My mind has exploded with ideas

 The main word I was focusing on today was social, which is different to blog I submitted for this which was on designing by accident.

Its quite a broad subject area and I have come up with quite a few areas within it, and not wanting to thrown any of these away just yet I’m going to just put them all out there…..you don't have to read it all! Its more useful for me to just see all my ideas on a page.

I am interested in the social reasonability of designers.  Possible the evolution of social design groups, for example zero fee, Think Public, UScreates, Ecolab. Possibly look into co-designing , where user helping to create the design, with the designers playing the role of helping make ideas happen and helping users to find best solutions.  Eg. Think Public works with the NHS to create design which helps patients.

Maybe think about Designers as authors/ designers as producers. Should we care about the message we are conveying it what we are designing for? Or are we just a machine that should produce what we are told too?

Is the trend of socials aware design just another bandwagon for people to jump on?

Are non-designers becoming designers? The use of crowd sourcing , thanks to the internet and social networking, people are able to co design without even meeting each other, cross collaboration of skills, designers working with people who aren’t designers.

The role of women within the graphic design community – 60% of graphic design students are women but do they lack recognition in the graphic design community. Is there a graphic design glass ceiling? Can you think of many famous women graphic designers? Lack of articles on women designers in grafik magazine for example and this interesting article.

And this interesting quote

“When I was in my 20s, I heard about an advertising agency which placed an ad in a paper for a creative position. The salary was attractive but there was almost no response from women candidates. Then a bright spark at the agency had the idea of re-advertising the exact same position but with a lower salary. Dozens of women immediately replied.”

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/entry.html?id=20303

 

I have been to quite a few talks on each matter, mainly talks put on by ECCA or LCC, and have just been going back through my notes trying to find points that interest me.

 

Possible reading I have come up with so far:

Citizen Designer: Perspective on Design Responsibility – Steven Heller

Cradle To Cradle: The way we make things _ William McDonnough and Mochael Braungart

The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Design – Milton Glaser and Mirko Illic

Rachel Irwin