Logo design for the Design Index summer design symposium.  What follows is a series of infographics used to describe the proposed cooperative relationship and summer education convention between the design programs of Stanford University's d.School and Rensselaer's PDI program.  Throughout this semester-long project, I led a team of 3 in organizing not just the framework of this real-world initiative, and in executing it's real-world details.    

A more detailed view of the program can be found at the following link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kxrkyzdzofhjbb8/Design%20Index%20Report.pdf

The summary of the project goals, sent to Rensselaer & Stanford faculty, as well as IDEO management.  

An eBook of the informational pamphlet given to staff during our proposal meetings can be found at the following link: 

Program Flipbook

It reads:

We propose the creation of a one or two-week summer design symposium between RPI and Stanford University. The event will bring students and faculty from each school together for intensive collaboration and workshop activities facilitated by IDEO. By the end of the week, each party will have learned about different approaches to design and how to improve their programs for the following year and continue to grow for the future.

Today Stanford University and Rensselaer are the two premiere educators in interdisciplinary design education. Each has its own strengths, and both have something to offer the other in terms of their differing approaches to design instruction and research. Each institution stands to benefit through an interaction designed to identify common strengths but also contrasts between the programs, to pool resources, and to improve the design ecosystems of both schools overall. 

Each summer, through a one or possibly two-week symposium, faculty and student representatives of Rensselaer and Stanford will meet to run through a complete design project administered by IDEO. This project will entail engaging students in a conceptual deep-dive, tackling a real-world problem either set forth by the program or possibly suggested by an outside company in order to, by week’s end, create a concrete/tangible final solution. Through this process the faculty members from each institution will be given the chance to work together in an environment filled with the inspiration of creative professionals and insight of current design students to develop new teaching techniques and identify program goals for the following year.

This summer, we would like to assist IDEO in developing the specific workings and format of the program under their direction, while simultaneously acting as a liaison between each of the parties involved. Through doing so, we would be able to share our knowledge of the design program here at RPI and our perspectives as undergraduate design students to help better address the needs of the program’s development.

I started this initiative with an idea I had the second semester of my Freshman year.  After getting initial support from IDEO and the members of my own institution, I was given permission to follow-through with the project as the focus of an entire design studio, PDI Studio VI.  I enlisted two of my classmates, Lauryn Menard and Peter Finigan, and work began.  

Stanford's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, or d.School, was chosen as an ideal partner for forming our initial partnership.  

An illustration given during proposal presentations to faculty and other parties in order to more easily convey vital program information. 

The numbers listed demonstrate projections for the first-year iterations of the program.