Week 1 recap: From individual creativity to effective outcomes February 3, 2009
Posted by rda1 in : Uncategorized , add a commentIn week one, we introduced some big ideas that will become central to our understanding of service design, and of designers’ role in public space: What did Obama mean in his Inaugural address when he talked of ‘joining imagination to common purpose’? Can there be such a thing as entrepreneurial government that’s effective? Or regulated enterprise that’s economically worthwhile? This tension is something we’re bound to revisit as the semester progresses. This class is about working out ways to be effective as design thinkers and makers in all kinds of contexts, including and especially in public.Those questions are so huge, and topical – of the moment – but back to first terms at the outset: Can we define creativity, innovation and design? What’s the relationship between them? The Design Council in the UK draws up a framework (see page 49 of this pdf) that defines creativity as an individual quality, one of agency; innovative as an attribute of the environment that allows creative agency to flourish, that through the design process, nurtures skills, values and experience to produce effective outcomes. So now you know where that first diamond diagram comes from.