History

In March 2020 a few of us in the advanced academic world realized that we were going to have to make a huge shift and pivot in how we taught our discipline. In person, physically contextual, kinesthetic learning needed to find a new format and platform, and fast.

With classrooms and studios and shops closed for the foreseeable future, how were we going to engage our students in activities centered around the activity of "making" without access to the tools we were used to? How were we going to engage them in the process of kinesthetic learning that is so central to not only the history of teaching industrial and product design, but was a key part of how we as humans learn about form and surface and scale? We realized that a complete shift in work flow was required, but that shift could potentially align more closely with how we practice design professionally.

A shift to low tech making, at high craft levels, with an emphasis on accessible tools, both physical and digital, was the answer. Introducing digital tools earlier, combined with low tech making, more iterative exploration, and personal digital fabrication was the goal. However, this was a complete deviation from all course content and curriculum we all had been using in our classrooms. We no longer had access to table saws, band saws, laser cutters, thermo formers, paint booths, CNC routers, and more. What a challenge!

Realizing the power of many teachers, students, professors, and designers was our epiphany. We could leverage a collective to develop content than was bespoke to a material, a tool, a process by reaching out to peers and pulling our brains and hands together to create this space. Making•designing•Thinking is a shared and open space where content can be used to teach young designers. Empowering students to learn about form giving, aesthetics, and making in a remote and digital space is our focus. Starting with hand making, jumping to digital visualization in all forms, and then leaping to digital making, and all in an iterative nature, became the solution. Gone are the days of hours and hours of sanding foams and wood, painting models to perfection, and engaging in sleepless nights with peers.

Welcome to the new world of smart working, smart designing, and leveraging of low tech making with high level digital technology! We invite you to engage, learn, and contribute . . .