Did you miss our recent series of articles on the right way to hire a digital studio?

We're more than three decades into the digital age, and yet companies still have difficulty finding the right fit when it comes to design providers. Why should that be the case? In these four blog posts, Dirk Knemeyer shares a fresh perspective and practical tips to help you establish the best possible client / consultant relationship.

Here in the United States, it is Columbus Day, when we are supposed to celebrate the excitement of exploration (and try not to think about what happened after the explorers landed). Perfect timing to share some images of our own explorations as mentors alongside MIT MechE seniors in two-double-oh-nine.

Maybe it was the full moon this week, but we seemed to be in a wickedly playful mood.

Engineer Adam Pere contributed this creepy craft for engineers who love to have fun on Halloween.

I was all set to compose a riveting post (pun intended) about the creative work of Invo designer Sarah Kaiser, who sits next to me, makes me tea, and amazes me several times a day with her magical skills. While thinking about how to frame this little story, I did some quick research into Maker culture, which seemed to be the right context. I discovered that the theory of constructivism that I had studied so long ago in college, is a foundational value of Makers. Venturing over to Pinterest opened a whole new world of time-sink bliss with links to education, science, school libraries, learning, DIY, projects, and—yes!!—design.

But then I happened to open Facebook (note to self: no FB before homework is done). A literary academic friend had posted a link to a scathing article that very nearly burst my artisanal, plant-dyed, spun-local-organic cane sugar balloon: Keywords for the Age of Austerity 12: DIY (Do It Your [Damn] Self). Here I sat in my cozy little home studio, surrounded by my craft library and supplies (yes, some rescued from the trash) and read this political rant against an admittedly appalling suggestion that poor residents of government housing learn to make their own repairs. It was the trashing of middle-class do-it-yourselfers (hey, that’s me!), along with the reference to “the apolitical hubris that ... fatally compromise[d] the Arts and Crafts and 60s ‘maker’ movements” that bothered me. Yes, I understood his points about lack of significant economic reforms in the context of those historical movements. And that the DIY trends of the 1950s and 60s and even now were and are heavily gender-biased. In my childhood years it was my oldest brother who subscribed to Popular Mechanics and built Healthkit radio sets. He once bottled his own root beer and we spent summer nights listening to the caps blow off the bottles in the basement. My mom made many of my clothes and I was sewing by the time I was 8 or so, we made grape jelly and pie from scratch and never used gravy from a can or a bottle. My dad, a doctor, wasn’t “handy” but, when my sister tore her ACL in a childhood fall, he splinted her leg with cedar shakes and sanitary pads wrapped with Ace™ bandages.

In case you have no plans for Friday night:

Visit CSS Diner! Bring a friend to this table-for-two experience. If you are new to CSS selectors, no worries, the chef is super-helpful.

And now we come to the last installment in our series of summer-intern stories! In this case, we bid adieu to our new French Invo'ite and resident pastry chef, Clément.

Paperhouses recently interviewed Juhan Sonin on why he designs and why Involution Studios works.

After seeing our Gamestorming mention last Friday, early Involution Studios principal and technology director Ben Listwon responded with these engaging ideas for using play and Lego in corporate and educational settings.

We've said good-bye to another, already-missed summer intern. We'll continue to share our intern stories with you over the next few weeks. Read the first and second installments, too!

The week’s highlights first:

We are breaking with our usual links-first format to introduce the latest goinvo feature story, Redesign Democracy: A Better Solution for the Digital Era. Allow yourself a good block of time to explore and enjoy this well-researched and beautifully crafted article. Available in its interactive form, downloadable pdf or e-book, and also as an audio file, it is well worth your time and sharing with others.