Dean’s message It has been observed that a design professional is only called upon when every other expedient choice has been eliminated. This observation makes the point that too often the study and practice of design are considered endeavors reserved for those who have the luxury of their reflections rather than as central to the advancement of society. Only recently has design been the subject of broad interest, as leaders in industry and government have realized that innovation is the key to the competitiveness of our culture.
Innovation:Exploring the Space Ahead In the midst of the difficulties raised by a flagging economy and increasing international competition, design thinking has emerged as a strategy for leadership. This is history repeating itself. This awareness was central to the great machine age of America in the 1920s and 1930s when the profession of industrial design was born. In the midst of the worst crisis in the history of the American economy design was not only relevant, it was at the leading edge of the strategy to restore vitality. Individuals such as Norman bel Gedes became popularly known figures. Mr. Gedes’s influence became so pervasive in the design of common objects that one cartoonist pundit had corporate leaders soliciting his opinion regarding the design of sugar cookies. How then does a design college during this time demonstrate its value proposition with the force of Norman bel Gedes personality? How do we move from the status of a beautiful hood ornament on the vehicle of the University into its engine compartment as an essential operating component? In the years following the Russian Revolution there was a burst of creativity giving birth to new ways of thinking and seeing that tested long held traditions. It was a moment of freedom of expression after a long period of repression. From this period emerged movements in art, architecture and design known as Constructivism and Suprematism. However, it wasn’t very long before such work was characterized as overly intellectual and impossible to understand. The old habits of repression soon followed. During this time the Russian painter Kazimir Malevich was asked to provide a concise explanation of the painting style Suprematism for which he was seen as the leader. His description draws upon a powerful image that emerged during his lifetime – controlled flight. He concluded that to paint as a Suprematist was to capture the spirit and the disturbance of the air that precedes an aircraft as
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it moves through the air. He observed that as the craft is thrust through the air, uplifted by force, it pushes ahead a mass of air that is about to be dramatically changed by the experience. He asserted that the craft, like our culture, is driven by forces that change and are changed by the context of events. Malevich goes on to conclude that the individual could only make sense of a rapidly transforming world by becoming the point around which continual movement is expected. He further concludes that the individual must counter this force with the intellectual agility to move with the ever-increasing speed of the “new arts that can only exist in a society which has a dynamic production in its consciousness…” About the same time Thomas Edison observed, “This is the age of speed – speed such as men never dreamed of before. We are annihilating distance – we are conquering not only the land and the sea but the air – we are doing in minutes what our grandfathers could not have done in days and not equipped mentally to grasp or to utilize the things which burst upon them. If modern industry and invention expected to have a market for its products…it had to show men how to think a little farther and a little faster…” These thoughts of one hundred years ago, from very different cultures, provide a lesson for the challenges that lie ahead for the design professions. They anticipate the implications for the future of our culture that will be transformed by events not yet understood. The experiment of the Russian Revolution failed because it turned away from the creative spirit. Threatened by challenges that could not be foreseen or easily understood, behaviors were set in motion to undermine the dynamic evolution of consciousness that Kazimir Malevich insisted was essential to the vitality of a culture. On the other hand, Thomas Edison’s legacy has been celebrated. His spirit of inquiry and his example of significant research and development in an open society continues to foster the innovation and entrepreneurship that has