A friend of mine, Chris MacDonald, co-founder of GeekEasy asked me to stop by this week to look at a new space they are getting ready and give advice on colors/layout etc. Of course I did! The space is painted in my high school colors, purple and gold (Go Saints!), and has the bones of a really cool workspace. More details to come from our collaborations. but here is a taste of the current space.
Talking with Chris over the past couple of weeks about the startups and co-working space has gotten me thinking more about the idea of these kinds of spaces for design-centric types. What kinds of shared spaces would work and what amenities would start-up design firms need? How is content and collaboration in a client/project driven environment different from a tech/internet environment?
I'm interested in seeing if there is the possibility for a specific type of co-working space tailored to start-up architects and ID's that could pool resources, share production space, bandwidth, render-farming, model building, 3d printing, display and curation, community involvement, and ultimately do pro-bono work as part of the membership of the space. With the amount of empty retail space out there, there certainly must be ample opportunities to create spaces like this.
This interesting book was written recently about the design of startup co-working spaces.
More soon!
Design is an art of exploration. We come up with an idea, follow a thread, reject it, generate another idea, reject it and on until we eventually come out somewhere new. There is a subconscious grounding that often lets us 'start of on the right foot' without us knowing it. Through our collective experiences, training, observations, and abilities we are really able to rapidly synthesize information and formulate complex and comprehensive approaches to solving the design challenge on our table. The ability to layer and edit information as we explore solutions is a designers strength, but how does that process really work?
I came across this diagram about the process of design which struck a chord;
Image copyright by Damien Newman
Source
Its almost as if a beginning thought is like the big bang. An explosion alive with possibilities that are ultimately shaped by interactions, requirements, observances, and rejections. Atoms of uncertain ideas spinning a bit out of control, circling around, combining and colliding until there are certain realizations and meanings placed upon them. What sticks and what doesn't. Through that chaos comes clarity, as if the idea is brought under control and wrestled into an even state of being. And out of that comes the true art of exploration - the navigation of uncertainty and the ability to focus chaos.
So I've decided to design in squiggles, not in circles.
A friend of mine, Chris MacDonald, co-founder of GeekEasy asked me to stop by this week to look at a new space they are getting ready and give advice on colors/layout etc. Of course I did! The space is painted in my high school colors, purple and gold (Go Saints!), and has the bones of a really cool workspace. More details to come from our collaborations. but here is a taste of the current space. 
Talking with Chris over the past couple of weeks about the startups and co-working space has gotten me thinking more about the idea of these kinds of spaces for design-centric types. What kinds of shared spaces would work and what amenities would start-up design firms need? How is content and collaboration in a client/project driven environment different from a tech/internet environment?
