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Over the past ten weeks in this class, we’ve been exposed to a ton of interesting, enlightening material. When tasked with selecting eight cards that we felt had the most valuable information we had found I immediately thought this was going to be fairly difficult. And it was. Anyways, I did my best to narrow it down and select the eight cards I found to be the most impactful. As you can see, all of the information I found to be very valuable came from either The Shape of Design or Design Is Storytelling. The ideas and concepts that I noted from these books are things that I, without a doubt, want to keep in mind, understand, and expand on. They are all concepts that I believe will be beneficial to my career as a design student and beyond, in the world of professional design. I would like to add that I very much enjoyed this class, found it to be extremely valuable, and thought it was a great introduction into the world of studying, utilizing, applying design thinking.

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This week's chapter in The Shape of Design had a great discussion of a few really interesting ideas. Initially, the “long, hard, stupid way” is an idea I really enjoyed reading about and it resonated with me because I certainly feel an obsession with executing my vision and producing the best quality work I can for some things even if this means going beyond a rational level of output. Beyond this, the idea that great design is like a great gift was also very fun to read about and ponder. The parallels drawn between the two are mind-opening and certainly things I will keep in mind in the future. There were several things I noted from these discussions in the cards above. The old Japanese story that the chapter opens with was really cool too and something that I had not heard before. I thought that the couple Hardvard Business Review articles that were available to read were also interesting and provided some good insight and thought-provoking ideas that I noted above. 

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WEEK 8

The discussion of delightful design in this week’s chapter of The Shape of Design was intriguing and I really enjoyed reading about it. As I read through the chapter these ideas began to make more and more sense and I felt a solid sense of understanding at the end due to the way the ideas were articulated and contextualized. Specifically, when he says that the simplest form of design is serendipity. That resonated with me because I very much agree with that notion though I hadn’t seen it articulated the way Chimero does in the chapter. Beyond this, I found the article about rapid prototyping from the HBR to be interesting because it does seem like a very good way to combat the “prove it” problem, something that is seemingly extremely common in the design industry.

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WEEK 7

This week's chapter in The Shape of Design was full of a lot of great stuff and I found the discussion of frameworks to be especially interesting. The concept of developing a framework with an audience is something that is new to me but I really enjoyed reading about it and found that the description in this week's chapter was very comprehensive and covered a lot of ground regarding the subject. I also enjoyed reading the article about the idea that meditation may help unlock some creative potential within people. This is an interesting idea and one that I would like to explore more in the future. 

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WEEK 6 

Something that really jumped out to me in the Shape of Design chapter we had to read this week was the discussion of how we as designers can use narrative in our own work and what it would look like. I like the way Chimero articulates his point that the appropriate place for a story in design work is where the “time passes.” Beyond this, I thought that the ingredients of a story from Design is Storytelling were broken down and explained in an accessible, concise way and I will certainly reference this chapter of the book in the future should the situation call for it. Lastly, I found the cow manure textile material to be fascinating because I did not know this was an actual thing previous to reading the article. Like I said on the card I am interested to see where this material goes and if it catches on as a legitimate means of making clothing. 

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WEEK 5 

The chapter we had to read this week was full of a bunch of great stuff that I noted in the cards and the Ted Talks that were available to watch were super interesting as well. One of the more interesting things I found in this week's chapter was the information about how Robert Irwin conducted his installation pieces. I feel that the principle of his method translates well in regards to the design field and it is something I would like to keep in mind. The one given by Deanna Van Buren was captivating and I learned something new. I hadn’t previously learned about restorative justice centers and so this talk was very illuminating. I feel that these centers would be a great way to rehabilitate criminals in a legitimate and meaningful way. Beyond this, I found the short talk about different perspectives to be enlightening as well because I learned new things and it changed my perspective. 

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Week 4

This week's chapter in The Shape of Design was full of a lot of interesting ideas that I found to be valuable and recorded those that I thought to be the most important. Beyond these, the videos that we watched this week in class were very interesting as well. I found the video entitled, “A vehicle built in Africa, for Africa” to be one of the more interesting videos. I really liked the idea behind the entrepreneur's whole concept regarding rugged and affordable transportation. It was inspiring to see this type of business take root where it did and provide such a valuable service to the people who purchased/used the vehicles. I enjoyed one idea in specific, the modulization of the vehicle. In my mind, this is a very cool idea and one that I would enjoy seeing be applied to certain vehicles more often. This heightens the level of functionality the vehicle posses by a great deal; it creates many more opportunities for the owner of the vehicle. 

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Week 3

I found this week's chapter in The Shape of Design to be extremely valuable. I really enjoyed all that was talked about in the chapter and I feel that I gained a lot of useful information. I’d say that my biggest takeaway from this week's reading in The Shape of Design was the idea of approaching each project with no bias regarding how things should look, be presented, be incorporated, etc. Approach each new project with the expectation of exploring new options and looking at things from a new angle and check the assumptions you may have about whatever you are working on so as to not let them guide your work. 

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Week 2

This week's readings were very interesting and full of great information. I am very happy with everything I was able to take away from the literature and what I learned. Something I found interesting about this week's material was part of Design Is Storytelling. I really enjoyed how the author made parallels between the literary concepts of the narrative arc and the hero’s journey and the design process and experience. As someone who really enjoys reading and writing, I thought this was a cool idea and they are both aspects of design I will watch for in my daily life. 

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Week 1

 Overall, this week I had many feelings of inspiration regarding what I was reading and watching. There were many great pieces of information in the readings and one part of the readings that I really like was the way Tim Brown described the prototyping process because it had always seemed complicated and confusing (not that it necessarily isn't those things at times) but the way Tim described it was very encouraging and something I will certainly keep in mind and reference when I feel I need to.