DESIGN MUSEUM BOSTON
VISION STATEMENT
DESIGN MUSEUM BOSTON VISION STATEMENT
CREATED BY
SAM AQUILLANO Founder, Director sam@designmuseumboston.org 617.610.3664
DEREK CASCIO Founder, Director derek@designmuseumboston.org 978.302.5431 AND THE DESIGN MUSEUM BOSTON TEAM
01
For more information visit: designmuseumboston.org
08.07.10 VERSION 1.2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BIG IDEA
Design shapes our world. Design Museum Boston envisions creative, engaging public art and design education for Boston and New England.
Whether you’re a creative professional or not, design shapes your world. As you look around, you see buildings, graphics, products and experiences that were all originally visualized by designers. Each work is more usable and inspiring because of designers’ involvement, but few people understand the design work behind the built environment. The creative economy in Massachusetts is strong in large part due to it’s thriving design industry. There are 48,000 designers working throughout Massachusetts in the fields of: advertising, architecture, entertainment, fashion, landscape architecture, urban planning, video game design, web design, graphic design, industrial design, interaction design and interior design. Their work increases the beauty and utility of our built environment and significantly contributes to the public well-being and economy of our state.
As a museum, our mission is three-fold: 1
To educate the public on the role of design in their lives and the contributions of design within the creative economy.
2
To unite the Massachusetts design community around our common purposes of educating the public and building the design economic cluster.
3
To demonstrate the transformative power of design through its practical application to real world problems.
02
03
DESIGN EDUCATION
04
DESIGN EDUCATION APPROACH
Design Museum Boston is a non-profit organization creating and maintaining a network of virtual and physical exhibit spaces online, in Boston, and across New England. These exhibits will educate the public on the role of design in their lives and the contributions of design within the creative economy. Design Museum Boston will also host events and programs related to design education to further connect the design community to the public. Design Museum Boston will organize the design community and design resources around our common purposes of educating the public and building the design economic cluster.
05
.ORG
Design Museum Boston showcases exciting design work, and its impact, in a way that’s different from a traditional museum. Through a decentralized network of physical and virtual exhibits, Design Museum Boston brings programming to galleries, retail environments, public spaces and the web. In these spaces, audiences can be exposed to the design process from a social, economic, and environmental point of view.
06
DESIGN EDUCATION DESIGNMUSEUMBOSTON.ORG - MUSEUM PORTAL
07
DesignMuseumBoston.org serves as the public portal into the museum network, consisting of interactive, online exhibits and information for visiting our onsite exhibits. Visitors can find information on Design Museum Boston's upcoming events and exhibits. They can also contribute to user-generated exhibits and browse all archived content online. This content will be organized into taggable and searchable interactive galleries.
08
DESIGN EDUCATION EXHIBIT STRATEGY Design Museum Boston gives context to artifacts by exhibiting the design process. This process creates innovative artifacts we use everyday, many of which are designed right here in New England. Every artifact or experience a designer creates begins as a conversation. Whether it’s a building, product, or website; designers work with end users, people like you and me, to understand user needs and requirements. These findings are synthesized into virtual and physical prototypes that are tested based on their ability to meet those needs. In the end, the design process delivers artifacts that impact the individual, society, and the environment.
$
RESEARCH
PROTOTYPING
ARTIFACT
IMPACT
THE DESIGN PROCESS CREDIT: DESIGNERS EVERYWHERE CLIENT: PEOPLE EVERYWHERE MEDIUM: MIXED
09
MORE INFO: DESIGNMUSEUMBOSTON.ORG
A key goal of Design Museum Boston is to unite the Massachusetts design community around our common purpose of educating the public on the role of design in their lives and the contributions of design within the creative economy. Who better to decide what and how design is presented to the public than the designers themselves? Creative Capital will be curated by the design community through our social network: designingamuseum.org, as well as through our networks on facebook and twitter.
DESIGN WORK THE DESIGN COMMUNITY
ON DESIGNINGAMUSEUM.ORG
USING EXHIBIT CRITERIA
APPROVED BY
BOARD OF DIRECTORS - DESIGN MUSEUM BOSTON
DESIGN WORK TO BE EXHIBITED ACROSS ALL DISCIPLINES
10
11
UNITING DESIGNERS
12
UNITING DESIGNERS DESIGNINGAMUSEUM.ORG - MUSEUM COMMUNITY
13
DesigningAMuseum.org is a social network open to designers and non-designers alike which serves as the virtual think-and-do tank for Design Museum Boston. On the site, people come together to shape the museum and its programing through discussions, blogs and multimedia content. Hundreds of members gather here to provide and discuss ideas as well as get involved with the museum.
14
UNITING DESIGNERS
SPONSORED BY
15
On Tuesday, March 16 at West End Johnnie’s, Design Museum Boston held it’s official launch party, Prepare for Launch. Part celebration, fundraiser, proof-of-concept, and community builder, the event drew an excited crowd of over 300 people from various design disciplines — including architecture, graphic, industrial, and interior design — all interested in learning about the museum and helping its cause. The downstairs bar was transformed to include an installation in the lounge showing the Design Museum Boston vision and showcasing the community-driven nature of the project. Guests gathered around kiosks where they reviewed the Design Museum Boston website and became members of the social network, DesigningAMuseum.org. Attendees supported the museum by donating through the kiosks or by purchasing the
signature cocktail: “The Red Arrow.” There was also a wellstocked silent auction and raffle. The conversation throughout the night was a mixture of discussions around the museum vision and pure industry networking. “The big highlight for me was the sheer amount of people there and from all walks of life: different industries and different ages. The amount of cross-design-industry networking was astounding,” said Co-founder Sam Aquillano. “Seeing previously silo-ed creative people rallying together around a common purpose was truly exciting.” The event achieved the primary goals of celebrating the start of Design Museum Boston and educating attendees on future programs such as the upcoming design exhibits at Boston City Hall.
16
UNITING DESIGNERS
SPONSORED BY
17
On Wednesday, July 21 at Office Environments of New England, Design Museum Boston held it’s first UNITE@ event. UNITE@ events are all about bringing designers and non-designers together at unique locations throughout the city to connect around design and learn about the museum’s programs.
about and support the museum. The crowd was a generous mix of creative people networking across industries. Two great local brands supplied the food and drink for the evening. Boloco provided attendees with a variety of mini-burritos and Harpoon Brewery supported the event with bottles of their UFO beers.
Over 200 people filled the stunningly modern Office Environments showroom to connect with each other, as well as to learn
The evening was filled with great conversation around design and the museum. Halfway through the evening, Design Museum
Boston co-founders, Sam Aquillano and Derek Cascio addressed attendees with a presentation on the museum’s mission and current programs. They unveiled plans for their inaugural exhibit, Creative Capital, which will open at Boston City Hall this September. They also introduced Designing A Difference, a program in which Design Museum Boston pairs talented local designers with local nonprofits in need of design services. The premier screening of a short film documenting their first charrette was met with rousing applause from the crowd. “I was so pleased to see and hear the community get excited about our programs and have them understand our unique approach to a design museum,” said Aquillano. Cascio commented, “I knew folks were excited when I started hearing ideas
for future programs and exhibits, the design community here will drive this project forward.” Throughout the night many attendees became members of the museum’s social network, designingamuseum.org and generously donated at computer kiosks around the showroom. Office Environments and Steelcase also raffled an i2i chair with the proceeds benefiting the museum. Thanks to all the attendees and our generous sponsors, Office Environments, Steelcase, Harpoon, and Boloco, the night was a great success. “We were able to have fun and show the community everything we’re working on,” expressed Aquillano. Stay tuned for more UNITE@ events at interesting design locations through Boston and New England.
18
19
DEMONSTRATING DESIGN
20
DEMONSTRATING DESIGN
Design can change the world through creative problem solving.
21
Designing A Difference is Design Museum Boston’s campaign to educate the public on the transformative power of design by helping nonprofits find innovative solutions to economic, social, and environmental problems.
beginning to end and post the team’s progress online. Each project will culminate in an online and onsite exhibit showcasing the nonprofit and the team’s design work with the ultimate goal of educating the public through the practical application of design.
Each project will unite a nonprofit in need of design services with a carefully assembled team of local design experts. Through a series of charrettes, or design-days, the team will collaborate to design, develop, and prototype useful solutions.
Designing A Difference begins with smallbean, a nonprofit based in Boston, Massachusetts. Smallbean operates the Citizen Archivist Project (CAP). They teach technology skills and document community life around the world. Their initiatives are enabled by solar power and the in-kind donation of personal electronics). Participants in the CAP learn technology and com-
Design Museum Boston will document the design process from
puter skills while uploading and processing oral history interviews, photographs and video footage capturing a snapshot of life in communities around the world through the eyes of local citizens. Smallbean provides electricity to schools in the developing world through the use of a prototype solar suitcase, a compact airplane-carry-on that contains the necessary electronics to convert the sun’s rays into usable energy to power the Citizen Archivist Project. Smallbean also envisions a revenue-stream for schools that will sell excess power generated by the solar system to village residents seeking to light their homes or charge devices such as cell phones with sustainable clean energy. This excess power would be distributed throughout the village by students delivering rentable batteries.
The first charrette in the series was a great success. Smallbean's Executive Director Sean Hewens, started off the workshop with a presentation about Small Bean, their project in Tanzania, future projects and specific information regarding their ‘solar suitcase.’ The first half of the workshop was used to identify and understand all the issues and to organize the issues according to user touch points. The team then came up with a multitude of concepts as potential solutions. Finally, the concepts were organized into categories to be developed further before the next workshop planned for August.
22
23
MUSEUM TEAM
24
MUSEUM TEAM Sam Aquillano
Jordan Nollman
Founder, Director
Board Member
Derek Cascio
Robert Reimann
Founder, Director
Board Member
Dan Borelli
Steve Aquillano
Board Member
Interactive Team Leader
Michael DiTullo
Brandon Bird
Board Member
25
Exhibit Team Leader
Sarah Morris
Jenna Casey
Board Member
Graphic Designer
Charles Crawford
Gena Peditto
Interaction Designer
Community Organizer
Anna Engstrom
Tom Svenson
Project Manager
Videographer
Mary Fichtner Fundraising Coordinator
Sidney Hoang Graphic Designer
Bruce Lee 3D Visualizer
Thank you for your support. - THE DESIGN MUSEUM BOSTON TEAM
26
COPYRIGHT 2010 DESIGN MUSEUM BOSTON