LCD Weekly Issue-001- The start / Principles

Written By Jeroen Spoelstra

Welcome to our very first LCD Weekly!

🏔️ Words from the mountains

In each issue, you will read our ideas about life-centered design, carefully curated links, books, articles and companies that do great things out in the wild and inspire us. This first week is all about design principles.

Principles are a great way to help give your design work the direction towards something you want to achieve as a designer or design agency. It also allows you to find the right organizations with similar values to work with.

We recently released our own Life-Centered Design School Principles for designers and creative professionals who want to create a positive impact with their design work. Looking back at our personal LCD journey and that of our participants, 3 topics stand out: Nature, Design, and responsibility. Our 9 principles are:

Nature

  1. Less Design Sprints, More Design Walks

  2. Wander Aimlessly

  3. Establish a relationship with Nature

Design

  1. Co-create with Nature, communities and economies

  2. Prototype First, Design Second

  3. Keep Zooming In & Out

Responsibility

  1. Design with Soul, Heart, Mind & Body

  2. Let Design Ripen.

  3. Own your Design, be a Steward

With these principles, we want to give you renewed ownership of your creative space in a fun way, inspired by Nature and all life forms and with a sense of care for our planet. Don't be harsh on yourself when trying to apply a design principle; play with them and adapt them to your own personality and values. Have Fun!

 

🐅 LCD in the Wild - Unhurried Design

Jordan Soliday and Johnie Moore are the creative minds behind Unhurried Design. They host work sessions in the wild and are conversational in nature, allowing you to reframe your relationship with 'negative' emotions and the people and situations to which they are connected. They share experiences supporting your journey to becoming less rushed and more creative.

The work of Jordan & Johnie very much aligns with our values. One of their beautiful principles is

"Leveling the playing field. Too often, design feels like its an expert skill for the select few, who then take on a role of designing for, rather than with, others. We believe everyone is creative and can be involved in the process of design, with an emphasis on those belonging to traditionally subordinated groups."

Read their website for more thought-provoking principles.

🪄 Inspiration- The Backyard Adventurer

Beau Miles is one of our great inspirations regarding how we approach life and work.

"After years of adventuring around the globe – running, kayaking, hitchhiking, exploring – Beau Miles came back to his block in country Victoria. Staying put for the first time in years, Beau developed a new kind of lifestyle as the Backyard Adventurer. His book The Backyard Adventurer is filled with new ideas on experimental learning, making meaning and inspiration out of tins of beans, bits of rubbish and elbow grease."

He combines a naive way of looking at the world around him with action, making and wondering why the world around him works the way it does. You can read his book and watch his humorous videos on YouTube for your dose of life inspiration.

🔥 Hot in the school- Webinar & Course

What if an ancient Glacial Lake was your client? We invite you to join the first Life-Centered Design webinar of the year on January 18th, which we created for you and your design & innovation teams. We take you on a short journey on which you will learn about Life-Centered Design philosophy, approach & mindsets. Sign up here. 

Enrollment in our guided course, Shifting from Human-Centered to Life-Centered Design, starts on February 1st.

This fundamentals course is your gateway to becoming a proficient Life-Centered Designer. Here, you'll acquire the essential tools, methodology, and perspective required for the journey. Explore how to address pressing climate and societal issues while integrating biological ecosystems, non-human personas, and non-user communities into your design approach.

The moment to take action is right now! Join the waiting list to be the first one to enroll! Check all the details of the course here. We also offer a scholarship program. 

👋 Until next Monday!

Jeroen.

Jeroen Spoelstra

I am a passionate designer and mountain biker focusing on bringing people forward using a human centered approach. As a designer you could call what I do Social Design, but nowadays there are hundreds of different design names. So for me I am a designer and try to be humble to the world. I like solving issues together with other people in co-design and I love helping people reach there goals.

I find inspiration in mountain biking, traveling and in my current home the Spanish Pyrenees. I use sports, traveling and being outside to get inspired for my work as a designer.

Design to me is constantly shitifing between making meaningful products to creating impactful and real solutions/ approaches/ business that can make a difference.

The Design profession shouldn’t solely be reserved for the designer (in developed world), but for everyone! I design for impact and help people bring out their little designer in himself or herself. I am not saying everyone should become a designer, but I do think people can use a little bit of design to help themselves forward in their personal/ professional life.

https://www.unbeatenstudio.com
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LCD Weekly Issue - 002- Design Slow