Co-written by Sofia Hussain.

Can crowdsourcing be used as a first approach to get quick insights into emerging trends within design practice? Instead of investing time and money into interviewing and observing designers in the early phase of research, can we capture beliefs and values within the design community through...

New design research paradigms, processes and methods are vital to an organizations' ability to sustain their competitive advantage. The days of open-ended budgets and years spent on a project before delivering results are gone. Our team's recent work in crowdsourcing shows that fast, inexpensive and quality research can be conducted...

Art is a powerful emotional tool for creating awareness and fostering a commitment to change the world, even if each print makes just a small dent. Think Uncle Sam's "I Want You For The U.S. Army," Apple's "Think Different" and the "Wonderful Copenhagen" poster...

Journalists are schooled in investigating and reporting events objectively and when it comes to conflicts, they report on the progress of wars, gang violence, white color crime and what might have caused these to occur. For opinions, one would usually check the editorial page.

The team at...

Successful organizations master continuous self-renewal by constantly building competitive capabilities. To mold their environment to their advantage and avoid being merely reactive, they have a mindset for planning and proactively upgrading their culture, architecture and routines. Change is essentially built into the organization's fabric. What is their secret to integrating...

Every New Year, the world turns it's eyes toward Pasadena, California for the annual Tournament of Roses Parade. This year's parade will have 43 floats, 21 bands and 18 equestrian units marching with 400 horses. A domestic audience of 47 million people and an international audience of more than 300...

At the end of the year, people make New Year's resolutions that last a week or so at the most. Why is it so difficult to change when the world is filled to the brim with self help books? It is not that people are unable to commit to action;...

Co-written by Andre Frey and Mario Blanco.

How do fashion choices affect our emotional, creative and social lives? Is contemporary man doomed to wearing boring clothes? Would swap out your monotonous wardrobe of blue jeans, brand name T-shirts and tennis socks for a collection of Hawaii shirts, polka dot bow...

Today, it is a perfect clear winter morning and the sun is, once again, warming our balcony. Only last week, in many parts of L.A., we experienced the biggest storm since 1888, with wind speeds of over 100 miles per hour through the mountain passes.

Over the...

Once in a blue moon, an innovative product is created that redefines our beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. A product that offers a mental paradigm shift and resolves a technical contradiction. The product enables progress and profit, as well as destroying older ways of thinking and product use in its wake....

Most fonts are anonymous and underappreciated, as is the Times New Roman font used here. However, the headline above pops out at you and catches your immediate attention by use of the "Dynascript" font and this treatment affects you in quite a different...

Once a year, automotive designers from all over the world make the pilgrimage to the Los Angeles Auto Show. It is not the biggest car show, however it is the perfect place to see the introduction of AFVs, (Alternative Fuel Vehicles) because of the many Los Angelinos who have embraced...

For almost two decades, Kenton Nelson has charmed art lovers with optimistic and subtly provocative oil paintings from his native Pasadena. Capturing and sharing details from ordinary Southern California life in a distinct "advertising age"-inspired style has propelled his life from one graphic artist among many to that of a...

Cowritten by Tina Santiago, Tanja Aitamurto, Richard Spencer and Dr. Jaewoo Joo.

Coming up with creative ideas that can change mental and technical contradictions into progress and profit are among the toughest challenges in business today. Without previous mental or technical references from which to extrapolate we...

Cowritten by Dr. Jaewoo Joo

The typical briefing that designers receive at the start of a new design project seems to be more or less useless for generating any new ideas. In the spring of 2011, I spoke on Inspirational Design briefing at an Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA)...

Cowritten by Dr. Jaewoo Joo

"Designers don't just put cosmetics on the skin of a product!" During my interview with a graduate student at Ontario College of Art and Design in 2009, he argued that designers play a key role in developing a new product. Unfortunately however, marketing practitioners and...

A soundtrack counts for at least half of the experience in the creation of a commercial and the music stylist is the one responsible for setting the director's visual universe to music. Creative people often specialize in a narrow field and may possess only rudimentary musical knowledge. Often, a music...

Co-written with Marysia Wojcik, Animal trainer and behaviorist

Animal abandonment is on the rise and many blame the current recession that has resulted in people losing their homes and dumping their animals at shelters or even worse leaving them tied to a tree in...

Co-written with Peter Phillips

Apple, Nike, Virgin, BMW, Herman Miller and John Deere -- all these successful firms leverage design at the CEO level and accomplish this through top-level strategic design implementation. So what is it that prevents non design-driven corporations from taking full advantage of design? Why is design...