Outline of a design primer for 10-13 year olds. Bring design into the core curriculum please.

1. Sketch of Section 2: Gathering Information

Who designs?

Anybody with a problem who is willing to solve it.

What is a design?

While there are many definitions in a dictionary, we define design as any plan for a solution to a problem.

Where are designs used?

Everywhere. There can be design without a designer. Many problems in a changing environment are solved through variation, selection, and multiplication (imperfect copies) of successful designs.

When are designs created?

For us, whenever something is seen as a problem, we start imagining solutions. If we create a plan someone else can follow then we have a design.

How are designs created?

There are as many ways to create a design as there are ways to solve a problem.

Why are designs created?

Designs are one possible response to a problem but there are alternatives. We can simply endure the problem or see the problem as something other than a problem. Computer programmers joke ‘it's a feature, not a bug’ and sometimes they really mean it.

What is the difference between art and design?

Art is freedom from any constraints beyond the aesthetic (of the artist).

Design is fitness for a particular purpose.

An umbrella has high utility for keeping the rain off your head and low utility as a chair.

A chair has high utility for sitting and low utility for keeping the rain off your head.

All made things have a design behind them (intentional or unintentional).

All living things have a design behind them (but no designer).

As long as we live in a world of messy people acting, reacting, and interacting, we will face new problems so we will need new designs.

2. Outline Sketch of a design primer for 10-13 year olds.

• Front Matter
• Table of Contents
• Introduction and Acknowledgements
• Letter to the Student
• Letter to the Teacher
• Section 1: Design Elements and Principles
• Elements: SEE FESTIVALS
• Principles: IMPROV CABBAGE
• Exercises:
• Section 2: Gathering information
• Who designs?
• What is a design?
• Where are designs used?
• When are designs created?
• How are designs created?
• Why are designs created?
• What is the difference between art and design?
• Section 3: Typeface Sign and Syntax
• Letter
• Word
• Line
• Margin
• Column
• Glossary
• Index
• Bibliography

Writing a Design Manifesto

 Hear my interview on Bevel during Clerkenwell design week here.

Write it Now or Lose it Forever: Free-Writing as Pre-Writing

Before criticism, concern, cohesion, cohesiveness, concision, correctness or congruence, comes free-writing.

It is a stream of nearly-naked consciousness clapped roughly together in loosely bound words.

Write whatever comes to mind, even if it's 'I don't know what to write.'

Think but don't overthink; any stimulus from the environment you notice can be written down. 

Write with a loose hand. No death grip!

Write your feelings, even what you last ate. Every thought is valid at this stage merely because you think it.

Essay, journal, report, story, poem, anything goes.

Write only forward, never back, erase nothing, read nothing. start a new paragraph any time you feel like it, especially with a new train of thought.

Underline, circle, draw an arrow, anything goes! Write your plans for the day, the weekend, anything goes!

The only rule is to put one word in front of another.

Write fast or slow. telegraphic or run-on sentences punctuated by fragments. Just drain the brain. Get everything out here on the page where you can work with it.

Finally, before reading, let your words settle. A day is preferred by many but trust you will find your time.

Night Machines

They used an easy cipher requiring only card stock and a knowledge of 80s American family sitcoms. It was so simple the first lead investigator was too late for them but their connection was early so they caught it.

The investigators knew their business. Their last known address was a tourist motel across the street from a gothic cathedral.

An accomplice rode their torpedo motorcycle from the scene.

Philip (number 11: the Florist) investigated. the singular lead to their whereabouts was a parking ticket but the plates came up stolen two nights ago from a caterpillar scooter.

The plates smelled of coriander leaves and burnt honey. It was on the tip of a fleeting memory, caramelised onions and sharp chutney on the tongue.

In time, it would rise.