Presentations of last week's work → new challenge launch → studio time
Optional open studio
Reading discussion (10 min) → studio time (80 min) → deliverables due
Starting today: collect 1+ examples of "desirable" design each week. Whatever desirable means to you. For each: why did you pick it?
A vocabulary for this course:
"The principle I applied is _____, and it shows up in my design as _____."
Must be structural, not surface. Every portfolio entry, starting Week 2. This is the core muscle of the course.
Design is bigger than you think.
Design happens across 8 substrates. You will touch most of them this term.
The sensory experience of switching modes IS the design. A physical feeling that signals a change in context.
Design is moving from extractive to regenerative. These are the materials of the future.
Cialdini's insight: social norms change behavior more effectively than information.
A redesigned utility bill reduced energy consumption across millions of homes. Design at systems scale.
These are all design.
This course will take you across all of them. You will discover which substrates call to you.
Two information designers. One in NYC, one in London. Never met.
For one year: each week they collected data about their lives, drew it on a postcard, mailed it to each other.
Data about who you are
Data about what you notice
Data about what you value
Data about what you're curious about
What you know
How you think — flexibility, risk-taking, tolerance for ambiguity
Genuine engagement, not compliance
Data is not cold. Data is human traces made visible.
Hand-drawn visualization forces you to slow down, interpret, find the story. Can you see data about yourself and discover something you didn't already know?
"Above all else, show the data."
Remove everything that doesn't help comprehension. Restraint is a design skill. What you leave out is as important as what you include.
— Edward Tufte
Design something for yourself — a song, a product, an experience — based purely on what you think you know about your own taste.
When time's up: find someone you haven't met yet. Share what you made. What did you design? What does it say about what you think you know about yourself?
You just designed from instinct about yourself. You probably reached for the obvious — your favorite genre, your go-to color, your usual style.
The actual challenge asks you to look at data about yourself — and discover what instinct missed.
If your first instinct was abstract (a mood, a vibe), make it concrete for V2. The data should push you toward specificity.
Both documented in your portfolio entry.
[ Groups will be assigned in class. Each student reads one. ]
Each group: share the key idea from your reading in ~2 min. Then: how does it connect to what you're making?
Make your postcard. Work on your data-informed redesign. Instructor circulates.