Author: Nicole Lotz
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Blindekuh
This summer, I finally had a chance to visit Blindekuh. Blindekuh is a restaurant in Basel, Switzerland, but more than that it is a unique experience. On arrival, you need to lock everything that is light emitting away, your phone, your watch, etc. Then, you have a look at the menu in the waiting area. […]
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End of Year 2018 exhibition
Creating an exhibition of Design and Innovation undergraduate students’ work has been one of the most rewarding experiences I had for a while. We called for contributions to an End of Year design exhibition. Having an ‘Annual show’ has a long tradition in other design schools, but we never had one at the OU. This […]
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U101 AL to win British Medical Journal Innovation Award 2018
We are proud to say that Dr Liliana Rodriguez, AL at the Open University and teaching on our U101 module, has received the prestigious British Medical JournalInnovation Award 2018. She took part in a collaborative research project with colleagues from the Brighton and Sussex Medical school. The project was funded by Public Health England (PHE). […]
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Fixation in design
Fixation on a known idea or on a known way of solving a problem is a commonly observed phenomenon in creativity and design. Often, attachment to initial ideas or repeating solutions or parts thereof is seen as a negative thing. But does it always lead to worst outcomes? Researchers are not so sure about it. […]
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Facing austerity with clever design
Braving a snowstorm and impending TMA deadlines, three students and a visitor joined us to explore the Imperial War Museum’s exhibits in the North. We investigated the effects austerity measures had on the designs and designing throughout the 20th century. The scarcity of materials and resources, and resulting inventions of new materials and production techniques, was […]
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Design thinking to support underserved communities in the North-East of Mexico
Juan Manuel Fernández Cárdenas and Christina Reynaga-Peña from TEC de Monterrey in Mexico organised a week-long workshop on ‘Reducing marginalisation and promoting inclusive education with the mediation of digital technology’ in February 2018. Here is a summary of the workshop. Over 80 participants, including teachers, teacher trainees, researchers, governmental and non-governmental organisations from the North-East of Mexico, […]
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Design Museum: what is a good design?
We did a little experiment. What if we organise a visit to the Design Museum (on a grey and rainy February weekend) and everyone from the Design and Innovation Qualification at the OU is invited to come. Who would come and join us? Twenty-five students, 2 tutors and 4 central academics from across the qualification […]
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Digital Design Learning: Conference Report
Food for thought The conference dinner was served in the school’s own ‘Food lab’ by a team of academics and students at KISD – the Cologne International School of Design. The lab is designed to do social experiments, in which food becomes the mediator of conversations and the lab a space for co-creation of products and […]
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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 […]