“Noted ceramicist Edith Heath died at the end of 2005 in Tiburon, California, at age 94. Why should it matter to you, the devoted design creator and consumer?” — from […]
paradox: the necessity of willful poetic misinterpretation to the design profession The Professor wants industrial designers to read more poetry. He wants them to be inspired by words, not just things […]
“Why must design for a patient’s comfort be a sick joke?” When the Professor asked the above question in 2004, he did so as both a patient and as […]
This is a different kind of essay for The Professor; not only is it longer but it also delves into the personal history of one of his best friends. Like […]
Rex Ray passed away the 9th of February 2015, a scant two weeks ago. Rex was the same age as The Professor [who is still stunned and reeling] so news of […]
There’s another part of the story concerning The Professor’s relationship with Nepaug Reservoir [see the earlier posts “The Young Professor Slept Outdoors Here: Nepaug Reservoir” of July 19, 2014 as […]
In 1985, The Professor wrote a short essay that was published in the pages of Innovation, the periodical published by the Industrial Designers Society of America. The article was entitled “Design, the […]
Believing that a design philosophy was increasingly a necessity—and not a luxury as seemed to be the prevailing viewpoint at the time—The Professor decided to set down some of his […]
Memories are never simple—as authors as different as Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Primo Levi, and Dave Eggers have shown in their writing—but The Professor’s aim here is somewhat different: to reveal the essence […]
In early 1996, esteemed colleague and designer-educator Thomas S. Bley invited The Professor to join with him in a presentation to be given the 6th of June at the International […]
NOTE: The following article contains the first usage of the term “designer-hackers” that The Professor is aware of—a phrase that since The Professor first used it [see point 03 below] […]
The takeaway: The story of Dogtown and Z-Boys has essential messages about creativity and commitment for students and professionals alike so watch it carefully, and watch it more than once. […]
No, The Professor is not the examining the existential yell/yelp of the Edward Munch painting. And no, he’s not focused on the nicely nuanced Sarah Michelle Gellar movie about a […]
Back in the autumn of 1983, The Professor assumed the top editorial spot at ID magazine and ventured to Philadelphia to attend a symposium for the opening of the landmark […]
This short piece was originally written for the Museum of Contemporary Craft whose 2013 exhibition “Object Focus: The Bowl” put its emphasis not simply on the bowl, as curator Namita Wiggers […]
The Young Professor spent most of his childhood being outdoors, unsupervised like most kids were at that time in the late 1960s-early 1970s, and generally running amok in rural Canton, […]
Toward the end of 1993, Graphis magazine offered The Professor a project to produce a column on products. It was a bold move on the part of Graphis […]
In 1988, The Professor saw the work of Ashley Bickerton at Sonnabend Gallery on West Broadway in SoHo, NYC. It was a revelation. It was neither painting nor sculpture in […]
The creative climate of today makes it so easy, so natural, to forget the past. The Professor sees it in the business world all of the time, and in the […]
