Design is a distillation of Craft.
The best design is not a set of instructions.
Good design inspires us to relate both to the materials at hand and our place in the world: physically, socially, and spiritually.
Design provides a framework for Craft where we develop our skills.
Design is not a prison of intention.
Design is a trellis
I’ve worked as a boatbuilder, made furniture, and designed and built houses. From these foundations in Craft most of my work has gone in to design. Most of my work has been designing Craft.
I had the opportunity to teach a short introduction to design at MIT. A week-long course offered during their winter inter-semester session. Open to the entire MIT community.
Reuben Smith and I used creating a half-model, and drawing it to scale, as a vehicle to present an organic approach to design. Helping people discover and identify their underlying needs. Then develop a design, working from first principles. Working to avoid the traps of unexamined assumptions that short-circuit so many design efforts.
The class was recorded as part of MIT’s OpenCourseWare program.
