The Strategic Designer Workshop

Process workshop

Dave Holston presenting at the 2009 Destination Design Management Conference in Los Angeles.

WATCH the intro to Adding Value Through the Design Process

Got a tough design problem you’re trying to tackle, and there’s no solution in sight? 

The Strategic Designer Workshop: Collaborative games for strategic designers provides designers with fun and collaborative games for solving strategic design problems through visual thinking, drawing, images, words, role playing, mapping, stories and other activities. The Strategic Designer Workshop is an activity based targeting graphic designers at all levels who want to find new ways to spark creativity and engage clients and audiences on a deeper level.

Most designers look within themselves to spark creativity and come up with answers. But as some of the worlds most successful design firms have learned finding your next big design solution won’t necessarily come from you. By actively engaging clients and audiences in the design process, designers open themselves up to a world of creative insights, allowing them to create meaningful design experiences, and provide increased value to the people they serve.  So how do you bring clients into the creative process?

What you will learn
The Strategic Designer Workshop teaches you tools for working through strategic design questions with clients through fun and collaborative activities to help you create great design solutions. You will learn:

  • How to identify the real design problem to be solved
  • How to get clients to clearly express their goals
  • How to work with audiences to gather design insights
  • Tools for developing creative ideas
  • How to get past client subjectivity
  • How to evaluate design success

Each participant will walk away with a collection of strategic design exercises, and a copy of the HOW Design book The Strategic Designer: Tools and techniques for managing the design process.

How you will benefit
Based on over 100 interviews with designers, researchers and educators, The Strategic Designer Workshop provides tools and techniques used in design process best practices. By understanding how to integrate the tools and exercises associated with the various phases of the design process, designers are better able to provide their clients with well thought out and strategic design decisions.  

Who should attend
This workshop is appropriate for designers and design managers who are interested in gaining insight into design process best practices.