Method

Catch Method in the latest issue of Monocle, discussing our joint venture business accelerator, Method Design Lab (MDL), with Central Saint Martins.

Monocle Design Editor, Hugo MacDonald, visited the Central Saint Martins campus to speak with the MDL team around the accelerator’s latest initiatives and projects. With MDL directly involving the talented students at Central Saint Martins, the joint-venture aims to help students and young talent refine their creative ideas and activate for production. Santiago Matheus, Managing Director at Method and co-founder of MDL, discusses the reasons behind Method’s Involvement:

“The calibre of the students [Central Saint Martins] is unrivaled. You’ll see things at degree shows that you won’t find anywhere else. Our aim with the Method Design Lab is to turn these ideas into reality and to turn graduates into entrepreneurs in the process. It’s a chain that needs kickstarting.”

Method is invested in helping to grow the global design community, and MDL’s latest initiatives are part of growing a talent pool of designers and entrepreneurs in the UK.

This 15-page feature reminds us about the importance of design and the value that experimentation, creativity and collaboration bring to businesses today. Method is also supporting the IncludeDesign campaign to defend the integrity of design in education in the UK.

Method at the annual CCA Career Expo (image credit: CCA)

Method has a valued relationship with the California College of the Arts (CCA). Several of our designers have taught there–our own Ben Fullerton is currently teaching a class on interaction design–and we love representing Method at CCA recruiting events and attending student shows.

So, we were thrilled when a new survey by PayScale, a compensation data company, confirmed that CCA is ranked first among art and deign schools in the country in regards to alumni with the highest-paying jobs. The annual report ranks undergraduate degrees and schools by post-graduation salary potential. In the Bay Area, CCA ranks fourth (behind Stanford University, Santa Clara University, and University of California, Berkeley). Statewide, CCA is ninth.

Congrats, CCA!

link: Survey: CCA is Top U.S. Art and Design School for Career Success

image from Sha Hwang's presentation

We’re a diverse group of creatives at Method, always looking to learn from other thinkers and makers in the field. So, we’re especially thrilled when someone as talented and interesting as Sha Hwang is able to visit us.

A data visualization expert, Sha is the founder of Movity and current design technologist at Trulia (Trulia acquired Movity in 2010). He’s also been listed as one of  Forbes’ 30 Under 30, has given data visualization presentations at the White House, and as we found out, is and incredibly funny, kind and patient teacher.

Over the course of one week, Sha came to Method’s San Francisco studio and led us in two private workshops, taking us from understanding the principals of data visualization to prototyping our own projects.

In our first session, Sha covered how we can look at data as a material and the various questions and strategies that can drive visualizations of data. We looked at examples from various sources and discussed ways to find, gather and organize data. We also explored ways to start collecting data about ourselves and our neighborhoods. Asking questions, like ‘How do I spend my money?’ ‘How often do I check an electronic device each day?’ and ‘How many steps do I take during my commute?’

By the end of session, we brainstormed the type of data we wanted to collect over the next few days, so that we could begin to sketch and further refine, and figure out the best tools to turn our prototypes into built projects.

With Sha’s help, we were set with data and new tools for exploring how to visually bring our information to life. The entire workshop was truly fascinating and inspiring. We couldn’t be more grateful to Sha for spending his time with us!

I recently teamed up with Khoi, our Creative Director based out of the NY studio, for our trip to Hyper Island in Stockholm, Sweden to speak to a group of branding students. We took a slightly different approach to the idea of branding giving a lecture on “What Every Designer Needs to Know,” discussing the process of communicating, creating and extending a brand’s value through different digital products.

The students were very eager to learn about our view on branding from the design innovation perspective. We talked in depth about the Method process and culture, highlighting a few of our projects including Time Warner Cable, and Marimekko.

So, what is next? Penguin tells us the best e-reader. Does Apple have the key to order in Chaos and will Android ever unlock its full power? Questions for us all to consider.

So when does Apple become too Apple and Android unlock the key to content chaos?

In the meantime, we’ve got Angry Birds. This Business Insider article reveals what Angry Birds tells us: “Apple Will Be Number One For A Very Long Time.“

Director of User Experience, Raphael Grignani, joins AIGA’s Y16 Conference speaker line-up.

For his talk, Raphael will be discussing the expectation for brands to be “social,” and what this means for companies.

The New York Times recently featured Roslyn High School on Long Island for their use distribution of iPads in schools. The hope is that the iPads can be used in class and at home to replace textbooks, turn in assignments, facilitate communication with teachers, and preserve the student’s body of work in a digital portfolio.

The Interaction Awards program is a community initiative spearheaded and powered by volunteers dedicated to interaction design. Over the past few months, I’ve been working with my co-chair Jennifer Bove and a group of fantastic advisors – Marc Rettig, Mark Breitenberg, and Steve Baty – to create this awards program that recognizes and promotes outstanding work in interaction design.

Today’s Co.Design featured an article on how The Gap’s logo debacle shows how logos are no longer key to brands. I disagree.