Introducing Metadesign Methods for Designing Futures

Jones, Hannah. 2012. Introducing Metadesign Methods for Designing Futures. Zhuangshi Chinese Journal of Design(227), pp. 14-16. ISSN 0412-3662 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

We are living in an increasingly out of control world. Climatic, economic and social instability dominate our local and international political discourse. It feels almost impossible as a young independent designer to be able to make a beautiful and meaningful contribution to a better world and make a profit! So how can designers use their ‘possibility seeking’ capabilities to rebalance and reinvent our battered relationship with the environment, alienated social habits and defunct economic and political policies? How can we achieve all this whilst being rewarded for our work creatively and financially? Since 1995, MA Design Futures at Goldsmiths, University of London has advocated an extended role for design as an agent for ecological, social and economic change. In 2012, industry and government are now finally catching up, with countries such as the UK and Korea beginning to explicitly value a role for design thinking and practice as a driver for business and social innovation.

One of our aims on MA Design Futures is to train our students to evolve design tools and processes for working in teams. Our students graduate from the course to work not only in the creative industries but also as socially and environmentally aware designers in the public sector and design strategists in business. This is because through their experience on the course they become artful negotiators and synergisers who can mediate in between the different professional disciplines. For example, this year, one of our graduates is establishing a design innovation consultancy in the field of bio-synthetics in Columbia. Another has set up their own MA in ‘Creative Leadership’ at a top business school in London. What do these two very diverse designers have in common? They have both used Design Futures to inform the design of a reflexive theoretical and practical framework for action.

Item Type:

Article

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Design

Dates:

DateEvent
March 2012Published

Item ID:

7087

Date Deposited:

13 Jun 2012 05:06

Last Modified:

29 Apr 2020 15:34

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/7087

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