The title of this class, “Cavorting with the Devils,” came from one designer’s playful reference to collaborating with other disciplines. Given that many of today’s design projects are often complex and large-scale, IDEO has described design professionals as ideally “T-shaped”: The vertical stroke represents the deep professional skills (of graphic designers, in our case), while the horizontal stroke is our ability to engage with other professions.

This class is about developing that “ability to engage with other professions” by gaining greater understanding about what other disciplines do and how they work. Every week we’ll have a different visitor come to our class — with a couple of visits to the workplace of others. Each of these professionals will do a show-and-tell of what they produce and explain their work process. We’ll also allow plenty of time for conversation and Q&A.

The class will also develop skills for conducting interviews and for documenting these events, with a different class member in charge of hosting each visit. We’ll also work on stretching our imaginative muscles towards different types of collaborations and what be produced as outcomes.

The obligations of this class will not be great, so it should fit comfortably with demanding schedules!

(p.s. If you took this class last year, I believe that you can retake it for credit.)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Gain understanding of other disciplinary practices and work processes
• Develop understanding of collaborative practices and exercise imagination towards the projects that might be realized
• Develop skills for productive information gathering