Campbell on Branding and Innovation

School's in Session

Today is the first day of the new semester and I'm jazzed as always! I'm halfway done with my MDM degree, which is hard to believe.

I have some really cool classes coming up and I'm debating on a couple of others. So just like last semester, I thought I'd share my schedule as it currently reads.

1st Quarter
Product Design Workshop - the topic is "Social Networking as an Economic Development Strategy in the US and India"
Strategic Design Planning
Design Analysis
Design Planning Implementation
Cultural Human Factors
Economics and Design

Intersession
Applied Design Research

2nd Quarter
Product Design Workshop, cont.
Lifecycle and Sustainability
Design Synthesis
Social Entrepreneurship
Social Human Factors

I have another week to make adjustments so we'll see what happens. As it sits now this is a bit too much, 17 credits. I might have to drop one class which hurts because I want to take them all, plus an additional three that I already had to rule out. If anyone wants to share their opinion I'm open to ideas, except for staying another semester. I can't afford that.

Greetings from Copenhagen!

I am writing from Copenhagen where I'm visiting family and meeting with design people to learn more about the action here in Denmark. I arrived last Friday and have been having a blast visiting with family and such. Yesterday I was able to meet with several super smart people that are on top of design here in Denmark.

In the morning I met with the Technology + Trends team at Innovation Lab. They are doing some very exciting stuff with the exploration of technology and its impact and potential. They cover everything from design and prototyping to educational opportunities - workshops and talks - for organizations, research and trend papers and more. After working on a semester-long Design Planning Workshop project about Gen Y and the future of shopping, it was quite exciting to read about some of Innovation Lab's thoughts and insights on the future of retail as it matches well with what our team uncovered and recommended to the client. I highly recommend spending some time checking out their site.

Underestimating the distance, I then walked, and walked, and walked to get to Kontrapunkt for a meeting with one of the principles and the brand strategy director. Kontrapunkt is one of Denmark's premier branding and corporate identity design consultancies. They were kind enough to spend two hours over lunch discussing the state of design in Denmark, design as strategy for businesses here, and more. In addition, their offices were very cool.

Finally, I met with Tore Kristensen, a professor at the Copenhagen Business School. He filled me in on his viewpoint on design as business strategy and some of the research projects he's working on. Tore was incredibly knowledgeable, providing me an overview of the evolution of Danish design, discussing new areas of innovation and even recommendations of additional design consultancies.

I am trying to meet with ReD Associates later this week, which is a well-known strategy and innovation consultancy.

While each meeting was fascinating in its own right, collectively I got interesting perspectives on Danish design and will post some thoughts later on how this country, known so well for design, is doing in pushing it into business strategy. But for now I'm heading out to visit the Danish Design Center and do some shopping on Stroget. I'll post on how the Center tour goes.

Copenhagen's new Opera House