Welcoming our new professor of Design Leadership Guy Julier

Prior to coming to Aalto, Guy was University of Brighton/Victoria & Albert Museum Principal Research Fellow in Contemporary Design and Professor of Design Culture and Visiting Professor of Design Studies at the University of Southern Denmark in Kolding. His latest book, Economies of Design was published in 2017.

What made you choose to come to Aalto?

“I've been here several times and I was always very impressed by the caliber of the students. Aalto is very well placed internationally as a school of art and design. I knew some of the people working here, and there is a strong overlap between their interests and mine, and they have got very strong reputations in their fields.

Many have a strong overlap between design thinking and the social sciences, and there is a thoughtful, reflexive and contextually aware approach to design at Aalto.”

Could you expand on the connection between design thinking and social sciences?

“Over the past ten years, parts of design have moved over from a service ethos to a propositionary ethos. In other words, designers are becoming much more proactive in approaching organizations or clients with a proposal of what can be done, rather than simply doing what clients request. That shift will require designers to be much more strategic in their thinking and much better informed about the people involved.

For example, take the topic of ageing: It is impossible that designers not only understand the sociological and demographic changes involved but also: What will be the experience of being an elderly person in ten years' time? Our challenge is to design the experience of ageing for the future.”

What will you talk about in the “Tenured Professors’ Installation Talks” on Wednesday?

“I'll be speaking about "Doing design research in public". It explores how doing design research in direct collaboration with stakeholders and end users is different from doing design research in a science lab or a studio.”

Date: 25.4. at 14.15

Venue: Dipoli, Lumituuli, Otakaari 24, 02150, Espoo

Read more: http://arts.aalto.fi/en/current/events/installation_talks_25042018/