Right Time, Right Place: Applying the discipline of design to the emerging problems facing society
Speaker
Jon Kolko
Associate Creative Director at frog design, and the Founder and Director of Austin Center for Design
When
-
Where
Gates and Hillman Centers 4401 (Rashid Auditorium)
Video
Video link
Description
Design—a thoughtful discipline related to the humanization of technology in culture—has come into its own. It is no longer considered a hybrid of art and science, nor is it to be trivialized as aesthetics or decoration. As a parallel discipline to both art and science, and in the same way in which one can use art or science as a lens through which to approach problems and experiences, so too can one approach the world from a perspective of design. It’s now an opportune time to try this lens in unexpected places—in business, in politics, and in popular culture.
This talk will explore the world from this perspective and through this lens, and describe both the challenges and opportunities in bringing this viewpoint to life.
Speaker's Bio
Jon Kolko is an Associate Creative Director at frog design and the Founder and Director of Austin Center for Design, an educational institution in Texas. He has worked extensively in the professional world of interaction design, solving the problems of Fortune 500 clients. His work has extended into the worlds of consumer electronics, mobile, web, supply chain management, demand planning, and customer-relationship management, and he has worked with clients such as AT&T, HP, Nielsen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ford, IBM, Palm and other leaders of the Global 2000. The underlying theme of these problems and projects was the creation of a solution that was useful, usable, and desirable. His present research investigates the process of Design, with a focus on Design Synthesis and the creation of meaning.
Prior to working at frog, Kolko was a Professor of Interaction and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he was instrumental in shaping the Interaction and Industrial Design undergraduate and graduate programs. Kolko sits on the Board of Directors for the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), and is the Editor-in-Chief of interactions magazine, published by the ACM.
Kolko is the author of the book Thoughts on Interaction Design, published by Morgan Kaufmann, and the forthcoming text entitled Exposing the Magic of Design: A Practitioner’s Guide to the Methods and Theory of Synthesis, to be published in late 2010 by Oxford University Press.
Speaker's Website
http://www.jonkolko.com/
Host
Jenna Date