Better World, Design
September 24, 2010
By Carissa Carter
By day we’re Herman Miller employees. By night we’re collaborators on a large art installation in this year’s ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
With mutual interests in art and design, and a desire to create a piece of art that represented the city of Grand Rapids, Chris Hoyt and I began working on our piece last April called Collectively Skated.
Collectively Skated from Carissa Carter on Vimeo.
Collectively Skated includes a wall and ceiling made of 44 canvas-covered skateboards suspended in mid-air to demonstrate an examination of the physical and ethnographic texture of our city.
Along the way our family, friends, and co-workers from Herman Miller came together to help us pull it off. In fact, 15 people from Herman Miller’s Stitchers Club came together during lunch one Thursday to help us sew!
If you’re able to visit the city during ArtPrize, from now until October 10, stop by to see Collectively Skated at Premier, 14 Weston St.
You can vote for it, too! Up: 44071. Down: 44070.
Design, Healthcare, Well-Being
November 17, 2009
By Carissa Carter
Keynote speeches, round table discussions, hands-on workshops, lecture presentations, exhibit hall displays, awards ceremonies (to honor the Florabella lounge collection, a winner in the Nightingale Awards Competition), and interpersonal conversations shaped the collective Herman Miller Healthcare experience at the Healthcare Design conference held Oct. 31 to Nov. 3 in Orlando, Florida.
Our live media team, composed of individuals from Herman Miller and our subsidiaries Brandrud and Nemschoff, covered the event live on Twitter under stream #hcd09.
What did we learn? What were the major trends we observed and takeaways we will continue to think about? What texture did we take away from the intangible? We synthesized our experience and now we present five takeaway points back to you for consideration:
1. You can apply lean process to any industry. Learn and apply best practices from other fields.
2. Use evidence-based design to drive innovation.
3. Patients, doctors, nurses, furniture, infrastructure, equipment, buildings, and nature are all part of the same ecosystem.
4. Design healthcare products and environments that reference norms but create delight.
5. Listen, ask, test, challenge, and participate in communities that are shaping the future of healthcare.
We’d love to hear your reactions. Do you agree? Understand? Let’s continue the conversation here and on Twitter. Follow @healthcarehm and stream #betterworld.
Design, Healthcare, Well-Being, What's Up
October 27, 2009
By Carissa Carter
Today I picked up a brick and threw it across a parking lot. Maybe you crushed a sheet of aluminum foil? Your daughter might have let a pawful of sand fall through her fingers, or your best friend might be crawling around on a shag carpet right now.
Almost every material or object has a texture. These items and surfaces are tangible. They have weight, density, and a composite quality. We have tactile reactions to products and artifacts that can be drivers for our purchasing decisions and triggers for memories.
But can an experience have a texture? Does a conversation or a presentation have a tactile signature? How might we qualify the interactions and knowledge shared at a conference?
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