Cannon Design Blog

As we’re strategizing for the future of The Third Teacher, we’ve been thinking critically about what we mean by “design” and what the process affords. We’ve illustrated our explanations in a graphic format and want to share them with you. We’d love to hear your reactions and reflections.

The Conceptual Purpose of Design

Considering the powerful communications role of the design process, we’ve decided that a key part of design is manifesting and actualizing an idea into a physical form. Essentially, this gets an idea out of one person’s head and ensures it can stand on its own so that others can interact with it and develop it further.

Dimensions of Communication

Communication and expression can occur in all three dimensions. Currently, our society and education institutions emphasize two: speaking an idea and writing an idea. Design emphasizes two other realms that stretch into the third dimension: sketching, drawing and making a physical form and/or space.

Utilizing this third dimension affords two incredibly powerful qualities. It increases tangibility so that the audience has a truly engaging experience that uses all five senses. And it also distances an idea from language that limits its accessibility to one linguistic culture and region. As technology increases global interaction, this ability is crucial.

The Design Process

The design process embraces this spectrum of dimensionality on the iterative path from ideation to implementation.

The Third Teacher Context

The Third Teacher text has created a common language between our architects and education communities so that we can work together to design their new home. It has also allowed educators to reconsider their pedagogy in the novel spatial dimension. This new perspective has fascinatingly led to pedagogical restructuring and innovation.

How does your definition of design compare? What has the process afforded you?

Sarah Malin - 22 Mar 2011

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