Track 1: Your Big Idea
Strategy
INSTRUCTOR: JOHN BRUCE
FOUR 2 HOUR CLASSES
Impact is evaluated according to how well design innovation serves customer and market needs, as well as organizational and stakeholder value. This course is designed to allow students to experientially explore, understand, and map strategic paths forward in design thinking relevant to business practice, using a new set of tools and frameworks. At the end of the session each student will have a fully developed strategic brief to guide design and client goals for mutual and measurable success.
In this class students will learn about:
- Integrative thinking
- Ecosystem mapping
- Goal setting
- Audience segmentation and activity mapping
- Whole-value analysis and programming
- Brand identification and positioning
- Engagement strategy and marketing approach
Concept
INSTRUCTORS: MARTIN KACE AND BOB MCKINNON
TEN 2.5 HOUR CLASSES
This class will educate students on how to conceive and execute projects for social change with a focus on developing projects that are not client-based. Emphasis will be on projects that are rooted in the community and that directly impact peoples lives. At the end of the session each student will have a fully developed project concept.
In this class students will learn about:
- Ideation and design strategy for social issues
- Understanding the audience
- Concept development
- Design and strategy for corporate social responsibility
- Design and strategy for non-profit and civic institutions
- Working with and navigating NGOs and non-profits
Funding
INSTRUCTORS:
MICHAEL BLAKNEY, LEE DAVIS AND ANDRÉA PELLEGRINO
SIX 2 HOUR CLASSES
How does a designer go about funding non-client-based solutions? This class will empower a designer to implement and execute their own work with a sense of entrepreneurial spirit. The class will provide an overview of various funding models for supporting self-initiated social change work that provide them with a source of income to execute this type of work.
In this class students will learn about:
- Social entrepreneurship
- Funding models: corporate sponsorship, grants, partnerships
- How to get ideas in front of appropriate funding sources
- Identifying and forming collaborative relationships
- Writing a business/funding plan
Track 2: Team Project
INSTRUCTOR:
MARK RANDALL
TEN 2.5 HOUR CLASSES, TEN 2.5 HOUR SCHEDULED TEAM WORK SESSIONS
Each student will participate in the development and execution of a socially-minded team project which is implemented with tangible results. This will take the program out of the realm of theoretical thinking and extend it into the real world.
This class will give students the skill set and opportunity to implement an actual social change project for a local New York City non-profit organization.
Teams will be composed of no more than five students giving everyone an opportunity to make significant contribution to the success of the project. Each group will identify, develop and execute a solution to a specific problem or need for a non-profit organization or an under-served community.
This aspect of the program is in collaboration with desigNYC. The organization was formed in 2009 by a group of leading designers and design advocates with a mission of improving life in New York City by helping connect the nonprofit and professional design communities.
Click here to learn more about the 2011 team projects.
Schedule subject to change.
Lectures + Field Trips
During the course of the six week program a series of lectures featuring leaders in the areas of design and social change will be presented exclusively for students of the program. This is a rare opportunity to engage with innovators in the field in an intimate and engaging atmosphere. In addition, a number of field trips will be arranged to take students into the action to meet with a range of influential designers, business leaders and social entrepreneurs.