DAN WANDREY » design

DESIGN FROM LIFE

Dan — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:37:24 +0000

While working with Innovation Space to explore new methodologies for sustainable product development, I’ve had the opportunity to better understand the emerging discipline of biomimicry. Biomimicry explores the materials, processes and functions of nature for clues to solving design and engineering problems. This new area of study can help design teams to create innovative solutions that will minimize the environmental impact of new products.

This past month I’ve been working closely with my Innovation Space comrades to craft a submission for the IDEO Living Climate Change Video Challenge. We’ve put together a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style interactive video to challenge and inspire viewers to consider this underutilized resource.

Check out our entry.

SUMMER PLANS AND PRESENTATIONS

Dan — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:08:08 +0000

My time at ASU has come and gone incredibly fast; too fast actually. After traveling around the country conducting primary research for my thesis, I’ve been eager to slow down and take time to explore thoughts I’ve been grappling with. This winter I’ve relished time spent working to realize these ideas, and this summer I’ll be sharing them.

After receiving positive feedback from our paper for the Chicago Ethnography Conference, Chris Meierling and I have decided to build on those thoughts for the IVSA 2010 Conference in Bologna. Our paper and presentation explore how researchers can put forth information that is accessible and actionable for others and asks how we might be able to create a space that is informative, facilitating, inspirational, and ethical.

I am also excited to announce a very special new piece of work – Community Futures Project. Over the past few years, I’ve become increasingly interested in the use of the Internet and online visualization tools to inform and inspire the design process. While considerable research exists on the social impacts of digital communication, online consumption and the Web, we have paid far less attention to the opportunities presented by digital technology to understand people’s lives. Interested in exploring this opportunity space, I’ve teamed up with Kyle Larkin to advance the use of online tools as a means to connect with people over time and space to produce new, deep and continuing insights. We’ll be presenting and showcasing our work at the Create10 conference
in Edinburgh.

INNOVATIONSPACE BRAINSTORMING

Dan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:40:54 +0000

TO DO:

Dan — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:41:40 +0000

Earlier this year I created this website and I must admit, four months after its launch I haven’t been very faithful in updating it as regularly as I should. To my defense, I have been working hard on numerous projects. One, securing an internship this summer. I’m happy to announce that beginning next month, I’ll be working at Smart Design in New York City until August. I’m pumped to have the opportunity to work in such a collaborative, full-service studio and gain that new perspective.

This spring I’ve also teamed up with Kyle Larkin to create an interactive data visualization that sorts through quantitative data and augments the patterns observed with qualitative stories. Check back for that soon.

-Dan

IS INNOVATION DEAD?

Dan — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 02:52:58 +0000

Last month, BusinessWeek’s Bruce Nussbaum pronounced the word innovation “dead” and introduced transformation a key concept for 2009. My take: Is innovation dead? No, it’s more alive than ever. Its meaning is dead.

The problem with innovation is that people have abused the term and taken something that used to signify a technique for creating breakthrough ideas to solve confounding problems and have turned it into a simple marketing scheme. The word has become marketinguese, overused in meetings, pitches, magazine advertisements, television commercials, and even design school presentations. What does it really mean anymore?

I just finished reading an article in IDSA’s Innovation magazine and was shocked to read a three page article that sited the term over 80 times. In many instances, 2 to 3 times in the same sentence. Is innovation a noun, verb, adverb…? After reading the article I still did not know. Is the obsessive, rampant use of the word innovation by people trying to generate quick revenue for their companies a dying trend? Let’s hope so, since it cheapens what we are all interested in creating.

Read the article
Article visualization

MY WINTER BREAK VACATION: LOGAN ELM PRESS

Dan — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:33:09 +0000

After working most of fall re-designing my portfolio, I knew I needed to step away from my laptop. I decided to treat myself during winter break by learning how to letterpress, the oldest, and some say dying, printing technique. I hopped on a plane to Columbus, Ohio, to visit letterpress guru, Bob Tuber at the Logan Elm Press. Under his tutelage, I was fortunate to spend a few long days standing in front of 90-year-old, 1200 pound Vandercook 4; hand mixing inks, replacing timpens, adjusting press furniture, and cleaning rollers.

During the printing process, ink is slightly impressed giving a crisp, tangible feeling to the paper. Its results cannot be replicated. I have long appreciated typography and enjoy learning about printing techniques so this was a delightful experience.