
Highlights from a Design Currency 2010 Committee Member and Attendee
Mark Busse, May 03, 2020 at 12:44 PM
Below is an excerpt from an email sent by Vancouver designer Catherine Worrall, who was an original member of the Design Currency 2010 Planning Committee nearly two years ago and key contributor to the original conference theme language.
Just a quick note to say thanks and well done for a great conference. From Day One, it expanded the definition of design, got me thinking and helped me to further develop the thinking I've been doing.
There were highlights for me on all three days, here are a few from my list of favourite quotes, moments and ideas:
- The surprise Fellowship award to Dave Mason - his humble surprise was touching
- The Philips concept, "Matching the technically possible with the humanly preferable"
- The "moving flowers" street lighting concept from Philips
- The five waves of brand from Debbie Millman
- "What are you trying to say?" from Ian Grais
- The archetypes from Brian Collins, and "There is something that makes us uniquely designers - we risk forgetting this."
- Several quotes from Milton Glaser - among them: "The question is not how well design serves business, but how well business serves culture."
- Frank Chimero - everything he said, but especially, "To delight is to give someone a small lesson in how to see the world as something good."
- Deborah Sparrow - this one had a right to the podium, not so much because "we always have to have a bit of indigenous culture," but rather because of who she was and how she told her story. A marvelous counterpoint to Marian Baantjes (also a wow for me). Interesting to see the approach of two commissioned artists, working with designers and how devotion to a personal vision leads the artist forward. Hearing these two presentations re-inspired me in very different ways.
- Ronald Kapaz: "The value of design is in the redesign of values."
- Design's higher calling by Tony Golsby Smith. The concept of swimming upstream to arrive at a place where one informs design with greater meaning and value. The idea of NOT trying to make design look like a visual form of logic, but rather to see it as a tool for collaborative transformation of how we do things.
- Tony Golsby Smith's quote on day one: "Design allows us to recapture the divine."
So thanks for all the hard work and for delivering WAY beyond my expectations.
All the best,
Catherine
Catherine Worrall MA MGDC
Principal, Ideastream