critical look at modern change. As part of an excellent graduate art school, Cranbrook 3D is a laboratory for experimental thinking and making. Most of our students already have some professional experience and have returned to a research setting to develop a unique voice within the field. Like all of the 10 disciplines here, from painting and sculpture to jewelry and architecture, we experiment with new connections between form and meaning by actually making things. A designer’s creative autonomy and authorship is equal to a painter’s or a cerami-cist’s. Innovation culture calls

this a “traditional, arts-based model” of design education. We simply call it design.

Design should be mastered as a liberal art before it is considered a business tool. Great design comes from an artistic or cultural impulse, not from a focus group. Great design starts by creating meaningful stories with a POV, not by building a bulletproof business case. Great design creates new culture, not just clever new utilities. Great design is about meaning first, the market second. We want the next great generation of designers who know how to experiment with form and meaning,

not the next generation of strategists who churn out 8.5x11 rationalized reports on business opportunities. We want to elevate the best American design talent on the international radar.

 

Jeremy (IIT): At the IIT Institute of Design, we believe that design should be human centered and improve organizational performance. By human centered, we mean design should be based on observed, real user needs, not the whim or personal belief of the designer. When we say improve organizational performance, we mean that design should create and deliver value

•IIT–Chicago Bike Federation Clear Air Challenge. Kristy Scovel and Jessie Gatto, Spring 2008. The project recommended transforming the once-a-year, week long commuter challenge (companies compete to see how many of their employees ride to work) into a year-long competition that highlights mentoring to increase the number of commuters on bicycles.