Service-ism

In the last five years or so, the world of design has undergone significant changes. Beyond the general advancement of craft in respect to materials, 3D software tools, and resulting form languages, Design as a discipline has started down a new road. The foundation of this path in a new direction had begun to be laid by thought leaders for over a decade. IDEO co-founder David Kelley was an early proponent of design's potential to transcend the accepted borders of the field. The concept of "design thinking," the use of abductive thinking and application of established design processes to situations and challenges well outside the traditional scope of those tackled by design, began to make more frequent appearances at increasingly diverse venues.

As a new school of thought, "design thinking" has surfaced in numerous top-tier educational institutions such as Stanford's d.School and Carnegie Mellon's School of Design. Another example of this thought taking hold are the recent appearance of titles such as Roger Martin's The Design of Business, offering fairly comprehensive commentary on the subject. Add to this gaining momentum a distinctly more analytical understanding of what "design" really is (ie. Richard Buchanan's Four Orders of Design framework which I adapted and reworked for the purpose of this project, seen above) and it's clear to see the profession has emerged from the last decade with renewed confidence...and a fresh new toolbox bursting at its computer CNC'ed live hinges with diverse, often surprising competencies.

Art Center College of Design has carved out its own niche in the burgeoning design/business world. While I'd personally like to see still far greater emphasis on design thinking and strategy, a good handful of courses are currently offered that either directly integrate this type of learning into their curriculum, or at least indirectly offer the opportunity and framework to explore this realm of thinking on one's own. Approaching graduation and wanting to position myself for a career in strategic design, I've very consciously taken courses which fall into both the former and later categories. It was in one such studio last fall that I worked on a project that has become at least a semi-permanent part of the college's Colors Materials & Trends Exploration Laboratory (CMTEL) and was dubbed "SERVICE-ISM."

The name "Service-ism" describes the dynamic and rapidly evolving convergence of three macro-level trends: technological advancement, an evolving economic landscape, and shifting consumer values. Each macro-trend has several associated sub- or "meso"- level trends, which in turn are comprised of numerous micro-trends. By looking at the broader picture, it's easy to see that large-scale changes are simultaneously the cause and effect of their sub-trends. In precisely the same way, these meso-level changes both influence and are themselves the collective result of their often myriad micro-trend manifestations. If it all seems a little ambiguous, that's because it is.

Trends by their nature are often ill-defined and as living, evolving things have a certain degree of inherent fickleness. This tendency to live in a constant state of flux is based on the nature of complex trends, which while not fully interdependent, are constantly and continually reciprocating influence on one another. My interest in developing the "Service-ism" project was an attempt to understand and make visual sense of the complex relationship between some of the most impactful trends currently being experienced by the western world. My hope in sharing this work is that you will find these ideas as interesting as I have.