Design isn't merely a contained discipline, but rather a mindset that transcends across disciplines. Being a designer calls for humanistic attitudes and abilities that will push you to embrace ambiguity and perpetually adapt.
Those are the IDPP principles and the mindsets that you need to adopt as a designer, proudly embodied by the IDPP Mascots!
IDPP Mindsets
cat
[kat] noun
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Small carnivorous mammal, usually solitary and nocturnal. Cats are known for invading confined spaces... no matter how intricate.
This cat will keep the box warm for you while you explore endless possibilities!
mindset: think outside the box
clownfish
['klaunfi/] noun
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Brightly colored saltwater fish that lives in a symbiotic relationship with anemones, who provide shelter for them.
Clownfish are curious creatures and will drift with the tide until they find their own anemone to care for.
mindset: embrace your curiousity
bee
[bi:] noun
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Stinging winged-insect that collects nectar and pollen, and produces wax and honey.
Bees rely on community and teamwork to succeed. Each bee leverages its own individual strenght to help the colony thrive.
mindset: be a team player
parrot
['pa-rət] noun
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A native of the tropics, this brightly colored bird is able to mimic the human voice.
Once a parrot becomes acquainted with a human long enough, the become highly sensitive to the person's emotions and can showcase great empathy.
mindset: be empathetic
baboon
[bəˈbuːn] noun
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Large monkey, found in Africa and Asia, with a long pointed face.
Like their primate cousins, baboons are highly agile and display an intuitive capacity for adaptability within their environment.
mindset: be agile
IDPP Design Principles
Ignite – or amplify – every participant's creative confidence
Help people and groups ambitiously reimagine what they believe they’re capable of accomplishing.
Fortify disciplinary and technical rigor
Demonstrate how important and necessary creative mindsets and behaviors are to the production of superlative professional work. Help participants bring this disciplinary excellence to all collaborative partnerships and thereby supercharge their interdisciplinary output.
Empower transformative teaching
Support faculty in their quest to educate the whole student in a thorough, and thoroughly engaging, manner.
Champion generative – and generous – mindsets
Model key design principles (user-centeredness, process awareness, bias to action) for the entire MSFEA community. Foster and encourage optimism as well as a culture of constructive feedback that complements academic norms of critique.
Be a venue for new ways of thinking, doing, and making, including and especially those without a clear (or guaranteed) path to success. Push participants to imagine the unbelievable and take on seemingly unsolvable challenges – and equip them to do so. Develop structures to protect unusual ideas and methods. Lower the stakes for “trial and error" and increase access to opportunities for practicing that.
Provide a brave space for meaningful failure
Support participants when they explore expansive possibilities, and help them learn from previous iterations of their work. Create ways to compost a large volume of failed experiments.
What happens here doesn’t happen anywhere else in MSFEA
Espouse and embrace bold deviations from the norm. Serve as a venue and showcase for participants who make such departures.