so three years ago I was sitting at my
drafting desk pretty resentful about
being a designer and the reasons for
that they’re not really important right
now
but they are the catalysts for about
everything I’m about to talk to you
about today so I’m not sure how many of
you know about designers but in my
experience
we’re often seen as these unicorns that
go off into this world of Awesome and we
come back in less than 24 hours with
this brilliant market changing idea and
while I so wish that was true because it
would have made my life a lot easier
the truth is that it’s just an urban
myth and I’m convinced that unicorns
started it
hmm what we really are actually our
specific type of problem solvers that
put the humans at the center of
everything we do so regardless of
whether you’re a graphic designer or
you’re a product designer or you’re a
user experience designer your job is to
put the human in the solution for the
need of the human at the end of the day
so let me tell you the real truth about
designers this is the best part
we spend a majority of our time being
insecure angsty and lamenting our
perceived lack of talent and purpose on
the planet Earth hence my drafting board
three years ago so I figured in order to
move the needle whatever it is that I
was going through I was gonna have to
put me at the center of this solution
and the solution I designed a solution
that I determined oh it’s not that was
this the design research I decided that
my decision was I was going to create a
manifesto so three months and a bunch of
philosophical ramblings later I ended up
with my masterpiece it was a piece of
paper that had absolutely nothing on it
and so at this point I was deeply
disturbed and I was kind of done with
being a designer I quit I was done boom
and it wasn’t until I heard a voice in
my head that said Nicole design for joy
and well I’m not a proponent of
listening to voices in your head because
sometimes they don’t always pan out I
did have the wherewithal to write these
words down design for joy and I got
inspired which is great for a designer
because being inspired means we actually
are ready to design and so what I did as
I walked out and I said I’m gonna design
the joy I want to see in the world and
everything I did was moving towards
end-user sensory happiness and you know
what I realized that’s not even close to
what design for 20 minutes I’ll tell you
what it partly meant it meant that one
must do rebellious acts in the context
of our gifts and talents and for the
record it has nothing to do with
happiness and everything to do with
ambiguity you see I’ve been a designer
for a long time and I’ve worked on
incredible projects and met some amazing
people but what I realized was actually
what I was learning how all the pieces
come together to create the whole and I
realized I was actually the observer and
not a participant and what I was being
asked to do
I was being asked to look at the things
that I designed and how much they
created to the clutter so it didn’t
matter what kind of fonts I use or kind
of color palettes I chose what mattered
was the fact that I was now being asked
to have a reconciliation with my soul
and I was being asked to join a larger
narrative in which I was now in service
to inspiring human potential so design
for joy is about awakening a rebel
spirit that’s when all of us it’s lying
dormant there and we just need to take a
look at it and so now I had a chance to
look at what that rebel spirit would
look like in an all great designer
fashion I decided t-shirt actually not
really
I actually just tried on something
called designer 2.0 but when I figured
out what designer 2.0 is it’s the design
and shifting of systems like how humans
interact with the world around us
everything from policy to poverty from
food insecurity education you know that
anxiety I was talking about and I just
had earlier yeah whole new level we’re
talking big I innovation at this point
and in my experience no one wants it
true innovation especially in
organizations you know why because
that’s where the accountants live and
accountants if you haven’t figured it
out right now
they kind of rule the world here’s the
other thing about innovation if you
don’t know about it it’s super messy and
no one ever likes a mess especially the
accountants in fact the only people that
can really handle the mess are the
rebels and here’s the crazy thing about
that’s you know why most people want to
work and hire rebels but the thing is as
soon as a rebel starts to make their
mess they’re out of there
so most rebels don’t want a short term
stint on your orgs innovation team in
fact they end up becoming the
entrepreneurs and outliers and that was
my story that was my story and in that
shell and I had no desire to stick
myself back into the line of fire of
ridicule and rejection not even close
but you know this whisper it seemed to
know what it was doing so it
asked me to take a look at something
that I realized I had been thematically
for the better part of my life an artist
raised by accountants and what I
realized is that I was exhausted with
sticking my self my life into a ledger
item but the most dramatic part for me
was this I realized that a sadness
washed over me when I recognized that
all that energy that I had used could
have been going into systems and
solutions that could have helped a lot
of people but instead I used it to
design a box around myself and my
potential and never was able to show the
world my true valor so I had to take a
rebellious act I had to bust out of this
box and it was when I started to bet on
my gifts and my talents that things
started to her matically changed you see
here’s what I learned
truths rebels are driven by a higher
calling and contrary to popular belief
we are not uncover Noble and we are not
self-destructive what we are is we have
a cause and we’re not afraid to use that
to inspire all you the populace to tear
things down with our gifts think about
that and rebels are part of a larger
change ecosystem and contrary to popular
belief we are not lone wolves in fact we
have a partner on the inside you know
what they’re called they’re called the
Maverick Mavericks that’s the ticket
Mavericks are mature warriors and they
understand the raw power of the rebel
they’re able to take the rebels
revolution and transmute it into
powerful innovations to transform
systems from within Mavericks have the
gifts and the influences to bring
radical ideas to status quo systems and
make change and every maverick knows if
they’re smart they’re brave enough to go
find the rebels with the game-changing
ideas so is that simple I just had to go
find America and I could be a rebel yeah
yeah yeah
no no so this is the next thing I had to
learn what I actually was trying to find
was a system that had all the pieces in
place and it needed a catalyst okay why
because we’re talking innovation here
and if the timing of your innovation is
off you will not be able to align the
resources or the talent in a way that
your system can handle volatility and
I’m gonna tell you something the most
volatile the most volatile force in the
world is creativity and you know the
fuse that the level writes the Revel of
place is creativity so your system
better be ready so here’s the thing
I then realized I could go light a fuse
but I didn’t really have a cause to
light for so though the only thing I was
gonna do was blow up my own life and
while you know what rebels are cool at
doing that I was getting a little too
old to clean up those types of messes
but you know what that was figured out
for me about a year ago I had the
opportunity to join Georgian College at
the Center for social innovation see
Georgian was well on its way to joining
Laurier as an Ashoka changemaker campus
and we had a talented team of change
leaders that were doing a full systemic
reboot and the great thing about this is
when Georgian was finished it was going
to be the first Canadian college to join
an international cohort of leaders in
social innovation and change making but
the best was the Ashoka definition of
what needs to be a change maker one who
desires change in the world and goes
after there’s the knowledge and the
resources to make that change happen I
found my cause and I also found a place
to participate and stand for something
greater than myself so what did my
designer 2.0 really look like it looked
like this me standing in front of a
bunch of students who are going to be
our future leaders in the not-for-profit
sector and my purpose was to give them
my resources which was what happens when
you put yourself the artist into a box
with accounting ideals and what it takes
to break you out of that and my
knowledge my breadth of my creative
toolkit and what it means to use that to
express your rebel cause
so now you remember what I said about
designers always putting humans at the
center of that solution but guess what
designer 2.0 my role is now to design
the space for future changemakers my
role is to incubate and empower those to
spark the creative force within and it
was at this moment this very moment I
finally got it I finally understood what
design for joy meant it’s a set of
assembly instructions you see it’s not
about whether I use a control bottom
line framework for my social enterprise
and it’s not about whether I pick
Helvetica as my font and it’s not about
the practical materials that I use to
build my product what it’s about is how
we align the human potential to power
the change and the tool that does that
is creativity design for joy is how the
process of creativity flows through a
system that’s the manifesto that’s
what’s going to affect change if we have
any hope of solving our greatest
problems we are all going to have to
find the change makers within we are all
going to have to inspire the rebel
spirit to inspire the artists who are
the lone creators to join us the
Mavericks and help the accountants learn
how to put the human at the center of
everything they do because if we can’t
get the accountants to calculate the
human potential we’re not going to
change anything
[Music]
so it’s three years now and I stand
before you as a rebel designer with a
cause my cause is to incubate the rebel
spirit within you all and teaching how
to make that change in the world because
we need the artists and the Mavericks
and the rebels and whoever else you are
to join us so originally I was gonna
leave you with this I was gonna ask you
guys to go home tonight and do one
rebellious act to design for joy but
here’s the thing
design for joy is my manifesto not that
I want to share it but it’s my set of
instructions and I was given a specific
set of skills and talents for whatever
my destined purpose was to be and it’s
completely different than all of yours
so this is what I challenge you to do
tonight I want you to go home and I want
you to listen to the whisper because in
that whisper that’s the content of your
manifesto make the whisper the drop and
make your life the thousand ripples and
good luck
[Applause]
drafting desk pretty resentful about
being a designer and the reasons for
that they’re not really important right
now
but they are the catalysts for about
everything I’m about to talk to you
about today so I’m not sure how many of
you know about designers but in my
experience
we’re often seen as these unicorns that
go off into this world of Awesome and we
come back in less than 24 hours with
this brilliant market changing idea and
while I so wish that was true because it
would have made my life a lot easier
the truth is that it’s just an urban
myth and I’m convinced that unicorns
started it
hmm what we really are actually our
specific type of problem solvers that
put the humans at the center of
everything we do so regardless of
whether you’re a graphic designer or
you’re a product designer or you’re a
user experience designer your job is to
put the human in the solution for the
need of the human at the end of the day
so let me tell you the real truth about
designers this is the best part
we spend a majority of our time being
insecure angsty and lamenting our
perceived lack of talent and purpose on
the planet Earth hence my drafting board
three years ago so I figured in order to
move the needle whatever it is that I
was going through I was gonna have to
put me at the center of this solution
and the solution I designed a solution
that I determined oh it’s not that was
this the design research I decided that
my decision was I was going to create a
manifesto so three months and a bunch of
philosophical ramblings later I ended up
with my masterpiece it was a piece of
paper that had absolutely nothing on it
and so at this point I was deeply
disturbed and I was kind of done with
being a designer I quit I was done boom
and it wasn’t until I heard a voice in
my head that said Nicole design for joy
and well I’m not a proponent of
listening to voices in your head because
sometimes they don’t always pan out I
did have the wherewithal to write these
words down design for joy and I got
inspired which is great for a designer
because being inspired means we actually
are ready to design and so what I did as
I walked out and I said I’m gonna design
the joy I want to see in the world and
everything I did was moving towards
end-user sensory happiness and you know
what I realized that’s not even close to
what design for 20 minutes I’ll tell you
what it partly meant it meant that one
must do rebellious acts in the context
of our gifts and talents and for the
record it has nothing to do with
happiness and everything to do with
ambiguity you see I’ve been a designer
for a long time and I’ve worked on
incredible projects and met some amazing
people but what I realized was actually
what I was learning how all the pieces
come together to create the whole and I
realized I was actually the observer and
not a participant and what I was being
asked to do
I was being asked to look at the things
that I designed and how much they
created to the clutter so it didn’t
matter what kind of fonts I use or kind
of color palettes I chose what mattered
was the fact that I was now being asked
to have a reconciliation with my soul
and I was being asked to join a larger
narrative in which I was now in service
to inspiring human potential so design
for joy is about awakening a rebel
spirit that’s when all of us it’s lying
dormant there and we just need to take a
look at it and so now I had a chance to
look at what that rebel spirit would
look like in an all great designer
fashion I decided t-shirt actually not
really
I actually just tried on something
called designer 2.0 but when I figured
out what designer 2.0 is it’s the design
and shifting of systems like how humans
interact with the world around us
everything from policy to poverty from
food insecurity education you know that
anxiety I was talking about and I just
had earlier yeah whole new level we’re
talking big I innovation at this point
and in my experience no one wants it
true innovation especially in
organizations you know why because
that’s where the accountants live and
accountants if you haven’t figured it
out right now
they kind of rule the world here’s the
other thing about innovation if you
don’t know about it it’s super messy and
no one ever likes a mess especially the
accountants in fact the only people that
can really handle the mess are the
rebels and here’s the crazy thing about
that’s you know why most people want to
work and hire rebels but the thing is as
soon as a rebel starts to make their
mess they’re out of there
so most rebels don’t want a short term
stint on your orgs innovation team in
fact they end up becoming the
entrepreneurs and outliers and that was
my story that was my story and in that
shell and I had no desire to stick
myself back into the line of fire of
ridicule and rejection not even close
but you know this whisper it seemed to
know what it was doing so it
asked me to take a look at something
that I realized I had been thematically
for the better part of my life an artist
raised by accountants and what I
realized is that I was exhausted with
sticking my self my life into a ledger
item but the most dramatic part for me
was this I realized that a sadness
washed over me when I recognized that
all that energy that I had used could
have been going into systems and
solutions that could have helped a lot
of people but instead I used it to
design a box around myself and my
potential and never was able to show the
world my true valor so I had to take a
rebellious act I had to bust out of this
box and it was when I started to bet on
my gifts and my talents that things
started to her matically changed you see
here’s what I learned
truths rebels are driven by a higher
calling and contrary to popular belief
we are not uncover Noble and we are not
self-destructive what we are is we have
a cause and we’re not afraid to use that
to inspire all you the populace to tear
things down with our gifts think about
that and rebels are part of a larger
change ecosystem and contrary to popular
belief we are not lone wolves in fact we
have a partner on the inside you know
what they’re called they’re called the
Maverick Mavericks that’s the ticket
Mavericks are mature warriors and they
understand the raw power of the rebel
they’re able to take the rebels
revolution and transmute it into
powerful innovations to transform
systems from within Mavericks have the
gifts and the influences to bring
radical ideas to status quo systems and
make change and every maverick knows if
they’re smart they’re brave enough to go
find the rebels with the game-changing
ideas so is that simple I just had to go
find America and I could be a rebel yeah
yeah yeah
no no so this is the next thing I had to
learn what I actually was trying to find
was a system that had all the pieces in
place and it needed a catalyst okay why
because we’re talking innovation here
and if the timing of your innovation is
off you will not be able to align the
resources or the talent in a way that
your system can handle volatility and
I’m gonna tell you something the most
volatile the most volatile force in the
world is creativity and you know the
fuse that the level writes the Revel of
place is creativity so your system
better be ready so here’s the thing
I then realized I could go light a fuse
but I didn’t really have a cause to
light for so though the only thing I was
gonna do was blow up my own life and
while you know what rebels are cool at
doing that I was getting a little too
old to clean up those types of messes
but you know what that was figured out
for me about a year ago I had the
opportunity to join Georgian College at
the Center for social innovation see
Georgian was well on its way to joining
Laurier as an Ashoka changemaker campus
and we had a talented team of change
leaders that were doing a full systemic
reboot and the great thing about this is
when Georgian was finished it was going
to be the first Canadian college to join
an international cohort of leaders in
social innovation and change making but
the best was the Ashoka definition of
what needs to be a change maker one who
desires change in the world and goes
after there’s the knowledge and the
resources to make that change happen I
found my cause and I also found a place
to participate and stand for something
greater than myself so what did my
designer 2.0 really look like it looked
like this me standing in front of a
bunch of students who are going to be
our future leaders in the not-for-profit
sector and my purpose was to give them
my resources which was what happens when
you put yourself the artist into a box
with accounting ideals and what it takes
to break you out of that and my
knowledge my breadth of my creative
toolkit and what it means to use that to
express your rebel cause
so now you remember what I said about
designers always putting humans at the
center of that solution but guess what
designer 2.0 my role is now to design
the space for future changemakers my
role is to incubate and empower those to
spark the creative force within and it
was at this moment this very moment I
finally got it I finally understood what
design for joy meant it’s a set of
assembly instructions you see it’s not
about whether I use a control bottom
line framework for my social enterprise
and it’s not about whether I pick
Helvetica as my font and it’s not about
the practical materials that I use to
build my product what it’s about is how
we align the human potential to power
the change and the tool that does that
is creativity design for joy is how the
process of creativity flows through a
system that’s the manifesto that’s
what’s going to affect change if we have
any hope of solving our greatest
problems we are all going to have to
find the change makers within we are all
going to have to inspire the rebel
spirit to inspire the artists who are
the lone creators to join us the
Mavericks and help the accountants learn
how to put the human at the center of
everything they do because if we can’t
get the accountants to calculate the
human potential we’re not going to
change anything
[Music]
so it’s three years now and I stand
before you as a rebel designer with a
cause my cause is to incubate the rebel
spirit within you all and teaching how
to make that change in the world because
we need the artists and the Mavericks
and the rebels and whoever else you are
to join us so originally I was gonna
leave you with this I was gonna ask you
guys to go home tonight and do one
rebellious act to design for joy but
here’s the thing
design for joy is my manifesto not that
I want to share it but it’s my set of
instructions and I was given a specific
set of skills and talents for whatever
my destined purpose was to be and it’s
completely different than all of yours
so this is what I challenge you to do
tonight I want you to go home and I want
you to listen to the whisper because in
that whisper that’s the content of your
manifesto make the whisper the drop and
make your life the thousand ripples and
good luck
[Applause]
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