Faculty & Lecturers: Product Design and Joint Program in Design at Stanford University

Matt Kahn

In my studio I make an ongoing commitment to design, painting, and writing on design, shifting emphasis from one to the other as the opportunities and pressures arise. I view design and the fine arts as kindred, built of the same building blocks, and so focus on the study of abstract visual language in the classroom just as I put it to use in my work. Rooted in my education at the Cranbrook Art Academy I continue to evolve a design philosophy based upon the ideal of synthesis, the harmonious union of art, technology and service. This is most clearly expressed in our joint graduate design program to which I am responsible and devoted and which sets up an umbrella for undergraduate study as well. As a professional designer I am a generalist with broad interests but with pockets of intense concentrations looking with architects I have designed recreation and medical facilities as well as residential communities. I also have designed architectural products, lighting, textiles and hardware, and enjoy working directly in gold. A comprehensive book in progress, Design/Soul and Body, is based upon lectures that I have evolved for a mid-level design course called The Bridge. In it, the text and the preface illustrations made mostly with my own camera, I group designed objects and conditions according to motivation rather than craft or profession under the chapter headings of Utility, Propaganda, Pleasure, Vanity and Ceremony.

David Kelley

David Kelley's EE degree from CMU landed him in the engineering departments of NCR and Boeing, where he eventually discovered that the rigid world of corporate design was not for him. Through a friend, he learned about Stanford's Joint Program in Design, and happily returned to school.

After earning his master's in 1978 he started his own design firm, vowing to work only on cool projects with people he liked. The company he founded became IDEO, a worldwide leader in the user-centered design of products, services, and environments. IDEO is recognized as much for its process and culture as for its work. In May 2004 a Business Week cover article, "The Power of Design," profiled IDEO and its work helping companies change the way they innovate.

David also began teaching design at Stanford in 1978, and became a tenured professor in 1991. David now heads Stanford's d.school, and he is on a mission to add "design thinking" to Stanford's existing competence of teaching analytical thinking. This will result in students who create delightful design experiences and embrace and promote a culture of innovation.

In Stanford's 100-year retrospective on the people who most epitomized its tradition of academic excellence, David was recognized for encouraging "the melding of can-do spirit with limitless imagination." In 2000, he was honored with the annual Chrysler Design Award and elected to the National Academy of Engineering, which recognized him for "affecting the practice of design." In 2001 the Smithsonian Institute presented David and IDEO with a National Design Award. In 2002, he was named the Donald W. Whittier Professor in Mechanical Engineering. Most recently, David received the 2005 Sir Misha Black Medal for his "distinguished services to design education."