Tuesday 12 October 2010

Design Council: Design Glossary #1 - 'Co-Design'



The Design Council are in the process of 'crowdsourcing' a series of design terms to help designers define their value to clients. The first term is: co-design...

The term 'co-design' is frequently used within the field of design but use, application and principles vary depending on context and discipline. Last year I carried out come research into co-design and presented on open lecture to a large group of students, tutors and my PhD supervisors.

Co-Everything: Defining Co-Design within the field of fashion & textiles was a thirty minute presentation followed by a question and answer session. This was a really valuable exercise for me as a designer and researcher... I found that the landscape is huge and the term co-design is associated to  multiple modes of design practice. The question and answer session enabled the audience to challenge co-design, contribute their opinions and share their insights with me. 

Following on from 'Co-Everything' I designed and facilitated a series of exploratory co-design workshops with textile design students. These workshops are going to be expanded upon over the next twelve months... If you are interested in participating please send me an email.

What is co-design? Instead of a definition I have made a list 

Co-design is a method / an act of collective creativity / it bridges the gap between the designer and the user / goes beyond specialist mindsets / welcomes the unexpected / should encourage a playful approach / is a shared experience / ...

To add your definition visit the design council facebook page... I am going to submit something more specific this afternoon.

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