interactions magazine

Optimistic Futurism
Richard Seymour

Richard Seymour, co-founder of the well known product design futurism company Seymourpowell, offers and demands both a rallying cry and a challenge. His topic is the future, and his optimism is for our ability to positvely affect the culture and society in which we live. As Seymour explains, Design is about making things better for the world, and his challenge is aimed explicitely at practicioners of interaction: what matters most is not how hard we work, but what we choose to work hard on.

Richard Seymour and Dick Powell formed Seymourpowell in 1984. Seymour was trained both as a graphic designer and an illustrator, and his career has touched the design of everything from books to films, and ultimately, to futuristic visioning of products and platforms. Seymourpowell has won numerous design awards for its work over the last 20 years, and Seymour continues to push the firm into new and exciting territory: his recent work on space tourism for Virgin was presented with wonderful response to the IDSA/ICSID World Design Congress in 2007.

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Preconceived notions
Posted by Richard Anderson on 2008-05-02.

Early this year, I started a blog entry of mine entitled, "Preconceived notions" with the following words:

"During his CONNECTING 07 World Design Congress plenary presentation, Richard Seymour argued that the primary obstacle design and designers face is NOT ignorance regarding what design is and what designers do, but is instead 'preconceived notions' regarding the same. As Richard put it, ignorance is easier to deal with; dealing with preconceived notions is very hard."

In the cover story of this issue of interactions, Richard challenges designers to not "get despondent or knocked-back" by the preconceived notions of "the beancounters," "the supply chain," and others:

"As designers, we potentially hold enormous power. And with it comes responsibility. Wield it imaginatively and wisely.

And optimistically."

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Dancing in the Streets
Scott Palmer, Sita Popat

0 comments | 1 blog post

Designing from the Inside/Out
Laura Seargeant Richardson

Into the Groove: Lessons from the Desktop Music Revolution
Dave Cronin

Merging Design, Business, and Sustainability: The Designers Accord
Allison Arieff, Valerie Casey

0 comments | 1 blog post

Take a Chance on Me: Using Randomness for the Design of Digital Devices
Tuck Leong, Steve Howard, Frank Vetere

The Convergence of Architecture and Interface Design
Benjamin H. Bratton

0 comments | 1 blog post

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