Austin Center for Design
| Austin Center for Design | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Established | 2010 |
| Type | Private |
| Director | Jon Kolko |
| Location | Austin, TX, USA |
| Website | http://www.austincenterfordesign.com/ |
Austin Center for Design (abbreviated AC4D) is an educational institution in Austin, Texas that offers a curriculum in interaction design and social entrepreneurship. Started by Jon Kolko, AC4D opened its doors to its first class in August 2010.
The stated mission of AC4D is to "transform society through design and design education. This transformation occurs through the development of design knowledge directed towards all forms of social and humanitarian problems."
AC4D offers a one year program in interaction design and social entrepreneurship, and 10-day programs for executive education.
Curriculum
Interaction Design Research and Synthesis focuses on methods of qualitative design research and design synthesis used to approach complicated problems of technology, behavior and society.
Design Society and the Public Sector emphasizes the theoretical, social and political relationships between design and the culture of society.
Rapid Ideation and Creative Problem Solving teaches methods of creative problem solving and ideation, including sketching, drawing, diagramming, and the underlying approaches of abductive thinking and divergent thinking.
Service Design introduces the advanced design topic of service design, with a focus and emphasis on the service design blueprint.
Evaluation of Interaction Design Solutions teaches methods of evaluation and testing that allow for a thorough analysis of a design in an attempt to positively refine that design.
Theory of Interaction Design and Social Entrepreneurship teaches advanced theory of interaction design, specifically as related to dialogue, discourse, semantics, experience, and communication.
Entrepreneurial Practice describes the financial models and structures of business, as related to launching a particular design product, service or system.
Design for Impact: 32 Week Studio teaches the fundamental methods and processes needed to conceptualize, communicate and sell ideas in today’s business environment.
Student Work
The following companies were formed as a result of the program at AC4D:
Pocket Hotline
HourSchool
Patient Nudge
Girls Guild
Feast For Days
Founding Faculty
Jon Kolko is the Founder and Director of Austin Center for Design. Jon has held positions of Executive Director of Design Strategy at Thinktiv, a venture accelerator in Austin, Texas, and both Principal Designer and Associate Creative Director roles at Frog Design. He was also a Professor of Interaction and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Jon has also held the role of Director for the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), and Editor-in-Chief of interactions magazine, published by the ACM.
Jon is the author of the book Thoughts on Interaction Design, published by Morgan Kaufmann, Exposing the Magic of Design: A Practitioner’s Guide to the Methods and Theory of Synthesis, published by Oxford University Press, and the forthcoming text Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving, to be published by Austin Center for Design in April, 2012.
Lauren Serota is a senior interaction designer at Frog Design. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Jon Freach is a Principal Designer at Frog Design. Prior to working at frog, Jon was the Experience Research and Design Lead at fd2s, an environmental graphic design and wayfinding consultant based in Austin, Texas.
Justin Petro is the CEO of Thinktiv in Austin, Texas. Thinktiv is a venture accelerator. Prior to founding Thinktiv, Justin worked as the Director of User Experience at Design Edge, HCI specialist for Trilogy Software and Visual Interaction Designer at Maya Design Group.
Alumni
Scott Magee is a senior interaction designer at Thinktiv.
Ryan Hubbard is a Radical Redesign team member at the Australian Centre for Social Innovation.
Ruby Ku is a founder of Hourschool.
Saranyan Vigraham is a software developer evangelist at PayPal.
Christina Tran is currently freelancing in Los Angeles.
Kristine Mudd is currently freelancing in New York City.
Chap Ambrose is a founder of Pocket Hotline.
Alex Pappas is a founder of Hourschool.
Kat Davis is an interaction designer at Frog Design.
Cheyenne Weaver is a founder of Girls Guild.
Diana Griffin is a founder of Girls Guild.
Jonathan Lewis is a founder of Feast For Days.
Ben Franck is a web designer at AgileStyle.
Jaime Krakowiak is a freelance designer in Austin.
References
- Core77 (April 1, 2010). "The Austin Center for Design: Q&A with Jon Kolko" Core77.
- Laneri, Raquel (June 15, 2010). "Jon Kolko on Design that Changes Human Behavior" Forbes.com.
- Arieff, Allison (June 2, 2010). "The Way We Design Now" New York Times Opinionator.