A Sense of Optimism at the IDSA 2008 National Conference

The Industrial Design Society of America held its 2008 national conference in Phoenix, Arizona. I’ve always been critical of the content at the conference, usually finding value in the networking and casual discourse but not learning a great deal from the actual conference sessions. This year’s event had a slightly different feel to it; while there was certainly a great deal of chaff, I was able to find a strong amount of wheat in the specific breakout sessions.

Highlights from the event, and comments on the general theme, are noted below. I’ve also reproduced my raw notes; I’ve found that I’m able to synthesize the material from the conference better when I capture as much of it as possible in real time.

A theme towards culture, society, research and humanity

One of the biggest changes in the conference content was the push away from a celebration of product and artifact, and towards a less self-congratulatory, more humble research and insight-based set of content. I attended compelling sessions by Emily Pilloton from Project H, the ladies of femme den at Smart Design, Valerie Jacobs from LPK, and others who are supporting a more research, culture, and society-centric way of looking at design. This isn’t particularly new, but it’s new to see represented in such continuity at the IDSA conference; perhaps the best session I attended, Culture/Counter-Culture by Dan Formosa of Smart Design, had no explicit design content at all. Instead, Dan walked us through the history-transfer of the song Louis Louis, and discussed the temporal aesthetic of culture and influence.

A younger, more optimistic crowd

The typical design-in-crowd of FIDSA seemed to have been diminished, and instead of tuxedos and cigars, the conference had an undertone of swimming pools and rum. While the conference is always a booze fest, this year seemed to recognize and embrace the design youth, and celebrate the under-40 crowd’s intellect and capacity for deep and meaningful discussion. Additionally, the conference program was filled with young speakers who are in formative and strategic positions at major consultancies.

I presented with Matt Schoenholz; our session, Designing in the Face of Chance, was packed, with about 120 people in the room; it was very well received. Equal crowds were drawn to sessions by under-or-nearly-under-40s Kasey Jarvis (The Design Story of the Nike Trash Talk), Erica Eden & crew (Design and Gender: Thinking About Sex), Valerie Jacobs (Now is the New Future: Designing Into Presence), and Marty Gage & Lauren Serota (Sustainable Development Meets Design Research). Serota also drew quite a crowd with her session "Bond vs. Bourne: Designer’s Life Roundtables Featuring Young Design Hotshots and their Seasoned Coutnerparts".

I managed to pick Jim Couch’s brain for upwards of an hour, learning about his history at Fitch, his work with Jay Doblin, and the patterns of design research and strategy that have existed for the last forty years or so. Pictured above is that session, with myself, Famia Ablo from Tupperware, Melissa Zlatow from ASU, Michelle Berryman, and Jim. A sense of optimism was present in our conversation and in this session, due both to the content as well as the age; these people are young, but experienced, and have an idealism that is tempered with the pragmatism of being the “9/11 generation”, the “generation X”, or the “wired generation”.

A solid dose of greenwashing

The conference has, for the last three years, grown continually “green” in content; while much of this is backed by a substantial and meaningful – and well intentioned – want to change, I couldn’t help but find irony in the greenwashing in many of the panels, and in the subtle culture of the conference venue.

Perhaps the most obtuse talk I attended was by Bryan Nesbitt, from General Motors; Nesbitt, who claims responsibility for the design of the PT Cruiser, made an obviously artificial and self-defeating attempt to spin GM as a green and progressive company. His comment that “consumers aren’t ready for a green car, so we tried to figure out what percentage of green they would be ready for” was met with a dull and blunt silence.

Equally as silly was the general amount of disregard for resources found at the conference venue, the Arizona Biltmore. The venue, beautiful and well manicured, offered excess in all capacities – from the nearly constant ground-watering done to maintain the beautiful, green venue, to the $9 bagels wrapped in paper, placed on a plastic tin, re-wrapped in paper and finally in a thick paper bag, I found myself more aware than ever of my waste and negative impact on the world around me. I received a complimentary KOR ONE water bottle at the Eastman InnovationLab Breakfast; this bottle, claiming to be developed in support of the environment, was accompanied by unintentionally ironic plastic samples that the hundreds of attendees promptly threw out. The conference then offered plastic water bottles, accompanied by plastic cups to pour the water into, at every coffee break.

I enjoyed the beauty of the venue, and I also appreciate the amount of detail that IDSA considers in planning the event; however, I wish that the conference organizers would realize that the $1500 conference pricetag could be cut in half if they were to “put their money where their mouth was” and identify a more simple, more subtle, and more appropriate venue.

 This conference was positive, and offered an optimistic look at the future of design; as Bruce Nussbaum described in his opening presentation, “Health, politics – this is the next frontier for design. Work done in civic, non profits, today is an investment for design for tomorrow”. This theme, and push towards design of and for culture and society, matches the work Richard Anderson and I have continually featured in interactions magazine, and mirrors the continued contents of frog’s Design Mind. Forces in design are coming together to realize that design in a business context is but one of many appropriate venues to frame our profession; design in a social, environmental, and cultural context is of equal, or greater, importance.

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If you attended the session Matt and I ran, you might be interested in downloading our slides (an 8meg .pdf file is available). And, if you want to plow through my raw notes from the various sessions, you can download a 40k word doc here.

Jon Kolko