As I begin to think about next quarter, I want to revisit my space of inquiry. I spent much of this year focusing on the culture of design studio education. Now, I want to shift slightly to think about what's happening in studio, with a particular focus on design strategy. I'm convinced that a lot of our standard professional pathways are increasingly limited (traditional graphic or industrial design), but the way designers work and think is still necessary and in-demand. Strategic influence is one of the things we can lead in, but that requires an understanding of what exactly a design strategy is, how it comes to be, and what is actually designed. I want to understand what material is formed, how it is shaped, and what emerges, on the way to a design strategy. I want to look at how the confidence of making that comes with forming physical artifacts can show up when forming strategic artifacts, which are often less tangible. More immediately, I want to work to understand what the material of strategy is.
This is the intersection of several places for investigation. One is the relationship between making things and strategizing. Another is a the place in which strategy happens—organizations—and the relationship of the people in the context and the strategy that emerges. And another is, back to education, what studio pedagogy exists presently that purports to be about shaping design strategy.