Preparation
Read, listen, notice.
Design principles
Dieter Rams: Ten Principles for Good Design
Use the principles as hypotheses, not rules. Pick the one you trust least.Collection study
Cooper Hewitt collection
Choose three objects from different decades that still feel current.Contrasting lens
Design and the Elastic Mind
Browse examples where complexity, not restraint, creates the value.The conversation
Questions worth sitting with.
- 01
Which claim felt most persuasive, and what assumption does it depend on?
- 02
Where do the two resources genuinely disagree?
- 03
What evidence would make you change your mind?
- 04
Where does this question show up in your own life?
Thought experiment
The permanent chair
Choose one chair to manufacture unchanged for the next 50 years. Define the criteria it must survive: physical use, new materials, changing bodies, taste, repairability and cost.
Private reflection
Write before you persuade.
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Shared synthesis.
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