Announcing: Design As Season Two

Design As is a podcast series that asks a diverse array of design practitioners to imagine a better world together. Who does design belong to, and who is it for? How does it serve us—all of us—and how can we learn to better understand its future and our own?

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The future is ours to create

As the design world comes to grips with an industry in turmoil, season two of the Design As podcast offers a blueprint for a brighter, more peaceful, and more playful future. 

By Lee Moreau

In early 2023, some of the most talented designers I’ve ever worked with were let go by Google, one of the world’s largest and richest companies. It was part of a series of cost-cutting efforts at the tech giant that not only gutted its design capabilities, but sent an alarm throughout the entire professional design ecosystem.

Later that year, in October, the legendary design consultancy IDEO (and one of my former employers) laid off a third of its workforce, cementing industry watchers’ worst fears. 

These two events bookended a year of seismic setbacks — the demise of the corporate design practice at J&J, for example — causing social impact designer Robert Fabricant to declare that 2023 “felt like the closing of a chapter.” In a sobering long read published by Fast Company, Fabricant posited that the era of “big design” may have ended. “The very people who advocated successfully for a ‘seat at the table’ when design first made inroads into big business (and jump-started thousands of creative careers) find themselves at major crossroads with fewer seats left.” According to Fabricant, this “big design freak-out” had revealed major fault lines in the relationship between design and industry that was still in the process of shaking out. 

While this may not be all bad for the overall state of design — evolution and innovation are inherently uncomfortable, right? — I can affirm from countless conversations that it’s been quite a journey for many in our community. The now constant reflection on the idea that design’s mandate has shifted, or that design leadership needs to be reinvented has become exhausting. 

Not to mention the state of the world.

So, by the time summer rolled around, I confess I had grown tired of this narrative and the damage it has been doing to the community.

And that’s when I got the boost I didn’t entirely know I needed.

I spent six days at the Design Research Society’s bi-annual conference, hosted in Boston from June 23-28 at Northeastern University, MIT’s Morningside Academy of Design, and Harvard University. Though the event dates back to 1962, this year was the first time it has ever been held in the United States. 

In anticipation, its six days of programming seemed overwhelming. But what a boost it was! From panel to panel, I kept encountering a fortifying sense of optimism and a profound reminder that the power of design can be used for good. 

Dancer and choreographer Ilya Vidrin and architect David Brown both presented work that was rooted in design collaboration and contingency, improvisational work shaped through physical engagement and trust. One of the most engaging tracks explored the various forms of play that motivate, engage, and stimulate design, from rough prototyping in Italian clay to the joyfully obsessive act of building and rebuilding Rube Goldberg machines. And perhaps nothing signaled radical change more than the huge conference track dedicated to Pluriversal Design organized by Renata M. Leitão and Lesley-Ann Noel. Best of all was the presence of a large number of students, the very people inheriting the future, presenting research, engaging in debates within the paper tracks, and driving the conversation. 

I left with the idea that if 2023 marked the closing of a chapter, design has what it takes to start a new and more powerful one. 

And, luckily, I brought my podcasting equipment with me.

For season two of the Design As podcast, we’re letting the extraordinary thinkers, creators, and experts who consider the future as their day jobs do the heady — and joyful — work of helping us think through our own. 

We talked about the relationship between products and play, and how contrary to popular fears, design’s scope has only grown. And while transitions are hard, longevity in the field is still possible. And, as the world shifts its focus to the needs of increasingly vulnerable stakeholders, design has a unique opportunity to lead, co-create, and ethically shape systems that work for everyone.

Rachael Dietkus: “I just come from this philosophy that, if we are not taking care of ourselves, if we are not taking care of one another, then we fundamentally cannot do the work.”

Mariana Amatullo: “The craft of the discipline, the deep knowledge of the discipline, its connection to empathy, to questions about how humans connect with each other in this space. In the moment of gen AI, all of that is coming to the forefront, and so there’s a lot of new work to be done.”

Lesley-Ann Noel: “Anybody who feels a little bit othered has, I find, that they have found this conversation of a world of many worlds resonates with them because it kind of gives them space to say, ‘Okay, I can exist as I am because of maybe I occupy this other world.’ Then we just learn to talk with each other.”

Our season starts Jan 7th, and new episodes are released weekly on Tuesdays. 

Special thanks to María Risueño and Alana Aamodt from Other Tomorrows who joined me at the conference and shared their observations with me.

Season two draws from recordings taken at the Design Research Society 2024 Conference hosted in Boston in June 2024.

Featured on this season of Design As

Transcript

Lee Moreau: [00:00:01] Design As is back. Starting January 7th we’ll be back in your feed, weekly, speculating on the future of design and bringing you a range of different perspectives. This season, we’re bringing you six new episodes with six new keywords on: [00:00:16][14.4]

Lee Moreau / Shin-pei Tsay: [00:00:16] Governance, [00:00:16][0.0]

Lee Moreau / Jadalia Britto: [00:00:17] Care, [00:00:17][0.0]

Lee Moreau / Dietmar Offenhuber: [00:00:18] Visualization, [00:00:18][0.0]

Lee Moreau / Mariana Amatullo: [00:00:20] Discipline, [00:00:20][0.0]

Lee Morea / Laura Forlano: [00:00:20] Humanity, [00:00:20][0.0]

Lee Moreau: [00:00:21] and the emerging world of [00:00:22][0.9]

Lee Moreau / Renata Marques Leitao: [00:00:24] Pluriversal design — [00:00:24][0.3]

Lee Moreau: [00:00:24] Plus two bonus episodes: Welcome to our panel, Design Research Leadership in Business. And please welcome Giorgia Lupi. And a super special season finale guest. [00:00:34][10.6]

Don Norman: [00:00:37] And I said: I design designers. [00:00:37][0.5]

Lee Moreau: [00:00:38] I spent six days at the Design Research Society’s biannual conference hosted in Boston from June 23rd to 28th at Northeastern University and MIT is Morningside Academy of Design and Harvard University. Though the event dates back to 1962, this year was the first time it’s ever been held in the United States. And it was tremendously exciting to be there. I left with the idea that if 2024 marked the closing of a chapter, design has what it takes to start a new and more powerful one. And luckily, I brought my podcasting equipment with me. [00:01:11][33.5]

[ Design Research Society]: [00:01:12] Thank you so much for being here and enjoy your conference. [00:01:13][1.7]

Lee Moreau: [00:01:16] I spoke with extraordinary thinkers, creators and experts about the state of design, their practices, and most importantly, their thoughts on the future. [00:01:25][8.2]

Sheng-Hung Lee: [00:01:25] I really feel like the future of design inside a human cannot be replaced, right? You have a lot of ideas, but can you have a great taste? [00:01:33][8.0]

Lee Moreau: [00:01:34] We talked about the relationship between products in play, [00:01:36][2.2]

Paolo Ciuccarelli: [00:01:38] For controversial and societal problems, and when you have data, you want to make sure that multiple stakeholders can be part of the problem and the solution. [00:01:47][8.5]

Lee Moreau: [00:01:47] And how, contrary to popular fears, design’s scope has only grown. [00:01:51][3.4]

Elizabeth Christoforetti: [00:01:52] As I’ve been going back and looking through history about how design disciplines have changed over time, they’re always changing in relationship to moments of extreme complexity. [00:02:02][10.4]

Lee Moreau: [00:02:03] And while transitions are hard, longevity in the field is still possible. [00:02:07][3.5]

Rachel Dietkus: [00:02:07] I just come from this philosophy that if if we are not taking care of ourselves, if we are not taking care of one another, then we fundamentally cannot do the work. [00:02:16][8.8]

Lee Moreau: [00:02:17] And as the world shifts its focus to the needs of increasingly vulnerable stakeholders, design has a unique opportunity to lead, co-create and ethically shape systems that will work for everyone. [00:02:28][11.1]

Lesley-Ann Noel: [00:02:28] Anybody who feels a little bit othered has—I find that they have found this conversation of a world of many worlds resonates with them because it kind of gives them space to say: Okay, I can exist as I am. [00:02:43][14.6]

Lee Moreau: [00:02:44] Make sure you’re subscribed to Design As wherever you listen to podcasts and that you’re following us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube or wherever else you scroll at Design Observer to never miss an episode or our bonus content. [00:02:44][0.0]

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