I spent the earlier part of the week at SCAD at a design charrette we helped them host. Design for the other 90% was the theme. Some 200 or so industrial design students are spending 4 1/2 days working in groups of 5 or 6. The groups were assigned regions and topics – South America, peace and stability for instance. Each day (and most of each night) the groups are getting first hand experience with a phase of our design strategy process – alignment, discovery, analysis and envisioning. Its inspiring to see these talented young designers applying their time and talents to understanding and proposing solutions to some of the worlds real problems.

I’m hoping this experience will inspire them. I think it will. Focusing 4 days on far off lands and how most of the people on this planet live must seem such quite a departure from designing cars of the future and jet skis!

Congrats to the folks at SCAD (and Continuum’s Beth Johnson) for all the work to set this up. But, most of all thanks to the students participating. Perhaps you can see that you can make a difference in this world.

Check out details on the event

http://scadcharrette.net/

Join Dan Buchner, Vice President of Innovation and Design and designers from Continuum for this one-day workshop — an interactive journey into the world of design thinking. Through short lectures and fast moving and interactive work sessions, Continuum’s designers will take you through the design thinking process from concept to realization.

March 27, 2008
8:30 a.m.–3 p.m.
Business Innovation Factory
315 Iron Horse Way, Suite 101
Providence, RI 02908

Click here to register.