Conditional Design Workshop at IED

So happy since I've successfully conducted my first conditional design workshop with my students at IED Torino.

It's been so long since I had this desire and finally I caught the opportunity with my new class of wannabe designers.

I've given 30 minutes for the activity. I've set up 7 groups, 4/5 people each.

They had to draw a little square, turning clockwise, on an A0 sheet, with a colored marker, each square has to follow these rules:

• it doesn't be too much big/small
• it needs to have a vertex connected with another square' vertex
• it can be rotated by multiples of 45°
• it can be filled with parallel lines, horizontal, vertical or diagonal
• it doesn't have to intersect any other shapes

I'm quite happy with the outcomes. They were skeptical at first but during the session, they got engaged and I had some difficulties to stop them because the time run out.

I've noticed a couple of things observing them during the workshop:

• They started to draw in silence but then they began to talk and interact in order to suggest possible directions (where to draw the next square, how to draw it, etc)
• They followed the rules strictly at first, then some asked for variations and some were nice, which I will include in future editions.
• They began even to want to break some rules. Some were interesting starting points for further explorations.

Eventually, they loved their creation as it happens for a creative team after a well designed project.