Author: Nicole Lotz

  • Paper folding

    Paper folding

    I am fascinated by the folding design of pop-up books. I recently bought a pop-up card on a market and out of interested I asked the maker how they do these cards. He said: “I use Photoshop to create the designs and then laser-cut them”. I wondered though if there really was no analogue design process involved at […]

  • Disruptive Innovation Festival: global and all online

    Disruptive Innovation Festival: global and all online

    *** Our very own Emma Dewberry live on the Disruptive Innovation Festival at 10:15 on 10/11/17 talking about Design for Longevity: Business as Unusual*** This year’s Disruptive Innovation Festival, ask: What if we could redesign everything for the circular economy? The festival has been an initiative created by THE ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION together with several partners and is […]

  • How do you draw a circle?

    How do you draw a circle?

    I just stumbled across a great article that analysed how different cultures draw a circle. Give it a try at their page. They found strong arguments that the way you draw circles relates to your cultural context, or to be more precise, to the language and writing system you use. For example, if in your writing […]

  • Digitally engaged learning 2017

    Digitally engaged learning 2017

    The Digitally Engaged Learning – DEL 2017 conference gathered around 100 academics and practitioners at Central St Martins, UAL, to discuss Teaching/Making – Marking/Teaching. http://www.digitallyengagedlearning.net/2017/ The conference was opened by Diana Arce’s (http://visualosmosis.com) powerful appeal to not forget the supremacy of ‘real’ human action and interaction. The digital can and should be used to connect […]

  • Designing interactive distance learning in Nigeria

    Designing interactive distance learning in Nigeria

    Dr Nicole Lotz and Dr Kerry Murphy recently led a two-day workshop on designing interactive, practical STEM Open Distance Learning (ODL) resources with the National Open University Nigeria (NOUN). The Dean of Science, Head of Applied Science and Director of Learning Resources from NOUN, as well as a delegation of OU and UK academics, explored opportunities for collaboration […]

  • Google Arts & Culture

    Google Arts & Culture

    I came across a fantastic archive of Fashion designs around the world today. What fascinated me most was the focus on making and processes, and the global perspective the project ‘We Wear Culture’ takes. They are concise stories but inspiring enough if you want to explore more on your own. There are thousands of arts […]

  • OpenStudio of the Future

    OpenStudio of the Future

    We had a fantastic workshop today on how to facilitate progression in OpenStudio. We have reported on OpenStudio successes and scholarship before. This time academics and learning designers from the OU were invited to build on findings from our scholarship into OpenStudio to think about developments and improvements to the studio. At the workshop, we reported on […]

  • Lurking and learning at eSTEeM

    Lurking and learning at eSTEeM

    Today we have presented on the 6th eSTEeM Annual Conference some of the findings from our eSTEeM funded project on student progression in OpenDesignStudio. The bottom line is that you even though you might just ‘lurk’ online, you can learn and succeed in your studies. Simply viewing the work other design students have posted online will […]

  • The actual and the future: on co-evolution

    The actual and the future: on co-evolution

    We love to ponder about the nature of designing, design behaviours, processes and practices. What is it we do and how do we do it? Eventually, we want to improve how designing is taught and learned. In a meeting, Theo quickly visualised his understanding of design activity, moving from actual and possibly flawed states to […]

  • Hello design world!

    Hello design world!

    We have done it! Design @ Open is live. This blog reports about things Design academics at the Design Group, School of Engineering and Innovation at the Open University are up to, think, learn, experience, experiment and tinker with. In short, this blog is about everything that is important and current in design at the OU. […]