A blog about design at the OU.
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Compendium v2
The Design Group have just finished working on the new version of CompendumDS, the concept mapping software we use to capture and communicate design processes. Over the past 12 months we have been working with colleagues across the OU and with an external consultant to update the platform Compendium runs on and refresh the look […]
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In praise of the curation of joy
I’ve been thinking a lot about how infectious the spirit of joyousness can be. In particular the joy that comes from collecting things – anything – thoughts, ideas, images, words, whatever. Yes, at one level it’s intensely personal – the seeing is everything. But at another the seeing of the seeing in itself can be […]
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Reimagining design and manufacturing
These visions for future manufacturing emerged from a 2-day event, ‘RECODE International Symposium – Future Visions of Manufacturing: Customisation, Redistribution and Technology’, held in May this year at IMechE, London. You can find details about the RECODE project here RECODE is an EPSRC funded network made up of a number of projects. Our project explored the impact of […]
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Managing creative processes
Found an interesting article by Steven A. Lowe, Project management: A surefire way to kill your software product, which discusses management practices applied to software development. Although Lowe’s focus is software, the discussion can easily be applied to management processes in any creative industry. Much of the narrative will be familiar to anyone who has tried to be creative in […]
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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 […]
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Concrete hippos
Milton Keynes eat your heart out – New Town artworks at Killingworth (North Tyneside). Great buildings still – Gas Research Lab and Lion Brush Works (Ryder and Yates) as well as Ralph Erskine houses by the lake.
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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 […]
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Design Council Spark 2017 – Do you have an idea?
The Design Council Spark initiative will open on 12 September 2017 and is open to anyone with a good idea which they think would make a great product. Financial and mentoring support is available to support the development of finalists. Details are available on the Design Council Spark site here http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/design-council-spark
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From Design to Innovation and Enterprise
Trends on UK business start-ups are upward. Companies House data analysed by the Centre for Entrepreneurs showed that new records were set in 2016 with a total of 657,790 new UK businesses. This equates to 75 an hour! Many will be new design-based businesses. The Design Council’s 2015 publication ‘The Design Economy’ valued the contribution of the […]
