idsa

Report from the IDSA Conference: The End of an Era

by Jon Kolko, Associate Creative Director, Frog Design

I've just returned from the IDSA conference in Miami, and I'm both convinced that, in ten years, there won't be an IDSA conference to go to - and that isn't a bad thing. I don't mean this in a disparaging sense; I enjoyed the conference, caught up with old friends, made new friends, and learned a bit. But a trend that I've observed at past conferences is only more evident this year, and it's patronizing to continue to skirt what is becoming increasingly obvious: the … Read more

U.S. National Design Policy initiative poised to 'redesign America's future'

Design is not the answer to everything, but it certainly has an important role to play in almost everything that holds a society together.

In light of the current economic crisis, several U.S. professional design organizations (AIGA, IDSA, and others), design education accreditation organizations, and Federal Government officials have seized the historic opportunity and joined forces to launch an initiative to shape a U.S. National Design Policy. In a moment of great global uncertainty and an erosion of national confidence, designers are perfectly positioned to take on a leadership role in "Re-designing America's Future," and … Read more

Did the World Design Congress Connect?

Phew, what a busy week it was. Unfortunately, it was busy for me in a way that meant I didn't get to see as much of the World Design Congress as I had hoped. The plan for blogging during it also didn't work out as expected. Tim got to see a lot more than I did, and his post does a masterful job of capturing the highlights and trends.

From my more limited perspective I would tend to agree with the key points of his post. The highlight for me, as I think it was for many, was … Read more

CONNECTING'07: Where do we design from here?

Thousands of representatives from international corporations, design firms, government entities, and institutions of higher education, spanning more than 35 countries around the world, attended the CONNECTING'07 World Design Congress last week in San Francisco, the largest and arguably most influential gathering of industrial designers to date.

Did it live up to its promise? The short answer is: yes and no. There were early warning signs for the "no": The opening ceremony was a long-winded and largely self-congratulatory celebration of the two organizing bodies, ICSID and IDSA. In his opening keynote, ICSID president Peter Zech set the tone … Read more

Blogging the World Design Congress

We'll be blogging from the World Design Congress which is this week in San Francisco. It's bringing together a couple of hundred speakers from the world of design and culture, and should prove to be interesting and inspiring. The event is co-organized by the Industrial Designers Society of America (which collaborates with BusinessWeek on the annual design awards), and ICSID, which is the international body of national design organizations such as IDSA.

From the website:

Two years and twenty two years

Every two years, Icsid holds a Congress in collaboration with a member organization in a host country, … Read more

Concept car or baby rattle?

This gravity-driven "car" (top photo) took the prize for "Best Design Exploration" at the Unlimited Derby car race, an event sponsored by IBM at the Industrial Designers Society of America conference in Austin, Texas.

It was designed by ID-One, a creative services company of engineers, industrial designers and graphic artists. (We wonder if they had been flipping through the Tiffany's catalog at the time--see the sterling silver baby rattle below.)

The race is akin to the Boy Scouts' Pinewood Derby in that entries must be gravity driven and fit specific size parameters. Unlike the Pinewood … Read more