#john bielenberg

[chriswilmes]

Look Upstairs Creative: John Bielenberg

FUTURE

John's company is Future, which describes itself as a group of people who are "Designers. Teachers. Actors. Disruptors. Artists. Leaders. Storytellers. Improvisers. Strategists. Coaches. Writers. Cajolers. We use this expertise to lead Future Blitzes that quickly unlock the genius of your people to solve your most daunting challenges." (Future Partners, 2014)

The Make-lab Bamboo bike. (Future Partners, 2014)

John told us that it is important to:

"Be bold Get out Think wrong Make stuff Bet small Move fast"

This thinking is based on his company which finds solutions to problems; think social issues, and apply design and creativity to the problem solving process. He believes that "rapid ingenuity are in the uncertain realm of challenges and unknown realm of solutions", which reflects his point about thinking wrong; stop thinking the way you would any other day about any other issue, you won't get anywhere. Start thinking about future solutions, be innovative and stop looking at the existing ideas for a final outcome.

Go visit the Future website and look into the innovations that John has been part of; you will be inspired.

Project M (Future Partners, 2014)

[jumpingfeetfirst]

Monday, Monday

It's a pretty busy week this week—which is good because the faster Thursday gets here, the better. 

Lots of new client work: logos, stationery, patterns, Oh my! 

My students are in the final weeks of classes, meaning they should be wrapping up their projects. This also means that there will be a split in personalities. Some will have it totally under control. Some will be in "panic & freak out" mode. I'll be walking the line between therapist & instructor. 

My favorite seminar from when I was a student is being held at Portfolio Center this week. It's called, "How to Build a Grenade" and is taught by John Bielenberg and Rich Binell. It's about using design and copywriting as a medium to effectively and quickly communicate and it's amazing. I hope that I get to sit in on part of the workshop again. 

Best of all... College friend reunion in FLORIDA! We'll be missing quite a few of my favorites, but it will be wonderful to see the ones that can make it. It's always a good time to be with this crew of people, so apologies in advance if I post an excessive amount of photos. I'll try to keep it to a minimum. 

(That's probably a lie. I'll post a ton of pictures, and I'm not really sorry about it.) 

[charlottexcsullivan]

John Bielenberg

[mazarm]

Saving the world has to be fun, right?

I designed a super quick event flyer for a MASD-sponsored event featuring John Bielenberg and Greg Galle of Future Partners (futurepartners.is). I almost never use Helvetica, and I think for once it looks pretty good (for me, that is. Mostly everyone else in the world can make Helvetica look sweet). The image above is from the jpeg flyer that is going out via email.

Very much looking forward to the event next week (it starts right after my Friday class, so I will already be in B'more) and the Blitz!

[colenielsen]

(BONUS) Part 4: Designers as Impact Entrepreneurs

“You want to achieve fairness and a place of equality on earth, how would you do that? … A big part of it was impact entrepreneurs. And design thinking and designers. Designers being a different kind of person that have some special capabilities. And we thought if we can enable designers to realize: hey, you're more than you might think in terms of someone who can make great posters, you're actually a person you can design great companies. 

… I hope [in the future] that the idea of making a company that doesn't have a social impact aspect of it is just lame. It just doesn't even make sense. Why would you do that?”

—Alex Bogusky and John Bielenberg on Debbie Millman’s Design Matters Interview on September 30th.  

In all the talk of Designer as Entrepreneur, I think it is important to remember that there are still other mediums available to us outside of the internet. There are still other areas where design thinking can hugely benefit a company, the world… 

[durablegood]

Project M's John Bielenberg joined MASD for our 48-hour Blitz September 20th-22nd.  We created a mobile neutral public space, the picnicmobile.  DIY instructions to follow.

[creative-inspiration-blog1]

John Bielenberg

"I recently read an article in The New Yorker magazine called 'The Aha Moment' that tried to explain why new ideas often come when people are doing things such as taking showers or walking on the beach. They discovered that big new ideas often occur when you parkl a problem to be solved in your brain and then stop actively trying to solve it. When you engage in a 'mindless' activity such as running, your brain is actually still processing between hemispheres, making connections that would not happen while you're sitting at a desk concentrating. I find this to be true for me, too."

Idea+ology - Stanley Hainsworth

[derrickbradley]

COMMON

A new brand of capitalism. And yes, I'm pumped about it.