Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

This video addresses the vested interest people have in education. It relates the importance of education to the future that is an uncertain entity. His contention is that creativity should be treated with the dame importance as literacy in education.

Ken is an interesting speaker who entwines witty humour with his point of view on creativity in children and the role that education plays in the development of this creativity. The fact that kids will take a chance when they are unsure what to do demonstrates their ability to be diversely creative. He made a point about the fact that if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original. This point was interesting as creating takes risk. By the time kids become adults they are afraid to be wrong. He made the point that many companies are run this way. Yet in light of creativity and advances, risk is integral. He believes that education focuses on correct responses and that people are being trained out of being creative as they develop through school. As students progress through their education, the focus of their learning moves from their whole bodies toward their heads. Creativity becomes less of a focus and thus less important. It is a really interesting take on education and the way it can hinder creativity in people. Everyone that has been through the education system can relate with the points Ken discusses.

Paula Scher: Great design is serious

Paula reflects on design in light of seriousness or solemnity. The clip discusses the difference between serious design, as being out there, spontaneous and different, and solemn design, being commonplace.

Paula provides a range of examples as to how design can be serious or solemn. She discusses that serious design is unique and the first of its kind. Serious design is not always accepted well be the solemn audience and it is imperfect and not comment. It is about invention and change. This concept was interesting as many designs show telltale signs of perfection and elements that are common to other designs. I like the ingenuity, freedom and learning that can occur during serious design. The career step reference was interesting. The progress from beginning your career in short step, learning constantly through serious design, to a point where it becomes difficult to maintain serious design. The clip highlights that many designers are hired to be solemn designers. Paula makes reference to the four times in her 35 year career that she feels she was being a serious designer. The fact that after she designed something seriously, they ended up becoming solemn as there were what was expected was an interesting point to be made. It is easy to make direct links with the point Paula makes about the importance of differentiating design from solemn to serious.

Paul Bennett: Design is in the details

Paul focuses on the individual or the small, helping to create the big. It relates to what organisations want and how individuals go about providing it.

The clip discusses ways of achieving improvement through small details. These details are what can improve the bigger picture. The clip demonstrates the take the design company took on addressing the question of what it is like being a patient in their hospital. The company took the approach of the greater organisation looking at the question through the patients’ eyes. This was a great example of how the greater organisation could look out from the individuals’ eyes, rather than looking in through their organisational eyes. Just looking at the question from this perspective highlighted the need for detail in their design improvement processes. Small adjustments were trialled and personal touches made a huge difference to how patients were feeling. The clip showed how when people looked outside the square, great advancements in design and invention have occurred. It was interesting to hear the explanations of the impact design can have on finding solutions to problems occurring within the bigger picture of organisations. I like the concept of looking at the same things with new eyes. Taking a fresh approach to design and improving on the way things are. I like the concept of putting yourself in the position of the consumer and reframing the ordinary.