar concepts and applying them to current projects—a strategy I advocate to other conference-goers. That’s how I approached the IIT-sponsored DRC, held at the Spertus Institute in Chicago this past October. I was developing a unique client proposal at the time, so I fi ltered each presentation through that lens. This conference’s modus operandi is to give attendees the tools and innovative fervor to approach and solve their own multilayered problems. Thus speakers shared the results of their research as well as the clever processes by which they came to their conclusions. In most cases, I found the methodologies as insightful and adaptable as the research itself.

DESIGN RESEARCh CONFERENCE

DESIGNERS & BOOkS FAIR, NEW yORk 2013 DATE: OCTOBER
October 2012 marked the inaugural installment of this new fair, an offshoot of the same-named Web site. The intimate event brought together 50-some exhibitors ranging from antiquarian booksellers to digital-only and print-on-demand presses. Enlightening programming included author signings, calligraphy demonstrations, and a diverse lineup of lectures and panels. The designer-heavy audience had the opportunity to learn how to get their work published, how the format of books is changing in the digital age, and even how to bookbind. Plus, they had the chance to peruse just-released titles to get inspiration for current projects.—jen renzi 1. One panel invited four architecture critics to share and discuss their reading lists: L.A. Times’ Christopher Hawthorne, The Guardian’s Justin McGuirk, Bloomberg News’ James Russell, and pundit-about-town Michael Sorkin. So, what do they read? Books by other critics, for one. Reyner Banham’s A Critic Writes and Hearts of the City: The Selected Writings of Herbert Muschamp were mentioned, but so were less-expected titles ranging from novels to memoirs and urban manifestos. Neat fact: Apparently, Chicago architect Jeanne Gang kicks off every project by assigning her staffers a reading list. 2. From the trade-show floor, two publishers whose boldly designed tomes caught my eye: Ammo Books (ammobooks.com), which has volumes on Alexander Girard, Kelly Wearstler, and the Eameses; and U.K.-based Laurence King Publishers (laurenceking.com), whose tradeoriented titles include Lighting for Interior Designers and Planning Ofﬁce Spaces: A Practical Guide for Managers and Designers. 3. Volumes by former bookseller Beth Daugherty’s three-year-old publishing house, Bauer and Dean (baueranddean.com), appealed on a number of levels. A celebration of old-school artistry, the books have high production values—woodfree paper, cloth covers, hand-drawn illustrations. Titles include the Pattern Book of Upholstery, a substantive guide to upholstery types that has appendices on fabric selection and standard measurements. Similarly comprehensive volumes on lighting, 17th- to 19th-century American doors, wall paneling, and fi replaces will be released next year. 4. I’m new to Blurb (blurb.com), a professionalquality online service that lets you design your own books or magazines and print them on demand—a great tool for producing catalogs and monographs. The Web site also has an online bookstore for browsing (and buying) others’ releases. Clicking through the design category, I discovered a handbook by Tandus on corporate flooring solutions as well as helpful works like What is Your Construction Management IQ? and Architectural Drafting Works & The Subject that Makes Other Arts Possible. 5. Strelka Press (strelkapress.com) is a new digital-only publishing house spearheaded by the Strelka Institute for Media, Architecture, and Design in Moscow. Founded to promote critical writing about design and architecture to the largest possible audience, the press has a growing catalog of thought-provoking e-books that are downloadable for just $2.99. Consider Alexandra Lange’s The Dot-Com City: SiliconValley Urbanism and Dan Hill’s Dark Matter and Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary.
desiGNersaNdBooKs.coM

—kiMberly ricHter

1. The sponsored book was IIT professor Vijay Kumar’s brand-new 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach For Driving Innovation In Your Organization, written from the perspective of behavioral science. In it, the author outlines a step-by-step process for innovation planning that companies can adopt to nurture creative thinking. It’s on my reading list. 2. Michael Norton gave a presentation about our relationship to—and that between—labor and love, which subverted the conventional wisdom that money can buy happiness; it’s not dollars, it’s labor. Money spent on things we do outside of work is not what makes us happy, but engagement in our work. His gist? Put labor into your everyday life via small, trivial efforts. You’ll end up with experiences that are more meaningful, more memorable, make better stories, and that ultimately make you a better and happier person. We value what we put our efforts into. 3. Another study Norton conducted concluded that people respond best to—and thus purchase— services that they could observe in action; it’s the old see-it-to-believe-it phenomenon. As an example, he compared two e-commerce travel sites: one that flashed a spinning ball while searching fares, the other featuring rolling updates of best ticket prices to make the search more transparent. Guess which site sold the most? My take-away: Get people involved in your process.

What I Learned
5. All that talk about design as interconnected systems tapped into something else I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: how important it is for us as designers to take a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving, which we, as designers, are uniquely equipped for. We have the ability—indeed, the responsibility—to relate [the rest of the world] to our clients’ problems. They look to us for a broad knowledge base, an ability to synthesize and refi ne. That’s something we shouldn’t take lightly. drc.id.iit.edu

4. Interactive-technology consultant Hugh Dubberly applied the science of network systems and behaviors to design. He delivered a compelling argument for thinking about the products, spaces, and services we design, shifting our focus from making outcomes (objects and things) to making whole systems that behave like dynamic ecologies. The idea of enabling a system before even thinking about form totally resonated with me. Something I already put into practice, it was interesting to understand the advantages of that process in the context of a bigger cultural picture.

http://www.DESIGNERSANDBOOKS.COM http://www.ammobooks.com http://www.laurenceking.com http://www.baueranddean.com http://www.blurb.com http://www.strelkapress.com http://DRC.ID.IIT.EDU

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IIDA Perspective - Fall/Winter 2012