What people say about us
"Passionate, enthusiastic, creative, inspiring, dynamic...I could go on but I’m sure you get the picture. These words are often used, but rarely are they found in such a combination. A few short months ago I had not heard of Lauren and Sarah and knew nothing about service design, I came across them and their work on twitter (a micro-blogging service) and have been following them and their work ever since. Start a conversation, talk to them, let them inspire you and do it NOW while you still can; they will be hitting the big time soon."
Dr. George Julian | Director of Research and Practice for Adults
Sweden calling
I’ve just returned from Sweden where I had the pleasure of delivering a lecture to the Service Design students at Linköping University. I was told to ‘be an inspiration’ and show the connection between the methods they are learning and what you can do with this.
I think this is something every designer should have the opportunity to do, to see some of the possibilities of where people can go after their studies. I’m a big fan of pushing people towards less traditional domains, and taking the challenge to apply design to new context/problems/systems/places. At our Service Design thinks event last week, a quote by Mark Beever stuck out for me,
“Don’t grudge that you didn’t end up doing design if that is what you studied”
This is so true, in fact, as my old tutor would say, at Glasgow School of Art, they were teaching me how to think (albeit by doing, I’m a maker at heart), and we should accept and celebrate that we won’t all end up working for design consultancies.
A few students came up at the end and I was pleased to hear them say it had been inspirational, that they had alot to think about and if there were ways in which psychology and cognitive studies could align with design. Of course I said yes and thank you for the kind words.
The trip was also great to spend time talking with the Linkoping (incredibly well published) team and PHDers. Most interest for me was a discussion on how we can bridge the gap between academia and practitioners. We outlined accessibility as a main barrier to shared conversation, and looked at ways in which the team could consider themselves in a knowledge exchange role.
Thank you to Linkoping for being so welcoming and bringing me to Sweden, and for my first Fika.
Talk to Sarah about this work
Sarah Drummond
Director
