Thank you DianeYiour note gives me an excuse to ramble a bit, describing my
experience in Imagineering and then my thoughts on Design Education (brief).

NOTE: This piece is not intended to be controversial. Just comments on two
topics that i know the list cares about.

*Imagineering*:

My main knowledge about Imagineering comes from my visits to Disney's
Imagineering teams in Burbank, California. (Behind the scenes visit,
complete with the signing of an NDA. NDA => sworn to secrecy).  (They were
considering hiring me to be as a Disney Fellow. I loved Disney, the
creativity and the people, but I also decided that is not what i wanted to
spend my life doing.)

The task of Imagineering has multiple components, some of which are purely
technical, but many of which are the type of design I truly love --
thinking big -- and that represents an important missing piece of much of
contemporary design.

At Disney Imagineering I watched the development of a raft ride, with big
rubber rafts tumblng back and forth, tossed by "waves" which were simulated
by huge air bladders that could be inflated and deflated rapidly. (A raft
might hod a dozen or so people.)

I watched development of a ride by having a truck stretch a bungee cord the
entire length of a large parking lot (empty of cars), attaching a
skateboard to it, having the "Imagineer" sit on the board, and then, let
the bungee cord go.

I call those activities prototyping, which is a critical part of design.

The other big-thinkers in design that I admire are architects and city
planners

So is Imagineering design? Much of it is, yes.

Imagineering Design
Theater Design
Architectural Design
....
no problem


*Now the Ramble begins*

The only other group i know that design such wonderful experiences are,
hmm, theme park designers, ride designers, theater design (lighting,
costumes, sound, staging).  We need more truly big thinkers in design. And
more Cheif Design Officers in major companies that develop major strategic
plans for the company (via design research).

*Theater*

Interestingly, my university offers a Design MFA, but not by my Design
group, by Theater:

The Design program trains students in the best professional practices of
regional and commercial theatre. The design faculty are award-winning
working professionals also committed to teaching. The design training
program stresses an interaction with the works of many visual artists from
a wide range of disciplines. We teach students traditional methods, but
also encourage spontaneity, free of preconceptions. We train students to
create designs that "comment" on the play and the text, not merely
"illustrate" it. Students' talent and design work are showcased at a number
of venues that have directly resulted in many national grants, awards, and
other work opportunities for our alumni.


I had never seen this description nor was I aware that they gave an MFA in
Design until I looked it up for this email. The folks in theater are
incredibly creative and fun to interact with.  For a long time the URL
design.ucsd.edu got you into theater. We thought that was fine.  (That URL
doesn't seem to work anymore. And when I went to the Theater part of the
UCSD webpage, I discovered the Design MBA.)

*Design Education*

The Design Lab that I direct is contemplating the offering of an MDes
degree. We decided NOT to offer an undergraduate degree in design: We would
prefer our students to get deep knowledge in a topic before coming into
design. We do offer an undergraduate minor and we are contemplating a PhD
specialization in design: A specialization is basicallly a minor, but at
the PhD level for someone whose PhD major is some other field. Again, we
wish depth in a substantive area.

don

On Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 8:54 PM, Nijs, Diane <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ​ ...
>
I am a list-member from a, for This list, rather strange background: The
> Creative industries. The interesting thing is that in these industries
> quite some crucial, business generating 'design' happens under the umbrella
> of 'imagineering': Designing a generatie image, called 'High Concept' that
> sets the stage for collectie and continuous creation. This is an
> Activity/art that was never called 'design'. And those WHO practice This
> 'art' are NOT called designers but imagineers.

​......​

> In essence, Imagineering is NOT about designing a 'solution' but about
> designing for 'evolution', designing To generatie New order in a system,
> or, as Complexity scholars might say, designing for emergence. It is design
> that inspires others To design or act aligned with One another.

​...​

> I wrote a book on This issue that Will Be published by Edward Elgar early
> 2019.

Thanks,

Diane


> ​My concluding words: I very much look forward to the book.​


​Don​


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