Archive

Reporter Alice Rawsthorn explains that designers will increasingly be called on to help recession-struck companies find ways to cut costs without impeding efficiency. Designers will also need to identify the entrepreneurial opportunities presented by the recession. In one example, Rawsthorn points to the “Virtual Wallet,” an online banking service developed for the young, tech-savvy customers of the American bank PNC. For more information about the Virtual Wallet, click here. To read the full article in the International Herald Tribune, click here.

Stanford University’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar is a weekly speaker series that brings innovation leaders from the fields of business, finance, technology, education, and philanthropy, to share their insights with entrepreneurs from all over the world. Join IDEO's Tom Kelley for his presentation “Young at Heart: How to Be an Innovator for Life” on November 12. For more information or to watch the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network presentation videos, click here.

McKinsey’s Lenny Mendonca and Stanford professor Hayagreeva Rao speak with Tim Brown about his perspective on innovation at IDEO and at other organizations. In the article, he focuses on the role of leadership in stimulating creativity, the barriers that sometimes inhibit it, and the incentives that really help to generate new ideas. He also discusses opportunities to innovate in public services and the promise of user-generated online content. To access the article from The McKinsey Quarterly, click here.

At the 2008 Serious Play conference in Pasadena, California, IDEO’s Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play. He reminds us to “forget the adult behaviors that get in the way of ideas.” As FingerBlasters litter the stage, let Tim rekindle your playtime spirit and inspire innovation. Watch the full talk on TED.

Bruce Nussbaum blogs about why a deep recession can be a great opportunity for innovation. With a nod to IDEO’s Tim Brown, Nussbaum suggest we’ll see big changes in consumer behavior, pointing to a potential shift from spending to saving through such initiatives as Bank of America’s Keep the Change.

Tagged under “ambition,” Gizmodo marvels at IDEO Labs’ Global Chain Reaction. Blogger Adam Frucci writes, “Sure, we’ve seen a number of fun Rube Goldberg devices in our day, but none with the scale and ambition of this one made by IDEO.” For the video of the contraption, visit IDEO Labs.

Ford’s SmartGauge with EcoGuide gives hybrid owners a more-connected, fuel-efficient driving experience by coaching them on how to optimize performance of the 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan hybrids. IDEO and Smart Design collaborated with Ford on the project, and brainstorming sessions with the IDEO team led to more than 100 ideas about information to display. Click here for more information.

Ideas are a dime a dozen, while getting new services to market is a rare commodity. IDEO's Mark Jones and Fran Samalionis explain their strategies for execution: the alignment of the right idea, the right team, the right development process, the right leadership, the right level of risk management, the right target, and the right time to market. It's a disciplined approach to identifying and executing the most promising ideas. For more, read their article on businessweek.com.

IDEO partner and practice lead Fred Dust will be kicking off the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh’s 2008/2009 Design Excellence Lecture Series. Fred's presentation, “Tales of the City: New Public Collaborations,” focuses on how the practice of small “d” design and radical collaboration with clients and consumers allows for new methods for public process and some surprising new solutions to thinking about a city.

In the October issue of the Harvard Business Review, Diego Rodriguez, a partner at IDEO, talks about dealing with the “lone inventor myth.” In the article "Creativity and the Role of the Leader," Diego asks readers to consider the examples of InnoCentive, Mozilla, and Wikipedia. “All are contexts that bring in lots of contributors," he explains. "And the fundamental structure of such networked organizations is not centralized and top-down." For more on Diego's thinking and to access the full article, click here.

Join IDEO speakers at SoCap08, an event designed to bring together leading social entrepreneurs and investors from around the world. From October 13 to 15, creative thinkers will discuss their efforts to accelerate the flow of capital to good in the form of business, investing, and philanthropy.

Join IDEO's Valerie Casey at DesignPhiladelphia's conference, Creating the Conditions for Change, on October 21, 2008. The event is part of National Design Week, October 16–22.

Valerie Casey, founder of the Designers Accord, will be speaking about "Sustainability by Design: Moving from Solving Problems to Preventing Them" at the Environmental Grantmakers Association Retreat in upstate New York on Wednesday.

IDEO's Valerie Casey talks with Fast Company about the Designers Accord, a movement she founded to encourage organizations to reduce their carbon footprints and raise social and environmental impact with their clients. In less than a year, the Accord has united 100,000 designers and firms from 100 countries, including recent adopters Adobe and Autodesk. For more about how the message of the Accord is spreading, read the full article in Fast Company.

Interested in multitouch interfaces? Check out IDEO Labs' new blog. Or head straight to their open source code. Everything is licensed under Creative Commons, so enjoy! Also, don't miss invention and engineering page.

Steve Bishop, a global lead of Design for Sustainability at IDEO, tells how to create a green product that people actually want. Read more on Harvard Business Review’s Leading Green blog.

The Spark device from IDEO and Project Inkwell is featured on techradar.com.

IDEO’s Ted Howes juries for the SparkAwards — the world’s first multi-level design competition whose goal is to encourage design to meet the goals of a better world.

8/15–17, Washington D.C.: Ted Howes will participate in the Cleantech Forum in Washington D.C., addressing how design can help accelerate the adoption of cleantech offerings.

9/24–9/26, Amsterdam: Bill Moggridge will present "Design As a Collaborative Process" at PICNIC '08, the third annual conference spotlighting cutting-edge products and services at the intersection of media, technology, arts, and entertainment.

Closing six days of the largest celebration of food in the US, an eat-in in San Francisco's Dolores Park will bring together 250 students, farmers, cooks, artisans, activists, eaters, and designers. IDEO's Steve Kim and Adam Reineck have designed a hay-bale stage for participants to gather around to discuss the global youth food movement.

Core 77 blogs about IDEO's newly launched website—the very one you're on!

IDEO's involvement in the next Gary Hustwit film is announced.

An article on Core77 featuring The Designers Accord, founded by Valerie Casey.

IDEO is one of the design firms featured in "Different by Design" on Time.com.