In July 2010, I planned, coordinated, and taught projects for a month-long program called Design Camp. Design Camp was founded by Eric Anderson, and was originally a week-long experience for 13-15 year old boys to learn about design. It has evolved into a month-long experience held five days a week at the Kingsley Association in the East End of Pittsburgh. The program was taught interchangeably by Eric, myself, and two of my industrial design classmates: Colleen Grogan and Margaret Gerhart. Design Camp was free to elementary school and middle school students and exposed them to the fundamentals of communication design, industrial design, and design thinking.
The students in Design Camp had four projects during the program and took field trips around Pittsburgh to better understand the users for whom they were designing. They designed a desktop organizer, a personal identity, a video of their experience at Design Camp, and an information center for a local community garden. These projects gave the students first-hand experience with design sketching, 2D and 3D composition, prototyping with cardboard and foam-core, user-centered design, sustainability, photography, project documentation and presentation, and client collaboration.
