Hard at work, Prototyping for "From Buckets to Rain Barrels"

After the last few weeks I've been spending lots of time designing, redesigning, reredesigning and researching (through prototypes) in the various labs at Carleton U. These are a few of my earliest mock-ups, exploring forms for a modular water storage system. I've been working with paper, cardboard, fabric, carving foam and more. Soon I'll move on to a larger scale and begin looking into more detailed areas of the solution.

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Bonus, Here's a few photos from my trip:

Logo design for Carleton University's " From Buckets to Rain Barrels" Project

Presentation: Concept Development

My final major project at Carleton University centers around solving water shortage issues in Longido, Tanzania. Longido suffers from chronic water shortages which lead to a variety of related problems. Poor health and sanitation are the result of a lack of access to clean water. Collection of water in Longido is an inefficient process, with negative impacts affecting mainly women and children. Women and girls spend a large portion of the day collecting water from a town reservoir, waiting in line for several hours, or walking up to 10 kilometers to gather water from the fresh water springs (known as oceans) on Mount Longido. When it rains, people put out buckets to collect the rain, but most of the water goes uncollected and is washed away in seasonal rivers, sometimes leading to flooding.

Much of my initial research focused on agriculture and related issues. The main issues to be solved
were protection of the plants from wildlife, insects, and goats, along with increased water collection for agriculture projects. There have been successful agriculture projects from Testigo Africa, and it was decided early on that rather than create new agricultural methods, the project should build
on the successes that Testigo has already had in Longido. Eventually I moved towards rain water collection; the lack of water is the main problem hindering agriculture and leading to a variety of other issues, it should be made a priority. My main focus is now eaves troughs and storage tanks for developing areas such as Longido.

Grow Pod: My final design!

After loads of work, Here's what my final Kitchen Garden looks like:

Kitchen Garden - Progress

My kitchen garden project is progressing along well. I have to finish the branding and the details on my CAD model, but I'm happy with wear I'm at right now. I expect to be finished my final details in the next 3 weeks. 

Recent Doodles

A Case for Design in Business - Part 5

Designers Make Great Leaders & Should Play a Leadership Role in Businesses

In 2007, Bruce Nussbaum was a supporter of design thinking. He believed the CEO's and Managers had to learn to be designers and use design thinking methodologies to accomplish business goals (Nussbaum, 2007). It is important to note that some companies have had success with design thinking. The organizations that have shown success however, have had designers as leaders and integrated design thinking at all levels, not as a quick band-aid solution (Tydings, 2012).

Nussbaum argues that design must be fully integrated with business, marketing, and engineering. These faculties must learn from each other at an educational level and continue to integrate at a corporate / real-world level. The debate between commerce and art is of the past, and now is the time to find commonality. That is not to say design should give up it's specialties in visualization and form creation, only to say that it should expand those specialties to include empathy "formalized expression of how it translates empathy to creativity and then to form and experience" (Nussbaum, 2007). Design leaders recognize the value of combining different sources of knowledge. Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan of Method combined sustainable chemistry, business and industrial design to create a successful line of soaps and detergents (Tydings, 2012).

Lou Dorfsman (Former Graphic Designer at CBS) understood the need for a multidisciplinary approach to business and design to employ a successful brand change. He worked with meticulous detail to ensure that a cohesive brand experience from all aspects of the business (including customer experience, architecture and graphic design) (Tydings, 2012).

Presently, many industries are in a state of flux, and business people and designers alike are swept up in the change. Innovation now goes beyond technology, it includes systems and organizations. Design goes beyond form to include methods and ways of thinking, it is forward looking by nature (Nussbaum, 2007). The ability of designers to create intangible design (experience design) is not new; Charles and Ray Eames were specialists in creates processes and systems that were capable of changing and be continuously improved (Tydings, 2012).

Many CEO's and corporate leaders & managers are still believers that design is no more than aesthetics. They understand concepts about innovation, but not design. These attitudes will not survive. Business culture is being radically affected by the changes taking place, and design, technology & innovation are the drivers. Designers are the "sherpas of culture, the guides to community, the empathizers of the odd and foreign." They see these changes as opportunities. It is only with this attitude that companies will be able to survive in this new climate (Nussbaum, 2007).

Design is so popular today mostly because business sees design as connecting it to the consumer populace in a deep, fundamental and honest way. An honest way. If you are in the myth-making business, you don’t need design. You need a great ad agency. But if you are in the authenticity and integrity business then you have to think design. If you are in the co-creation business today—and you’d better be in this age of social networking—then you have to think of design. Indeed, your brand is increasingly shaped and defined by network communities, not your ad agency. Brand manager? Forget about it. Brand curator maybe (Nussbaum, 2007). 

Modern companies are beginning to understand this need. For example, Citrix, Dyson and Method are modern companies that have successfully integrated design into their business methods; they focus on customer satisfaction and use design to gain a competitive advantage. They are using a similar multidisciplinary, multifaceted approach that was laid out by designers like the Eameses and Dorfsmon (Tydings, 2012).

"Through experience design, multidisciplinary leadership, and design thinking, designers are looking at businesses holistically and using design processes and techniques to drive companies toward more successful innovation. Increasingly, design is affecting more than new products or brand strategy and used to better inform, create and/or shape company strategy and their business models" (Tydings, 2012).

Sources:

Miller, K., & Moultrie, J. (2013). Delineating Design Leaders: A Framework of Design Management Roles in Fashion Retail.Creativity & Innovation Management, 22(2), 161-176. doi:10.1111/caim.12024

Nussbaum, B. (2007) CEOs must be Designers, Not Just Hire Them. Bloomberg Business Week. Retrieved October 21, 2014. From: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/06/ceos_must_be_de.html

Tydings, L. (2012). Why designers will become the Next Generation of CEOs. Triple Pundit. Retrieved October 21, 2014. From: http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/designers-will-become-next-gen-ceos/