Engaging Design—Impacting Students and Society

Mike Weikert, Director, Center for Design Practice, Maryland Institute College of Art

The Center for Design Practice is a multi-disciplinary studio dedicated to preparing the next generation of design leaders. We bring students together with educators, professionals, organizations, businesses, and free thinkers who are committed to education, collaboration, and pursuing ideas with solutions not yet defined. Our goal is to engage students in the process of problem solving, ultimately using the power of design to make a positive impact on society. We've developed a process that engages our students and partners through research, experimentation, collaboration, and solutions:

Engage: Finding the right organization, initiative, and project is a key to developing a successful partnership and ultimately solving the problem or challenge. We work with our partners to develop clear, focused objectives.

Combine: Once a project is defined, we build an appropriate multi-disciplinary team to help solve the problem. Students, faculty and advisors from various disciplines work together, bringing different skills, knowledge, and perspectives.

Discover: We must understand the problem before we can think about a solution. We take our students outside the institution to focus first on learning and understanding, not designing.

Realize
Ultimately, our goal is to develop ideas that make a positive impact on society, and give those ideas life. It is important not to have pre-defined outcomes, and let the process be the guide.

This talk will discuss the process and structure utilized by the Center for Design Practice and share past case studies and current collaborations.