RISD ID alum Sami Neremerg has recently announced on her blog, imassami, that she will be teaching an advanced studio in the ID department this coming fall.

The course, entitled “Design for Social Entrepreneurship (DeSE)”, description is as follow:

A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change.

This course aims to cultivate social entrepreneurial designers by investigating the power of product, system and service design to create positive social and environmental change. Looking at both international and domestic issues, this course asks, how can design and design thinking be used to solve the world’s leading problems to achieve triple bottom line sustainability—environmentally, socially, and economically? Structured around holistic thinking, collaborative and individual design work, with mentorship from experts in the field, this course uncovers how to design products and/or services, wrap a business around it, and create tangible positive impact in our world today.

Sami has been working full time at Design That Matters, a non-profit design company located in Boston, Mass. and will continue to be working at DTM part time while she is teaching this upcoming fall.

On her blog, Sami has reached out to the RISD ID community to provide “feedback, advice, input, collaboration and dialogue” as she works on developing her curriculum for the class throughout the summer.

Its no question that everyone in ID has an opinion on how they would improve their Advanced Studio, and from experience we know that the description of a studio doesn’t always clearly represent the experience we get out of it (for better and for worse). Sami is giving students an opportunity to actively participate and engage in building the curriculum from the ground up.

For those who are vocal and particular about what they are interested, there is opportunity to shape this class to meet their interests. For those who aren’t really sure what they want out of the class but are interested in the topic, there is opportunity to watch how the class develops and get acquainted with the overall experience the class will offer. Of course there are always those in-between who will dabble a bit in both.

What if all Advanced Studio teachers took the approach Sami is taking?
What if we could spend our summer watching the course sylabii evolve and have the ability to input our own advice and ideas before even committing to the class?

How would it change the content and quality of the studios offered?
How would it change students selections and satisfaction with their chosen course?

An Important Update From Sami

Photographs from families around the world, comparing regional consumption of a weeks worth of food.

www.fixingtheplanet.com/one-weeks-worth-food-around-our-planet

What do you guys think of..

SHIFT ABC: Activism Built Change/Community!!!

Okay so these questions have been brought to my attention

Q: What do we do?

A: I would have to answer, we are looking to redefine ID so we can change the curriculum in DP and Advanced Studio to fit OUR definition of design for the majority of students in risd ID.

Q: Starting a new group aren’t we complicating things with Respond design?

A: No we are an Undergrad based LEADERSHIP, research, and action group trying to change our school environment! Respond is a grad based leadership group. Shift or what ever it may be called This is a place for freshman, sophmores, junoirs and Senoirs to be heard and acted upon on peer to peer leadership.

Q: Why the website? Why SHIFTdesign? WHy should I post comments on the Website?

A: First of all I am just getting things rolling. Static friction! Nothing about the name and mission is concrete. The more people get involved and actually edit the better. IF you don’t like the Brand, great create a new logo. I welcome critism but love action. I literally just threw it up there to get something up there. The website, we need a place to record our process of decision making for John Maeda and Kurt Teichert of Brown to see, This is website, documents our thought and collective process.

Last note:
Guys I am a man of action. I don’t like being idle. Snore! I just throw stuff up and out there to get the ball rolling cause nobody is giving or telling me what to do or contributing. If you don’t feel like you are getting enough out of your education here is the place to do it. Shift design or what ever it is called Is place a for you to start bitchin and do something about it. I think everyone on this list of emails are concerned with getting involved in something. Talk to your friends about it, collaborate! and Post a comment.

Lets Do it together.

Post a comment anywhere on www.shiftdesign.org Be Apart of the PROCESS!

Round two….these are revisions of Sami’s suggestions

“We as designers, are a primary source for generating creative solutions for today’s problems. Using creativity as a sustainable resource and our holistic approach of analysis for systemic resolutions we believe designers can be the focal point for innovative resolutions. Our strong foundation in interdisciplinary design thinking will spring new opportunities in the world for ingenuity to flourish, catalyzing positive change.  With a kaleidoscopic perspective as our asset, the shift from myopic problems solving to collaborative resolutions can be achieved in civic topics ranging from energy, environment, education, medical, business, transportation, to policy and beyond”

Awesome! Keep the comments rolling here is the brains storm from Tuesday night

Issues with the department:

- want/need more of a focus on a finished product… more polished.

- the disconnect between the emphasis’ stressed in DP vs. the emphasis’ in    Advanced studio (i.e. DP has big focus on product design)

- want more freedom in advanced studios to pursue individual interests, the   studios are too “mapped out.” Outcome of projects are set at beginning of semester.

-the need for more personal exploration

- there is a strong emphasis from the department on product-based design even though the majority of students show interests in broader aspects within Industrial design like education, transportation.

Comments about the curriculum-

-         RISD ID prepares students for design management positions (oversee process)

-         Well prepared in the design process

-         Emphasis on critical thinking.

-         Craft

-         Journey based design process vs. destination based design process

-         Focus on ideation…. Ideas

-         Presentation skills

-         Difference between product design and industrial design

-         Interdisciplinary studies enhance our abilities in Product Design

What is ID? How do you define it?

-         user-centric

-         user experience

-         revolves around both the user as well as manufacturability

-         I’m a problem solver

-         Redefine the idea of what is a product- physicality

-         See and understand the whole process, define it ourselves

-         Holistic approach

-         Redevelop

-         A translator

-         “Professional amateur ”

-         Synthesis- information and ideas to create something entirely new.

-         We define and shape our world, as opposed to letting it primarily shape us

-         Creatively solving problems-Critical thinking- opportunity

            “RISD students are international experts in creating solutions for the worlds problems”

“Strong foundation in interdisciplinary design”

“Holistic approach to system resolutions”

“Our identity/role in the world is to create opportunity”   of….?”