Master’s Program in Strategic Design in Complexity

Join us next week for the Planetary Civics Inquiry event launch! 🎉 Our Co-Director, Toban Shadlyn, along with current students and alumni, will be taking part in the conversation—sharing experiences, reflections, and questions from their work. Don’t miss it!

Here is an article that could be interesting for some out there. Several interesting points and threads from reflexivity to methodological pluralism. https://lnkd.in/dw2c8gmR

𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘊𝘰-𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 Toban Shadlyn 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭 2024. As we conclude the first module of this year’s SDC program, we want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has joined and supported us on this journey so far. This year, we built on work initiated by the previous cohort ('23-'24), focusing on the critical drought challenges facing Barcelona and the surrounding region, particularly in the context of agricultural practices. To help us on this journey, we’ve had the honor of engaging with an incredible lineup of practitioners and visionaries who shared their insights, their questions, and their time. We’re immensely grateful to: 🔵 David Storkholm & Paul Natorp (KAOSPILOT) for introducing the potential of creative leadership. 🔵 Nathan Shedroff for demystifying the business of strategic design. 🔵 John V Willshire for sharpening our understanding of signals and trends research. 🔵 Kris De Decker and Jere Kuzmanic for walking us through historical evolution in urban design, water management, and land use in Barcelona. 🔵 Chris Hepp & Centre Cívic Pati Llimona for showing us proof of climate resiliency demonstrated by your incredible rooftop garden/lab. 🔵 Luca Vlaskalic & Bioma Community Garden for championing community urban agriculture and its role in strengthening neighborhoods. 🔵 Nyangala Zolho for diving deep into sense-making and power dynamics. 🔵 Magdalena Herrador Moreno for guiding us through the foundations of systems thinking. 🔵 Oliver Goshey for your invaluable perspective on everything water and sharing your experience in stewarding agricultural transformation. 🔵 Francesc Font Rovira & nuri madeo (Regen Academy & Can Font) for hosting us on your regenerative farm, sharing the incredible journey it’s been, and seeding hope. 🔵 Anna Palli Güell for initiating an urgent conversation about the redesign required for food system transformation. 🔵 Tim Maly for leading our exploration of strategic communication with new clarity and purpose. 🔵 Prem Krishnamurthy for inviting us to co-create new ways of being together, learning, and collective healing. 🔵 Simone Uriartt for sharing your journey in design practice and public sector innovation. 🔵 Viliana Dzhartova for sharing the rigorous work being done by ReImagined Futures, bringing to light the functioning of many current systems. 🔵 Alberto Barreiro for challenging us to work through the lens of transformational design. Thank you! Cohort '25: Andrea Klaczko, Suzie Agustin, Esteban Millar Kleinsteuber, Frederikke Willert, María del Carmen Farfán Ramos, Valentina Riquelme Victoria, Catalina Valdivieso Fuenzalida, Beto Fonseca, Jacinta Navarro Master of Strategic Design team: Toban Shadlyn (co-director), Christer Windeløv-Lidzélius (co-director), Da Sánchez Suárez (learning experience) Elisava Alumni, Elisava School of Design and Engineering

𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀  𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘚𝘋𝘊 '25 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘤𝘰-𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 Toban Shadlyn, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘳 Da Sánchez Suárez Thank you Simone Uriartt who recently joined the Master’s in Strategic Design in Complexity students for a ‘Pick Your Brain’ session — an ongoing series of online discussions designed to connect students with leading practitioners in the field. As a strategic designer at the UNDP, Simone shared how they’re addressing global challenges and entertained questions from the students on how to build a practice in strategic design. Here are our key “brain pickings” from the session: 🔵 Strategic Design is a Growing Field & Role “The world of strategic design is small, but more and more organizations, such as the UNDP, are recognizing and elevating this role” Simone. As students and future practitioners, we feel the desire to put theory into practice, realizing that while change may not be as groundbreaking as discovering fire, we know that step by step, we can make a significant impact. 🔵 Strategic Design Brings Together Complementary Competencies Strategic design introduces a visual and systemic way of doing things, reducing the cognitive overload when tackling complex societal challenges.   “My work as designer has to do a lot with organisational design and my role is to investigate our bottlenecks and propose the “how” - making tangible, user friendly, and valuable alternatives. Sometimes I need to bring other design competencies (interaction design, learning design, graphic design), to create a training that is simulation based, or to create a speculative new organisation to spark conversations about new forms for international cooperation entities." Simone. 🔵 Explain Simply but Understand Deeply “Be patient with yourself as you navigate jargon—from the development world, tech spaces, and large consultancies—they’re riddled with jargon. Design also has its own jargon. As strategic designers we seek to explain simply but understand deeply,” Simone. This emerging role can be hard to define and align, but by focusing on clarity and simplicity, strategic designers bridge gaps, build trust, and foster collaboration in intricate, jargon-heavy environments. 🔵 Strategic Design as a Collaborative Endeavour Strategic design is inherently collaborative and thrives on involving others in the process. “One challenge [as a strategic designer] is to communicate the value of what you do and to manage the expectations of those around you. Being a designer in an organization doesn’t mean you have to wear all the designer hats. Part of being ‘strategic’ is recognizing what competencies and roles are needed to achieve a goal and knowing who to bring in,” Simone. 🙏 Thanks, Simone, for spending the time with us! #strategicdesign #complexity ELISAVA

Are you ready to embark on your journey in systems thinking? Take a look at this exciting internship opportunity with the wonderful team at ReImagined Futures👇

💧 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗱𝗼 𝘄𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗲? 𝘚𝘋𝘊 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 '24 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰-𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 Toban Shadlyn 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳'𝘴 Barcelona Design Week. Born from work that began during the master's program and evolved into a broader effort, H2Oh! is an interactive installation designed to spark awareness and inspire action. Set in a mock apartment in Barcelona, participants walk through the space while calculating their daily household water consumption. The exhibition encourages reflection on water usage, promotes awareness and equips visitors with the knowledge to make informed, impactful decisions. Curators: — Emma Aiyin CHEN, Karina Pastor, Raluca Mitran , Juanita Remolina Ortiz, Álvaro Doladé , Pau Gomà Golanó, Pierluigi Delgiudice, and Daniela Castro, a.k.a. #Complex24 (complex24.design) Support from: Cristian Situ (documentation and video), Federico Sánchez , @Bob Bingenheimer, Raziur Totha , Joaquim Farguell, Felippe Constancio, Beto Fonseca , Catalina Valdivieso Fuenzalida , Suzie Agustin , María del Carmen Farfán Ramos , and Esteban Millar Kleinsteuber,  Christer Windeløv-Lidzélius , Toban Shadlyn and Magdalena Herrador Moreno.  Elisava Alumni , ELISAVA

💦 AMOR SEC💦 Final project One of the initiatives resulting from their work has been 'Amor Sec' (Dry Love), an interactive installation immersing participants in a world without water, prompting reflection on the need for restorative action. _______________________________________________________________ 🗂️ Curators (cohort 2023-2024) 🗂️ Emma Aiyin CHEN , Karina Pastor, Raluca Mitran, Juanita Remolina Ortiz , Álvaro Doladé, Pau Gomà Golanó , Pierluigi Delgiudice , and Daniela Castro. #Complex24 (complex24.design). 🤝 Support 🤝 Cristian Situ (documentation and video), Federico Sánchez , @Bob Bingenheimer, Raziur Totha, Joaquim Farguell, Felippe Constancio , Beto Fonseca, Catalina Valdivieso Fuenzalida , Suzie Agustin, María del Carmen Farfán Ramos , and Esteban Millar Kleinsteuber, Christer Windeløv-Lidzélius, Toban Shadlyn and Magdalena Herrador Moreno. 🎓 Elisava Alumni, ELISAVA #strategicdesign #complexity

🔵 BET OF THE FUTURE 🔵 Final project As part of the opening conference of the Barcelona Design Week 2024 hosted at the Design Hub, fellow students presented "Bet of the Future", an exhibition inviting the public to engage with a series of #speculative objects from the not-so-distant #future, challenging us to confront how our mental models shape the objects, interactions, and relationships around us and the broader ecological impacts. _______________________________________________________________ 🗂️ Curators (cohort 2023-2024) 🗂️ Emma Aiyin, Karina Pastor, Raluca Mitran, Juanita Remolina, Álvaro Doladé, Pau Gomà, Pierluigi Delgiudice, and Daniela Castro, a.k.a. #Complex24 (complex24.design). 🤝 Support 🤝 Cristian Situ (documentation and video), Federico Sánchez, Bob Bingenheimer, Raziur Totha, Joaquim Farguell, @Felippe Constancio , Beto Fonseca, Catalina Valdivieso Fuenzalida , Suzie Agustin, María del Carmen Farfán Ramos, and Esteban Millar,  Christer Windeløv-Lidzélius Toban Shadlyn and Magdalena Herrador Moreno. 🎓Elisava Alumni, ELISAVA #strategicdesign #complexity

Perhaps of interest to someone: https://lnkd.in/dTfPK43u

❓ How can we rethink resilience as we face increasingly frequent climate extremes? From recent floods in Valencia to Barcelona's ongoing severe droughts, it's clear that reactive approaches fall short. We need a fundamental shift in managing resources like water, starting with an awareness of the mental models that shape our relationship with it. 🔺 September 2023 marked the start of our Master’s in Strategic Design in Complexity at ELISAVA, setting us on a journey exploring the region's water challenges through strategic and systemic design. Our research and presentations sparked a commitment that extended beyond the course. We met on weekends, applied for grants, and connected with public and industry partners. A pivotal moment came when the Barcelona Centre de Disseny opened its doors –special thanks to Isabel Roig, Alessandro Manetti, PhD and Sonia Monclús for their trust. We were invited to participate in this year's Barcelona Design Week, with the theme around water. Our team designed and led 4 different engagements throughout the week, each one addressing a key aspect of design around water: 🎤 Talk at Barcelona Design Week: Reframing water as part of who we are—"water isn’t ours; water is us"—to spark a deeper connection 🕰 Bet of the Future: Speculative objects challenging the mental models shaping ecological impacts. 💔 Amor Sec: An interactive installation immersing participants in a world without water, prompting reflection on the need for restorative action. 💧 H2Oh!: A visualization of household water use to promote awareness and stewardship. These initiatives sparked dialogues, raised awareness, and opened research avenues. Public engagement was powerful, and we were moved by conversations and reflections—even hugs. We couldn’t have brought these initiatives to life without the strong support of our director Christer and co-directors Toban Shadlyn and Magdalena Herrador Moreno. We’re also deeply grateful to Elisava Alumni and ELISAVA for the essential resources and spaces that made this possible. We missed time with friends, partners, kids, and even our cat, Kiki! But our relatives and supporters stood by us through long hours. Special thanks to Cristian Situ for your incredible documentation and editing work, and to @Federico Sanchez, @Bob Bingenheimer, Raziur Totha, Joaquim Farguell, and @Felippe Constancio for their support. Thanks as well to Cohort 3 members who joined us: Beto Fonseca, Catalina Valdivieso, @Suzie Agustin, María del Carmen, and Esteban Millar—for stepping in with skill and insight. As Cohort 2—Emma Aiyin, Karina Pastor, Raluca Mitran, Juanita Remolina, Álvaro Doladé, Pau Gomà, Pierluigi Delgiudice, and Daniela Castro, a.k.a. Complex 24—we invite you to learn more about us here: complex24.design. 🌟 And of course, let's end with a question: How might we ignite a global shift to understand that water is not ours—it is us—as we face increasingly extreme water-related climatic scenarios? We read you 🤓