My name is David Sherwin. I write, speak, and teach classes and workshops about:
More effective brainstorming: I give speeches and teach workshops (4 to 8 hours) on how designers and design teams can learn to design their own deadlines and come up with better ideas faster. This is the subject of my book from HOW, Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills.
Interaction design, user experience, and design research.You can see some examples below regarding this subject, from gathering and synthesizing research data into actionable design opportunities to prototyping interaction via video scenarios. In Spring 2012, I taught a semester-long class at California College of the Arts on user experience storytelling.
Design business. I helped to curate and craft the content for a highly successful 4-speech series in 2010 held by the Seattle AIGA called "Design Business for Breakfast," which was repeated in 2011 and will be the subject of a book published by HOW called Success by Design: The Essential Business Reference for Designers (out December 2012). Topics include client service skills, setting strategy, and leading a design team.
If you're interested in having me speak at an upcoming event or are interested in holding a workshop, feel free to contact me at david at changeorderblog dot com.
Some venues I've spoken at include SxSWi, Interaction 11, SCAD, AIGA Pittsburgh, Emily Carr University, HOW Design Conference, Creativity Oklahoma, the Seattle Make-a-Thon, AIGA Into the Woods, Amazon.com, University of Washington Change, and Health 3.0 Summit.
Upcoming talks include:
AIGA SF's Open Studio Tours, San Francisco, CA
Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 7-8 PM: Playing drums for frog's band The Sticky Notes at the frogSF open studio in SOMA, 660 3rd St, 4th Floor
HOW Design Live, Boston, MA
Friday, June 22, 2012: "Effective Brainstorming for Designers" workshop
Saturday, June 23, 2012: "Becoming a Design Leader" talk
AIGA Into the Woods, Seattle, WA
September 21–23, 2012: "Design Is Hacking How We Learn"
HOW Interactive Design Conference: DC Edition
September 27-29, 2012: "Know Thy User: The Role of Research in Great Interactive Design"
HOW Interactive Design Conference: SF Edition
September 27-29, 2012: "Know Thy User: The Role of Research in Great Interactive Design"
HOW Interactive Conference
San Francisco, CA
November 2nd-4th, 2011
"Information Architecture: Making Information More Accessible and Useful" +
Conference-Wide Design Challenge + Closing Talk
2011 HOW Design Live
Chicago, Illinois
June 22-27, 2011
"Making Clients Part of the Design Process" +
"Effective Brainstorming for Designers" workshop
"The Poetry of Interaction Design"
Emily Carr University, Vancouver, CA
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 12 Noon
A free public lecture
I delivered the final lecture of Emily Carr's speaker series, speaking about the poetry of interaction design in everyday life. The subject of this talk was rattling around in my head for at least a year, so I was very excited to finally have a chance to share it.
Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills
An Author's Talk at SxSWi
Friday, March 11, 2011
See ratings here on SpeakerRate.com
At South by Southwest, I gave a 20-minute talk about how interactive designers can foster their creative skills, then signed copies of Creative Workshop.
"Better Ideas Faster: Brainstorming for Interactive Design"
AIGA Pittsburgh / at Carnegie Mellon University
Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 7 PM
(Also, I served as judge of the Context design competition alongside Julie Beeler and Margo Halvorson.)
SCAD Entreprenuership Forum
Savannah, Georgia
Thursday, February 17–Friday, February 18, 2011
I delivered two talks at Savannah College of Art + Design's "Entrepreneurial Forum 2011."
"Being an Agency of One": Thursday, February 17, 7:00pm–8:30pm.
"My Top 10 Design Business Failures—and How to Avoid Them": Friday, February 18, 10:00am–10:55am
Better Ideas Faster: Effective Brainstorming for Interaction
A Workshop at Interaction 11, February 9th, 2011
See ratings here on SpeakerRate.com
You're under the gun. Again.
Only a few days to come up with a revolutionary new feature for your Web app. Or you've been tasked by your boss to give your company's new mobile experience a little more oomph. Or you're floating in the space of a nebulous client problem that you just can't seem to pin down.
In these situations, it can be hard to focus on coming up with breakthrough ideas. But don't worry, help is to the rescue. David Sherwin from frog design, a global innovation firm, will share tools and methods that any interaction designer can use--especially those that are relatively new to the profession--to more consistently brainstorm quality ideas for creating and improving products, services and systems.
Over the course of this workshop, through active brainstorming exercises and in-depth group discussion, we'll answer questions such as:
- How can I best structure my brainstorming processes?
- What lightweight brainstorming techniques can I use that will inspire new, more innovative design ideas more quickly?
- How can I be more effective in moving from project discovery to generating targeted design ideas?
- How can our team collaborate best across disciplines to rapidly iterate any type of interactive experience?
- How can our team best synthesize a wide range of ideas into a set of compelling client recommendations?
The workshop will also be informed by examples from frog brainstorming and David's book Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills (HOW Design Press, Dec. 2010).
AIGA Seattle's "Design Business for Breakfast" Series
"Design Leadership"
Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 7:30 - 9 AM
Register at the AIGASeattle.org website
"If your career as a designer is advancing, congratulations! You're doing a bunch of difficult things really well. But to take your game to the next level you need to show leadership. What does it mean to be a design leader? Sometimes a creative visionary, sometimes a psychologist, or even a field general; often a mix of those and more. Discover new ways to coax top-notch work from both yourself and your studio while building a strong creative team over time. Led by David Sherwin of frog design, a global innovation firm."
Seattle Make-a-Thon 2010
Saturday, November 6th at Microsoft
At the Seattle Make-a-Thon on Saturday, November 6—a collaboration between IxDA Seattle, AIGA Seattle, and Interact—Aaron Rincover and I presented a two-hour workshop about how to prototype and communicate interaction ideas using video scenarios.
AIGA Seattle's Into the Woods
October 15-17, 2010
I taught a 75-minute workshop at AIGA Seattle's "Into the Woods" conference on how designers can incorporate prototyping practices into their design repertoire. Quickly prototyping design solutions is often the only way that a design team can discern which solution is most desirable and accessible for their intended audience. This is especially true for product, service, and exhibit design projects, which often have intangible qualities that are hard to capture in a whiteboard sketch.
"Better Ideas Faster: How to Brainstorm More Effectively"
HOW Conference 2010, June 6-9, 2010
This talk was a set of practical methods to help anyone brainstorm better, smarter, and more effectively, no matter the timeline for your project. Using these methods, you can approach a design problem with the right questions so you can focus your creative energy on finding solutions.
I presented this hour-long talk to a great crowd of over 750 people. I was especially thrilled to highlight the fantastic design work from designers in my upcoming book from HOW Design Press, Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills.
At the conference, I also participated in a "Creativity Q+A" with Justin Ahrens, Stefan Mumaw, and Wendy Lee Oldfield before HOW's closing keynote.
"Designing the Design Problem"
Creativity Oklahoma: Applied Creativity in Art and Design, May 27, 2010
I gave a presentation on May 27 at Creativity Oklahoma's online conference on applied creativity in art and design. Scott Belsky did a great job of describing the philosophies behind Behance and the research about how people make ideas happen that became the foundation of his bestselling new book.
While Scott was talking about fulfilling creative projects, I took a different tack and provided methods that frog uses to marry our innate skills in creative problem solving with the evolving practice of "problem making" to better serve both clients and users in crafting compelling products, services, and experiences. As a case study, I shared research data and insights that had been part of frog's initiative to encourage HIV testing in South Africa, Project Masiluleke.
Whether you’re a freelancer, an in-house designer, or working at an agency or studio, you can never know too much about the business side of design. And in today’s tough economy, you need that business edge even more.
In "Design Business for Breakfast," a series presented by AIGA Seattle, David Sherwin of frog design hosted professionals from the Seattle design community—each of whom has deep experience in client service, project management, design studio management, and design leadership. David and his co-presenters provided attendees with a fresh perspective on professional practices, tips, and tools to start using right away. Each month's event took place at Il Fornaio, Pacific Place, 600 Pine Street, Seattle.
Design Leadership
Wednessday, April 14, 2010 | 7:30 - 9 a.m.
Discover new ways to coax top-notch work from yourself—and your studio—while building a strong creative team over time. Led by David Sherwin of frog design, a global innovation firm that creates meaningful products, services, and experiences for clients such as Disney, GE, HP, Microsoft, MTV, Seagate, and many others.
Other talks included:
Follow the Green
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | 7:30 - 9 a.m.
Learn how design businesses make money: follow a designer’s earned income for a project, for a month, and over the course of an entire working year. Aimed at working designers and agency professionals. Led by David Conrad, Partner/Studio Director of Design Commission, an interactive design agency in Pioneer Square.
Structure Your Projects and Process
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 | 7:30 - 9 a.m.
Heighten your project management skills and build stable business processes that support your creative work. Led by Fiona Robertson Remley, who has built processes and managed projects at many Seattle agencies and corporations, including Worktank, Big Fish Games, Martini Design, Methodologie, Nordstrom, and Microsoft.
Connect With Your Clients
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 | 7:30 - 9 a.m.
How to develop and sustain strong relationships with clients, whether you manage them directly or work through an account manager. Led by Erica Goldsmith, former Account Director at both Hornall Anderson Design Works and Cole and Weber United, and Executive Producer at Worktank.
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