LCD Weekly Issue - 049- Spring Renew

Apr 4

⛰️ Words from the mountains

After taking a two-week break to rethink the purpose and direction of this newsletter, we are back! Sometimes, it's essential to slow down and seek inspiration again.

What's new in this edition?

We've introduced three new segments to help you connect, find inspiration, and explore with LCD tools throughout the week. Additionally, we are shifting to a bi-weekly format instead of a weekly one. This change allows us to take our time and create a newsletter that is truly worth reading.

Now, let's go to the official content; this week, we explore Non-Human Personas. Jeroen has wanted to write this blog for ages, and finally, it's here:

Designing with Nature: The Power of Non-Human Personas

Traditional design focuses on human needs—but what if we expanded our perspective to include nature? Non-human personas help us understand the lives, challenges, and perspectives of animals, plants, and ecosystems affected by our creations.

By combining scientific research with emotional storytelling, we can design in harmony with the natural world, fostering deeper empathy and responsibility.

💡 Incorporating non-human personas into your design practice allows you to move beyond sustainability checkboxes and create meaningful, life-centered solutions.

Want to dive deeper? Read our latest blog to explore how non-human personas can transform your approach to design.

🔥 Hot in the School

Join Us in Vermont: Non-Human Persona Workshop 🌿

Reconnect with nature and bring its voice into your design work. In this immersive Non-Human Persona Workshop, you'll explore life-centered and regenerative design, learning to integrate nature's wisdom into products, services, and organizations.

Through creativity, storytelling, and scientific research, you'll develop a Non-Human Persona—helping you design with, not just for, the world around us.

What's Included?

4-hour design + skill-building workshop
Life-Centered Design Guide (14 exercises, frameworks, and ecosystem mindmap)
Catered lunch + 2 specialty coffees ☕
Exclusive access to our Life-Centered Design WhatsApp community
Vermont | $175

Spots are limited—reserve yours today!

🔍 LCD Spotlight: Meet Taylor Kaus, and Catherine Bianca L. Wakim, your facilitators for the workshop.

🐅 LCD in the Wild

✨ This Week's Inspo:

📚 Book: The Hidden Life of Trees – Peter Wohlleben reveals how trees communicate, support each other, and form thriving ecosystems—showing that forests are far more alive and connected than we ever imagined.

🎥 Film: Water is Love – Follows young changemakers tackling the climate crisis by exploring regenerative water retention projects in India, Kenya, and Portugal—highlighting traditional ecological knowledge, the role of water in climate, and the power of community-driven solutions for a resilient future.

🖌️ Art: Joe Horner: Photographer & Director | Art | Motion | Flowers– See his work here and here!

Have an LCD-inspired find? Reply to this email & share it with us!

📢 Community Voices

💬 Reader Question: "Do you have any success stories of Non-Human Personas in real-life scenarios?" – Leo T.

👀 Our Take: We do, take a look at this three links below:

1. Re: Life-Centered Design For Urban Environments

2. Conservation International

3. How IBM considered frogs as a non-human stakeholder in the design of a citizen science app.

🔎 Do you have any Life-Centered Desgin related questions? Reply to this email, and we might feature your question next week!

🛠️ LCD Toolbox

📝 Quick Tip: Do you want to get started on Non-Human Personas? Today, we present the "Non-Human Persona Quick Scan".

💡 This tool helps you start observing and making a connection with a non-human actant, such as a tree, a bird, a river or maybe a building. It is the first step before further immersion and actual scientific research.

Created by: Alice Donferri and Jeroen Spoelstra

Give it a go & tell us how it worked!

❓ LCD Provocation

What if nature created AI? What would be different? 🌱

Reply with your wildest ideas, and we will showcase them next week!

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Until next time,

Jeroen and Marce

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