MOOCs and Tapping into Design Thinking

MOOCs and Tapping into Design Thinking

I have to admit - I love studying things that inspire me.

So discovering MOOCs (massive open online courses) is almost like a revelation. There are several places to start finding interesting courses for free and so far I've signed up for iversity.org and futurelearn.com.

First I jumped right into this one about "Design Thinking"

which brought me to the TED Talk (2009) by Tim Brown who asks Designers to "think big" again. What I found especially inspiring about his talk: In very simple terms, design is not just selling stuff - or making stuff look good enough to be more desireable to be bought. He describes a different notion of design I haven't heard before (or I am not so familiar with) but which really resonates with my idea of how I want to be a designer in the future.

Instead of seeing its primary objective as consumption, design thinking is beginning to explore the potential of participation -- the shift from a passive relationship between consumer and producer to the active engagement of everyone in experiences that are meaningful, productive and profitable. [08:41 Transcript, Tim Brown]

[ted id=646]

Seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary

Seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary

Check out this interesting approach on Design to take the ordinary and turn it into something new (FZD design)

As the title of the video says - We are surrounded by Design

I found the quote he mentions so inspiring I had to re-hear it a couple of times

Designers are able to see extraordinary things within the ordinary" (3:08)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzz0B3ZXzs

Foundation #1

Hey there, trying to find good material on art foundation recently and I thought why not share what I found. If you are an artist, art student, or just interested in drawing, painting etc. and you have some good resources too, I'd be happy to hear from you.

Step by Step guide to drawing in Perspective http://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-draw-with-perspective--psd-7508

And a good one on "Improve your Art by Learning to See Light and Shadow" which has quite detailed explainations http://design.tutsplus.com/articles/improve-your-artwork-by-learning-to-see-light-and-shadow--cms-20282

I might start some sort of reference page as I go along.