Making Meaning: An Introduction to Designing Objects, Part II

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Making Meaning: An Introduction to Designing Objects

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Course Details

  • Go at your own pace
  • 4 Sessions / 8-10 hours of work per session
  • Price: Credit Eligible Program ($40 USD)
  • Certificate: Included w/ premium membership ($20/month)
  • Skill Level: Beginner
  • Video Transcripts: English
  • Topics: Architecture, Object Design, Generative Process
  • Not available for purchase in India

Course Description

Part 2 of Making Meaning: An Introduction to Designing Objects focuses on how design can be progressive, through exploring radical ideas, futuristic aesthetics and by embracing social responsibility. It also looks at the realities of design practice through the eyes of experts in the field. The course begins by showing designers that have done work that is new, and breaks with the conventions of the field. It continues with an examination of how objects capture a sense of “now” by referencing contemporary social, cultural and technological advances. Reflecting on design’s uncomfortable relationship to ethics, the course reveals key ethical dilemmas designers face and helps parse approaches to them. It concludes by examining the working contexts of today’s object designers, how client relationships are formed and maintained and how independent practice can provide a counterpoint to working within corporate structures.

Learning Outcomes

  • Market Realities: Understanding of the working contexts of designers, from independent practice to consulting and in-house design
  • Breaking Convention: Understanding of the relationship between avant-garde design and mainstream design and how the two relate
  • Future-Proof Design Practices: Knowledge of how design follows and influences technological progress
  • Responsible Design: Understanding of the ethical issues of object design including sustainability, copyright and labor conditions

Sessions Overview

Session 1: Radical Objects: The Challenging Landscape of Design’s Avant-Garde

Date: June 16, 2026
8 lessons

  1. The Avant Garde in Object Design
  2. Radical Design
  3. The Independence of Italian Designers
  4. Reactionary Aesthetics
  5. Speculative and Critical Design pt I
  6. Speculative and Critical Design pt II
  7. Object Design’s Avant Garde Today
  8. Outro

Session 2: The Aesthetics of Progress: Capturing the Zeitgeist in Object Form

Date: June 23, 2026
7 lessons

  1. The Origins of Product Styling
  2. From Skyscrapers to Streamform
  3. In Search of Authenticity pt I
  4. In Search of Authenticity pt II
  5. The Aesthetics of the Future
  6. Speculative Aesthetics
  7. Outro

Session 3: Towards Socially Responsible Design: Ethical Approaches to a “Dangerous” Profession

Date: June 30, 2026
12 lessons

  1. Introducing Design Ethics
  2. Client Designer Relationship
  3. Ethical Project Selection pt I
  4. Ethical Project Selection pt II
  5. Labor and Safety Practices
  6. Material and Process Selection
  7. Safety of Objects
  8. The Ethics of Intellectual Property pt I
  9. The Ethics of Intellectual Property pt II
  10. Co-Design, Participation, and Inclusive Design
  11. The Ethics of Use
  12. Outro

Session 4: Rules of Engagement: Exploring the Realities of Design Practice

Date: July 7, 2026
9 lessons

  1. Employment pt I
  2. Employment pt II
  3. Commission
  4. The Rules of Engagement
  5. Ping-Pong
  6. Speculation
  7. Controlling Production
  8. Advice for Young Designers
  9. Outro

Instructors

Tim Parsons
Instructor
Tim Parsons is a designer, design writer and Associate Professor in Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A graduate of the Masters program in Design Products at London’s Royal College of Art, he has gone on to teach product design for fifteen years at universities in Britain and America. Tim is co-founder, with his wife Jessica Charlesworth, of the experimental and speculative design studio Parsons & Charlesworth. His design work has been exhibited widely, including at The Design Museum, London and MCA, Chicago.

What You Need to Take This Course

  • Materials: Thinking: Objects - Contemporary Approaches to Product Design by Tim Parsons

Additional Information

Please note: Taking part in a Kadenze course For-Credit or as a Premium Member, does not affirm that a student has been enrolled or accepted for enrollment by School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Taking part in this course For-Credit offers credit that is recognized by School of the Art Institute of Chicago, should the Kadenze student be accepted for enrollment in the future.

Students who are currently enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago are not eligible to receive credit for this course.

In order to receive college credit for these program courses, you must successfully complete and pass all 2 courses in this program. If a student signs up for the Making Meaning: An Introduction to Designing Objects program, it is recommended that these courses are taken sequentially.

*Partial credit will not be awarded for completion of only one course.

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