Continuum's Harry West writes about how, in a new, multi-skill approach, traditional design tactics are wedded to the needs of business, and that design and business schools should embrace the synergy.

The 2008 budget report for the City of Chicago includes a high-level description of ID's work on redesigning city services.

ID's Jon Campbell (MDM 08) has a new and well-reviewed blog on branding, innovation and design strategy. brandingandinnovation.typepad.com. We like it.

Several blogs provided on-site and post-hoc coverage of ID's 2007 Design Research Conference: core77.com; BusinessWeek.com's Next blog; David Armano's Logic+Emotion here, here and here, including video; Three Minds at Organic; and Rosenfeld Media.

Chuck Owen will deliver the keynote speech at an internal New Zealand government conference on 'Customer-centric Government Services'. The title of his talk: "Structured Planning. Generating and Optimizing Insights and Information to Develop Customer Service systems". See the Design Thinking systems workshop projects from 2005 for relevant examples.

In an article on designers needing increasing amounts of business acumen, ID and Stanford's Institute of Design are noted as two of the few design school's already integrating business training into their curricula.

ID, Stanford and the Rotman School of Management are mentioned in "Workplaces improve creativity by design" in the CanWest news service.

The two students won a joint Silver prize for e-Sullivan, a portable handheld communicator for deaf-blind people.

Doug (MDM '06) does 20 questions (13 to be exact) for CommArts' Design Interact. His biggest web design turn-off? Arrogance.

Patrick Whitney has the lead-off quote in Jena McGregor's article and interview catching up with "Innovator's Dilemma" author Clayton Christensen.

Vijay Kumar's “Innovation Exchange” project was featured in the Tools and Trends section of BusinessWeek and BusinessWeek.com.

Steven Babitch and Clinton Barth (both MDes '07) talk with host Carol Coletta (MDM '08) about designing cities to be more kid-friendly.

Editor Helen Walters covers the 2007 Strategy Conference in a series of posts to BW.com's innovation blog: "Strategy for the Strategy Conference", "Design is Dirty" and "From Goldman Sachs to Kabul".

Brandon Schauer (MDes/MBA 2005) co-teaches a four-day intensive workshop for user experience practitioners, focusing on design strategy techniques and the role design plays in business.

Three stories in the Toronto Globe and Mail spotlight design and feature Patrick Whitney -- one in the Arts section, "Design takes over, a fly swatter at a time", and two in the business pages: "White shirts meet the nose studs" and "Wicked ideas, challenging restraints".

The John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation granted $430,000 to ID's "Thinkering Spaces" research project to continue work begun in 2006. Thinkering Spaces, co-led by professors Dale Fahnstrom and Greg Prygrocki, and research manager Heloisa Moura, a PhD candidate at ID, is investigating and prototyping a networked system of exploratory learning environments for middle-school kids, located in libraries. Over the next several months, the research team will be working in Chicago-area libraries to research, design, install and test prototype installations with kids.

Sue Jin's product workshop project, E.Share, was profiled in page 5 of the student-work section of Metropolis's issue on product design. Her wearable product, developed in a class sponsored in part by HP, is aimed at older baby boomers who want to stay connected with their families and incorporates a camera, display, mirror, magnifying glass, watch, alarm clock, and mobile connectivity. Download article (PDF , 5.16MB)

Professor Alexis gives a five minute video interview on the new Business POV web site, which focuses on video-based Chicago area business stories, delivered on-line.

Patrick is quoted about Procter & Gambles new approach to business through innovation, in an article on the importance of customer experience.

Larry Keeley nominates the "Greatest Innovations of All Time" in terms of improvements to safety, living standards and quality of life. Topping the list include "mathematics and the number zero" and "money".

The Spotlight Series presents "Innovation Bridge," led by Patrick Whitney, on Thursday, February 15, at 1:00 pm ET via LiveMeeting. Learn about the design methods that work particularly well to help bridge the so-called innovation gap. Visit the link above to register.