Design Thinking

I’ve been back in school for a little over a month now and, although it’s been a crazy transition, I really love everything about it. My classmates are awesome and the research, reading and projects so far have been thought-provoking and fun.

Our first project of the semester was on design thinking. In a nutshell, design thinking is innovation through designerly thinking- it is a process by which designers can use their specialty to reveal new ways of approaching anything from the pursuit of new business ventures, the revamping of products or businesses, or the designing of new experiences. It’s a way of taking into consideration what consumers want and need and how to effectively “design” goods toward their desires. Of course the practice is much broader than that, but that’s my basic idea of design thinking. Even though companies like IDEO and Red Hat have been practicing design thinking for years, it’s recently caught on as a buzz phrase within the business world. Stanford even has a school devoted to it.

For our project, each student was assigned a different aspect of design thinking to research and turn into an informative poster for a College of Design exhibition and later for a PDF to live on the Cooper-Hewitt’s ERC website. My topic was Morphological Thinking, which involves a systematic approach to design involving a structure in which all possible variations are laid out at once. This allows for quick trials of many different variations on form and can reveal new ideas.

The real value that I found in this project came when I first saw the finished posters together as a group. Each designer portrayed their poster both visually, through descriptive text and through a distinct applicable case study. The differences between pieces were evident, yet the exhibition still read as a cohesive group. There’s been a ton of great feedback within the COD and some interest in taking the project further!

Several classmates posted photos of the final exhibition. You can see some of them here. My final is pictured below. I will post the link to the Cooper-Hewitt once the PDFs are live.

You can find out more about design thinking by checking out Tim Brown’s blog.

My final poster for exhibition

The Hold Steady

My favorite poster by Decoder Ring

I went over to Chapel Hill last night and met up with Angie to see The Hold Steady at Cat’s Cradle. Before the show we stopped in at Southern Rail for a drink and a bite- so similar to pre-shows in DC, where we would go to Saint Ex before heading to 9:30 Club (even our bartender used to work at Saint Ex). I was so excited that Southern Rail decided to continue the tater tot tradition started by Bar Pilar (Saint Ex, Bar Pilar and Southern Rail are a group of restaurant/bars all started by the same man; two are in DC one is in CH) – we used to have dinner at Pilar at least once a week in DC, that is until it’s menu switched entirely over to tapas. It was sad, but now I can once again order the tater tots I know and love!

By the way, it was an awesome show, lasting almost two hours! My hearing is still not back up to 100%…

The Pit

Since I moved back to the Triangle, I’ve accumulated a long list of new restaurants to try that weren’t around during my Chapel Hill college days. This area is up and coming in the eatery department, with several restaurants jumping on the locally grown bandwagon. I’ve been happy to see all three cities (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) featured in recent Bon Appetit write-ups and learn about all the great new places that are popping up to accompany Chapel Hill institutions like Crook’s Corner, Elaine’s and Lantern. So when I read about Raleigh’s barbeque restaurant The Pit in the July edition of Bon Appetit, I knew I had to try it!

from Bon Appetit, July 2008

DC Here I Come

It’s my long awaited return to the District. I haven’t been back since I moved and I’m DYING to see all my friends, go to Ikea, have a bloody mary at Logan Tavern, get my haircut (haven’t had the strength to cut the Bang ties yet), take public transportation, go to West Elm, ride in a cab, eat at Falafel Shop, take a jello shot at Millie & Al’s, dance at Chief Ike’s, and walk around a city that I have missed since the second I left.

Methane Studios

Finally, FINALLY, I’ve started that poster collection I’ve been talking about. I decided to go with a couple prints from Methane Studios- I discovered the shop during my search for letterpress and silkscreen work and I love the variety of their work- great prices too! I decided to go with a Cat Power print that I thought would add nice accent color to the black and white decor of one of my rooms. I also chose an Iron and Wine print because I love the colors and composition of the piece.

One of the reasons I’ve held off on the posters is the expense of framing, but once I searched for frame shops online, I found an awesome, cheap (but great quality) shop! It’s called American Frame- they will cut your frame the exact size you need, there are tons of frame colors to choose from, and you can get plexiglass, mat board and foam backing cut to size. The only catch is that you have to put the frame together yourself, but it took me 10 minutes to put both frames together- it was seriously dummy-proof. I highly recommend this store- I got my posters and everything I needed for framing for just over $100- it usually costs more than that just to get a piece framed. Ok, enough of my American Frame love fest.

I really need to update that website

So I know how user-antagonistic my current portfolio site is, so I’m planning on revamping it in the near future. I want to take my time this time though, and do it right- since it’s already my second attempt. I met with a few people at work today to go through the steps of actually planning- instead of just jumping right into the design. I need to make sure that it’s functional and easy to get around to allow the full potential of my portfolio to shine through. One suggestion I got from the meeting was to poll people on their favorite websites and what they liked about them, from a usability standpoint. I got a ton of good responses. And then came one from my friend Juan:

Hey Lauren,

I just wanted to send you a link to one of my favorite websites.  I
think it’s a good model for other websites to go by.

http://www.havenworks.com/

Juan

My response: Juan, I think you have been riding the L2 bus waaaay too many times. I’m giving you so much side eye, my eyes are closed.

Meet Remington

Here’s my new roommate. I’m calling him Remy.

Best of DC

Today is my last full day in DC and although I’m sad to be leaving, I’m also looking forward to being back in NC and starting fresh. I will miss all my DC friends, but at least I won’t have far to travel to see them! I’ve decided to compile my own personal “best of” list to commemorate my time here…

Keep Calm

With the impending move, I’m trying to keep this phrase in mind. I have yet to start my new poster collection, but I think it’s imperative that this piece be a part of it, especially with school starting in the fall.

Apparently it’s a replication of an old WWII poster and I love it. Simplicity in design is my thing.

Two Utahs

One of my friends recently asked me to design a label for a beer that he just brewed for his school’s beer club competition. The name comes from a combination of Point Break combined with his friends’ slang term for beers. I tried to design the logo so that it can transition over to other brews. I see a White Ale, an Amber Ale, maybe even a Winter Ale in the future…