Design Clinic. Weekly Gathering on Design

2012 - 2013 - 2014 - Fjord

TIMELINE
September, 2012 ~ Now (over 2 years)

ACTIVITIES
Internal presentation
Guest presentation
Field trips
Design workshops
Debate
Video watching

BRIEF

Weekly design discussion in Fjord New York studio. I initiated and organized this series of meetings with 2 other colleagues, Nour Diab and Petra Farinha, over 2 years to support education, inspiration and bonding. Every Friday 4 PM I go around and ring beer bell in the studio, and we all gather to talk about design. I am very happy that we, as a team, spent time together to cultivate our own curiosity.

TEAM
> Organizer
Everyone

New York

2014 Design Clinic drawing3

^  Design Clinic on Drawing by Visual Design Lead, Brian McLaughlin. April, 2014

2014 Design Clinic fieldtrip-cooperunion2

^  Field trip to <Image of the Studio, a portrait of New York City graphic design> at Cooper Union. October, 2013

2014 Design Clinic littlebits

^  LittleBits Workshop with LittleBits. August, 2014

2014 Design Clinic IxDA

^  Extended Design Clinic as IxDA meetup on Wearables. August, 2014

ROLE

  • initiator, curator, organizer, occasional presenter and all time beer ringer
  • recruited internal and external speakers
  • organized field trips to various types of exhibitions
  • facilitated design exercises

HIGHLIGHTS

  • internal presentation/workshop: what’s happening in Congo, 3D printing, design + business
  • guest speakers: Critter and Guitari, LittleBits, BeerBot
  • fieldtrip: Pencil to Pixel at Monogram, Applied Design at Moma, Brooklyn Design at Dumbo
  • design workshop: improv, play with playmobile (I led 2 sessions), book binding
  • debate: debate over ‘How to lie with Design Thinking’ with Dan Saffer
  • video: The Invention of Dr.Nakamats, Objectified

CHALLENGE

  • Fjord New York studio has been growing very fast in size and the organization became challenge over time

RESULT

  • grew into 3 people team with Nour Diab and Petra Farinha
  • Mentioned as heros at Fjord USA gathering
  • in employee surveys, team members mentioned Design Clinic sessions as highly valuable time at Fjord.
  • in September 2014, we opened a session with larger design community by hosting IxDA meetup (on wearable). We sold out 80 seats in a day, and participants were very engaged.