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Thoughts on the Joint Program in Design / Stanford Product Design Masters Program
I have gotten a variety of emails regarding the Joint Program in Design - What is it like? How to get in? What type of portfolio? I have posted the information I send out to people below:
A Big fat disclamer: I these are by no means the only answers to these question, just another data point to include when you think about the program.
Let me know if you have any more questions:
Thanks for taking the time! Here goes...
The JPD admissions page mentions a physical portfolio. How rich a portfolio do they expect from someone with an engineering background? Obviously that's a tough question, but I'm wondering if I need to take some art courses or something like that.
I've worked on a few side projects that I could probably add to a portfolio, but some of them would be hard to present physically. I designed a bed and some other simple furniture, but I actually sleep on that bed (and also, it's bed-sized). I've done some other small projects, like a cocktail dress, a messenger bag, and a photo shoot, that I guess I would include in a portfolio if I had to make one today. Are those sorts of projects relevant? I don't have much evidence of process for those things, though. Is it better to include a project where I have some sketches, measurements, rejected ideas, etc? Or is it enough to have technical achievements and show some creativity and an interest in design?
I'm not sure if it's realistic for me to apply this January. If not, do you think it would be worthwhile to look for a short-term job that's a little design-oriented? Unfortunately I don't get to work much with the interaction designers here at work, and there's almost no product design in my group. It might be hard to get a job where I'm actually doing some design, but I might be able to do some software prototyping as part of a tech company's design team. Ultimately I think I'm more interested in product design than interaction design, but my guess is that working as part of a formal design process would help either way.
Thanks again!
Answer:
First off, the way you should think of your portfolio is you have 7 people in a room and each person looks at each portfolio for 5 mins, and you have to get most of them to want you more than the 3/4 the other applicants.
A portfolio that is eccentric and shows what you bring to the program, what is different about you is best.
More diversity of work ( art work ) = better
More experience in design = better
More examples of crazy experiments of creation that are relevant to society = better
The best feedback I got is by making a portfolio and showing up to office hours of david kelly and showing it to him.
I would do that within in the next two weeks if you want to apply for this year. Seriously show up with a folder with a bunch of shit printed out and ask what they think / if you are appropriate for the program. Then take feedback and do a bunch of well documented projects over the next couple of months. go to banny and bills office hours, david is on sabbatical.
Overall, I dont think you need to work design for a year, you should just start busting ass on a portfolio now, but ask bill that and see what he says.
Bigger questions are:
Why do you want to come? Banny is into large scale change, energy conservations that stuff.
Do you have the creativity and strength to be a designer? Go out on a limb / take risks, etc.
Those should be answered in your essay, and be mindful of the directions of who is reading it.
For the last few years, I've been working in film production design but I've been dreaming of a career switch. Since graduating from Cal, I've taken a few continuing education classes including a great class at the Art Center in Pasadena in product design/development which really interested me. I'm always imagining kooky ideas for new products and for possible improvements for existing products (so the Art Center class was right up my alley), but because I'm never quite sure what to do with those ideas, they sometimes end up festering in my brain and driving me nuts. I'm interested putting myself into a situation (either through school or work) where I can learn how to follow through on my ideas and learn to identify which ideas are worth pursuing (are they innovative, marketable, profitable, etc.?).
I'm in the early stages of research schools, so I'd love to hear any advice you might have for someone in my shoes as well as the basics about where you are now and how you got there, etc. For instance, what lead you to design school, what lead you to Stanford, and now that you've graduated, what are your career interests/options? Did you enjoy your curriculum, professors, and fellow students at Stanford? Are you glad you went to school?
I have a million questions, but I'll stop there. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts, and I really appreciate your taking the time to help a brother out!
Let me know if you have any more questions:
Email #1
Do yall have mechanical engineering backgrounds? I was an electrical engineering undergrad and master's student (signal processing), and I've spent the last couple of years as a software engineer. So understanding technical or math-y issues isn't a big deal, but I never took a mechanical engineering course, and I don't really have the side skills that go along with it (CAD, machining, etc.). Do you think that'll be much of a hindrance?
Thanks for taking the time! Here goes...
The JPD admissions page mentions a physical portfolio. How rich a portfolio do they expect from someone with an engineering background? Obviously that's a tough question, but I'm wondering if I need to take some art courses or something like that.
I've worked on a few side projects that I could probably add to a portfolio, but some of them would be hard to present physically. I designed a bed and some other simple furniture, but I actually sleep on that bed (and also, it's bed-sized). I've done some other small projects, like a cocktail dress, a messenger bag, and a photo shoot, that I guess I would include in a portfolio if I had to make one today. Are those sorts of projects relevant? I don't have much evidence of process for those things, though. Is it better to include a project where I have some sketches, measurements, rejected ideas, etc? Or is it enough to have technical achievements and show some creativity and an interest in design?
I'm not sure if it's realistic for me to apply this January. If not, do you think it would be worthwhile to look for a short-term job that's a little design-oriented? Unfortunately I don't get to work much with the interaction designers here at work, and there's almost no product design in my group. It might be hard to get a job where I'm actually doing some design, but I might be able to do some software prototyping as part of a tech company's design team. Ultimately I think I'm more interested in product design than interaction design, but my guess is that working as part of a formal design process would help either way.
Thanks again!
Answer:
First off, the way you should think of your portfolio is you have 7 people in a room and each person looks at each portfolio for 5 mins, and you have to get most of them to want you more than the 3/4 the other applicants.
A portfolio that is eccentric and shows what you bring to the program, what is different about you is best.
More diversity of work ( art work ) = better
More experience in design = better
More examples of crazy experiments of creation that are relevant to society = better
The best feedback I got is by making a portfolio and showing up to office hours of david kelly and showing it to him.
I would do that within in the next two weeks if you want to apply for this year. Seriously show up with a folder with a bunch of shit printed out and ask what they think / if you are appropriate for the program. Then take feedback and do a bunch of well documented projects over the next couple of months. go to banny and bills office hours, david is on sabbatical.
Overall, I dont think you need to work design for a year, you should just start busting ass on a portfolio now, but ask bill that and see what he says.
Bigger questions are:
Why do you want to come? Banny is into large scale change, energy conservations that stuff.
Do you have the creativity and strength to be a designer? Go out on a limb / take risks, etc.
Those should be answered in your essay, and be mindful of the directions of who is reading it.
Email #2
For the last few years, I've been working in film production design but I've been dreaming of a career switch. Since graduating from Cal, I've taken a few continuing education classes including a great class at the Art Center in Pasadena in product design/development which really interested me. I'm always imagining kooky ideas for new products and for possible improvements for existing products (so the Art Center class was right up my alley), but because I'm never quite sure what to do with those ideas, they sometimes end up festering in my brain and driving me nuts. I'm interested putting myself into a situation (either through school or work) where I can learn how to follow through on my ideas and learn to identify which ideas are worth pursuing (are they innovative, marketable, profitable, etc.?).
I'm in the early stages of research schools, so I'd love to hear any advice you might have for someone in my shoes as well as the basics about where you are now and how you got there, etc. For instance, what lead you to design school, what lead you to Stanford, and now that you've graduated, what are your career interests/options? Did you enjoy your curriculum, professors, and fellow students at Stanford? Are you glad you went to school?
I have a million questions, but I'll stop there. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts, and I really appreciate your taking the time to help a brother out!
Okay learning how to take things to market:
Definitly can learn that in the stanford program, there is a 2 class series on how to go from idea to manufacture in china to distribution or licencing of ideas.
main benifit of the stanford program is learning the stanford design process which is pretty dope.
Get a space to work for 2 years ( all students are in an old fire house)
connection to stanford and the ability to take classes anywhere (from art to business to research)
Other programs to look at RCA in london, Illinois?
What does the stanford program prepare you for:
this is what my class is doing now (10 of them)
2 ppl. - Continuing taking classes at stanford
3 ppl. - working as head designer at a startup (iphone app, energy effeciency device, + me)
1 - working on an ngo that makes grain mills in etheopia
2 ppl- working as in house designers (soft goods and a high altitude wind power generation company)
1 - traveling now and going to start workign at IDEO in 6 months
1 - setting up shop to work in paris
My story:
when I graduated I decided I wanted to create things and so I went to talk to a shit load of people who create things from toy designers to architects to film makers to engineers. Out of them I was most interested in the toy design because it was a really fun fast paced process where you just try bunches of ideas and quickly develope them. From that I went on to learn more about the design consultancy field, and came across IDEO and watched this video and it seemed right for me.
So I went and did a couple informational interviews at IDEO and they said that I should go to the Stanford Grad program as it lead into a project management role at IDEO for people that were good. I also went to an IDSA conference (industrial designers of america) and met designers from both in house companies and different consultancies, lunar, frog, spec, hp and others and realized that I didnt like the being an inhouse designer for large companies.
I looked into the stanford grad program as wells as the royal college of art program (the best other one) and went to the RCA and met with different people there. Realized that the RCA was more focused on creating pretty solutions and that the stanford program was more interested in solving problems the best way possible. So I decided on stanford.
To learn more about the program I audited an undergrad class that was an introduction to the stanford design process for a quarter, and took a semester of classes at Califonria College of the Arts which was super intense but more focused on asthetics that was liking to me. While I was doing that I took/taught a wheelchair design class at SF State with these guys.
That lead to a wheel chair design internship in the philippines and I realized that I was very interested in how design can help people and also that designing products didnt help people as much as designing ways to help people make money.
So I came back from that, applied and got into the stanford program then started the next fall.
During this time I also learned more about the IDEO design consultancy model, and found that is really best for people that are not outcome focused, meaning if you like just going through the process of creating things and are not going to be disapointed if the client shelves your creation and decides not to go forward with it, then the consultancy works well. It is also the idea of steering the ship from within. Also I found that most people go to IDEO for 2-3 years then move on. Anyway I decided it wasnt for me.
So with that my game plan was to learn the design process at stanford and apply it to other problems then were usually addressed by designers. And also get involved with the entrepreneurial community.
So In my first year I took the normal classes in designer and also took classes at the d.school (an intra stanford that teaches students getting masters in things besides design about design) and also at the business school.
For my between years internship I worked for a company called d.light: http://www.dlightdesign.com/ In india setting up their design team because i wanted to experience what a funded start up 2 years out was like and d.light is a big name in the stanford social innovation community.
Then for the second year, my program is basicaly a large independant study where you decide what to work on and then get guidance from 7 faculty 1 night per week for a whole year. I decided that I wanted to work on something that I could launch a company with, so I started on wealth creation for day laborers and then planned to work on internet based wealth creations systems for the developing world, but my day laborer work took off and I decided to focus on that for the whole year. Also that year I taught a class at the d.school to get involved with the all star facutly there and took a 2 quarter class at the business school where you launch a company.
Here is my thesis blog: http://blog.beginnersi.com/
Since graduating I have been working on a website that is based on my day laborer work. And I have teamed up with a business school 2nd year student who is graduating in June and we are working on launching the company. For this the stanford connection has been amazing, it really helps in the entrepreneurial circle.
Blog Migration!
As I have finished my Masters Studies I am closing this blog off and starting up a blog for my new company that I am co-founding.
Thank you to all who supported me during the past years.
Here is the new blog:
Best,
Joe
School is Over!
Well Final Presentations were on the 13th, ( I will post the video when I get it) And now it is all done. On to starting up TicTasks!
First sms prototype
Implementation Details
Please do the following steps to the test the sms send application?
· Add your mobile number
· http://here2work.org/test_mobile.php
· select Country as US
· Enter you mob number
· You will get a notification sms
<< MORE >>Thoughts on How to create a Home Depot based system
Creating Infectious Actions Class Project on Day Laborers
I am on the teaching team for a d.school class called "Creating Infectious Action"
<< MORE >>
The Class is about creating scaleable solutions to complex problems.
To get the class started we decided to utilize my contacts with the day laborer community to have a week and a half assignment on the lunch experience for day laborers. The students were given hand books that guided them throught the design process and a contact number of a day laborer who they had to contact before the end of the first class.
Here are some of the user testing videos from the final presentation.
Bay Area Day Labor Summit - How to get more Jobs
On Saturday there was a meeting of the bay area day worker centers and of 2 foundations as well as the representatives from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network at the Hayward Day worker center.
I went with Maria from the Mountain View Center.<< MORE >>
Back end system done!
A great experience from a start up!
In thinking about how to create entrepreneurial ecosystems, it is great to interact with actual entrepreneurs. I just wanted to share a story that really fired me up today.
<< MORE >>Social E Challenge Feedback
I applied to the Social E Challenge at Stanford. A biz challenge for social ventures. I submitted this Executive Summary for the first round.
<< MORE >>
I just found out that H2W didn't make it to the next round. What is cool is they sent me the results from the judges, which focus on the need to fill out the team and clarify the business model. A very good source for feedback on what to focus on for the next quarter.
Here is the feedback on the Exec Summary:
Q2 - Getting Over the Block - Final Presentation
After personal statements I got busy doing other things and my productivity in the Masters Project decreased. I did the collaboration with Eric (iShine) and did some work with Renjith on the Here2Work + some biz plan stuff but I felt like I dropped the ball on the intensity I had the first quarter.
So in preparing my end of quarter presentation I felt it would be disenguous to just present the other work I did and not address the topic of my decrease productivity. So I was thinking about the issue and realized that when I get stuck the best way for me to move out of it is to really understand the system that is making me get stuck, what my role is in it / what I can do about it, then to do what I can do to improve the system and move on. << MORE >>
Q2 - Personal Statement
My program has a tradition where when you return from winter break you spend 2 weeks working on a single project, called a personal statement. The idea is to make a physical object or experience as a way of showing something about yourself. At the end of the two weeks ...<< MORE >>
Q2 - iShine - the modern shoe shine box
The result of the colaboration with Eric Faggin.
<< MORE >>
We sat down and brain stormed how we could incorporate the ideas of looking to the past to make a social commentary on today with wealth creation. We thought about taking the shoe box, a great entrepreneurial ecosystem that enables people to get steady work.
Then we expanded out discussion to how shoes are no longer as much of a status symbol today and that mobile devices have taken their place in the hierarchy of products that people judge each other based on. So we thought of a business of designing the key aspects of iShine booths and selling them to entrepreneurs.
Q2 - It Has Begun!
After posting two job descriptions on oDesk.com I have hired Renjith, a php programer from India to make the site.
This was after trying to find CS people on campus to help out and a craigs list add that no one ever replied to.
The process of hiring him has totally blown me away and I definitely see this level of Non Geo Specific Service Markets being used by individuals in the future.
Here is a screen pic of an hour into our first yahoo messenger chat when he offered his first idea of how to make the site better. How cool is that!
Q1 - Final Presentation
The Last bit at the end was on one of the $100 dollar OLPC laptops I am playing around with.
Q1 - Week 7
Here are the first stories from workers.
Name: Lorenzo Organista
Birthplace: Catemaco, Veracruz, Mexico
Birth date: March, 1969
History: I lived in Mexico for 29 years, I finished high school at age 18 and went into the Mexican military and left a corporal. When I was 25 I married and had 4 children, 1 girl and 3 boys. After I finished with the military, I worked for a year in the corn fields in Puebla Mexico.
I worked in the farms but I couldn’t make enough money to support my family so I decided to come to America in 1999. The family of my ex-wife lived in Mountain View and so I came to here and have been in Mountain View ever since.
I have been getting jobs at the Day Worker Center of Mountain View and at the corner of San Antonio and El Camino. Most of the work I do is moving, gardening and cleaning.
Future: My dream is to return to Veracruz and to open a store.
Birthplace: Oaxaca, Mexico
Birth date: Febuary, 1988
My Story: I finished high school in Mexico at age 17, my favorite subject biology. After high school, I worked for one year managing a grocery store.
Afterwards, I went to worked for 8 months as a manager of a store at a gas station in San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca.
While I was working at the gas station I applied for a scholarship to study medicine at a ELACM University in Cuba. I got a scholarship but it was revoked as the leader of the sponsoring organization decided to give the scholarship to his son.
My father already had plans to come to the U.S. and when I found out I lost the scholarship I went with him to the U.S. three days later.
When we came to the U.S. we went straight to Sunny Vale because my father has a connection with an old boss who lived there and I have lived there since
I normally work as a nanny, as a clerk or as a house cleaner.
Future: I would like to work here for 3 more years so that I can earn money, then I would like to start a business with my sisters. One is studying architecture and the other business administration and we want to start a wood laminate company to supply the construction industry in Mexico.
Q1 - Week 6
First email feedback from an employer gets delivered to Leticia
The following is the feedback I received from the Faculty regarding my presentation from last week.
Joe,
Happy Halloween and the End of Days.
We like your process, although its a bit chaotic and we didn't really understand how/why the Loft projects were insightful or should "count". In general, we felt that your presentation did not serve you well. We believe that the day laborer topic is great, we like your "heart" and admire your courage to get out in the world and mix it up, but you did not clearly demonstrate your point of view or Big Idea? We are left with questions like: what are the needs you are targeting beyond getting day laborers more jobs? What prototypes will you be developing and testing? Will you deal with issues around culture, family, gender, prejudice, etc...? It's OK to do needfinding but you also have to do specific things (prototypes) to learn something new. And it is OK for your process to be non-linear, but not unstructured. Everyone acknowledges that this project comes from a great place: your compassion for under-served people, and your desire to help with your skills in design, finance/economics, and needfinding. Overall, we are confident (we think) that you'll pull this off but you seem to be making the process harder than it need to be.
Thesis faculty<< MORE >>
Q1 - Week 5 Presentation
This Weeks Presentation was at the mid point of the first quarter of my thesis project. I began with going through my first project which was doing Loft improvements. The Loft is the communal space where I work with 26 other students. The space space is a big part of the program and is run by the students.
The reason why I selected to work on this as part of my thesis was because I am interested in learning over the course of the year about how to be effective in complex systems. So to start of I decided to work in the consensus based system where I work.
Also I was thinking that being that I was going to start a pretty ambiguous project around day laborers it would help to each day walk by a physical thing that I helped build to make me feel more confident in my process.
I went on to talk about my progress with my day labor project.
Click here for the slides in the presentation
Week 4 Presentations - Getting out on the Street + 1st Prototype
This week I spent more time at the center and accompanied Lorenzo and Marcos on their Outreach Rounds. (trip to El Camino and N San Antonio Rd. Below is the only picture I took that day as I felt very odd about being an outsider and taking pictures, this one was snapped while we bought Tamales from a lady in a van (very good).
Here is the First Prototype, I was seeing how to make the process of hiring a Day Laborer more transparent and make the hirer feel more trusting towards the laborer. So this prototype would be a piece of paper that would have the story of the person that you are hiring, along with a review of one of their past employers on one side. The other side has some hiring guidelines, along with a few spanish-english translations.
With the translations I started looking at way of shaping the relationship.
Week 3 Presentation - Initial Visit to Day Laborer Center
I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday mornings at the Day Laborer Center. I got to see how the whole system works. To give a brief outline. Workers have to arrive between 7:30 - 8:30 in the morning and stay until 2pm. If they do that then the are eligible to work that day. The order of who gets work first is determined by a list where if you are at the top of the list one day and get work the next day you go to the bottom. A single day of not showing up removes you from the list and means that the next day that you arrive you automatically go to the bottom of the list.
While there during the day, members from the community come in a give classes on English and other subjects. Also during the day the women day laborers are selected by place on the list for preparing lunch which the center sells at cost to the people waiting for work ($2).
The directions from Castro St. in Mountain View
The Entrance
Who gets kitchen duty
Week 2 Presentation - Getting Started
Due to a visit to the much respected member of the Design Faculty Matt Kahn's House, last weeks presentation was canceled. The past two weeks were mostly spend getting going. I realized when trying to design in a Call Center office building this past summer in India that the space I worked in had a large impact on me. This paired with the knowledge that in order to do a long / ambiguous project, that it would help me keep feeling good about my progress if everyday I could see something I did and feel good about it.
So with this in mind I decided to working on loft (the communal space which the Graduate Design Program students share) improvement.
There is my check in and a sample of the project I worked on.
I started on the day laborer project by contacting the Mountain View Day Labor Center and setting up a meeting.
Initial Thesis Presentation
These are the slides from my presentation to the design thesis at Stanford University on September 23, 2008
To begin I started with a recap of my pre Graduate Design Program experience. Below is a photo of one of the wheel chair riders which I help interview while interning for Freedom Technologies outside of Cagayan de Oro in the Southern Philippines.
I moved on to talk about my design work during the first year of the program. (Clock wise from the top left : my stool for Art 160, my personal statement, my pen in the style of Maya Lin, and my retractable bike seat cover for ME 203)
I then summarized my experience in Extreme Afford ability at the d.school and talked about what I learned from working with IDE Ethiopia on the rope and washer pump project.
I then went into what I learned the previous summer interning for d.light design in Noida, India. Which was a great opportunity to learn about how to benefit humanity through a for profit business model.
Once the summary was complete I went into my goals for my thesis
And talked about my inspiration:
Then Proposed my Quest topic for my thesis:
Lastly I wanted to address my belief that the design process is largely framed in the view point of a consultant. Meaning that this process that has been so successful in the facilitating the creation of so many successful products has seen its potential impact limited because it leaves the actions of chooseing an initial direction and implementation to others. It is my belief that if we can create a process that is not just focused on design but is a process that includes the whole process it will enable design to reach its full unbridled potential.
