About us
PDT is a community of creative problem solvers advancing human-centered design literacy through high-quality events, lively conversation, and practice-based development.
We're made up of all kinds of people: practitioners who use human-centered design methods and mindsets every day, designers and researchers, design strategists, Agile scrum leaders, urban planners, and many more who use or appreciate Design Thinking.
One way to define design thinking is that it is a mindset, approach, and set of tools and techniques for problem-solving and innovation anchored around human-centered design. Design thinking is different from other innovation and ideation processes in that it’s solution-based and user-centric rather than problem-based. This means it focuses on the solution to a problem instead of the problem itself. Design thinking is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity, and rationality to meet human needs and drive business success.
Typically, we meet monthly, mostly virtually, and occasionally in person. Our monthly meetings, announced through MeetUp, may be webinar-style, or interactive and focus on some topic of interest to our community.
But we're about more than just meetup events.
You can find information about our upcoming events as well as links to recordings of past events on our website [PortlandDesignThinkers.com](portlanddesignthinkers.com).
We have an active, private Slack workspace – it is a thriving online discussion space for all things design thinking. Please join us there --[ https://bit.ly/2JuQ2V6](https://bit.ly/2JuQ2V6).
We also have a private LinkedIn group. Please join us there as well – https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13997019/.
PDT is a volunteer-run organization. We rely on sponsors and donations to help us offset these costs. If you or your organization is interested in sponsorship opportunities, please contact Deb Mrazek (debmrazek@gmail.com ).
Upcoming events
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Heart and Mind in Balance with Meredith James (Hybrid)
Jordan Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design, 1981 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201, USA, Portland, OR, USPortland Design Thinkers is excited to announce our November event: Meredith James, Heart and Mind in Balance with our friends at CHIFOO on a special day and time! This hybrid event will be on a Wednesday, register with CHIFOO for the virtual presentation.
With all of the speculation surrounding AI, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that people have navigated similar technological transformations throughout recorded history. Our era is no different, and the questions we face are the same questions that every generation has faced—how best to live in the world, reduce human suffering, and ground our activities in enduring human values.
Yet, these questions are only rightfully answered when our hearts and minds are in balance, and there is one societal domain in particular that underscores this balance: Spirituality. Within long-standing, authentic spiritual traditions, we find guiding principles that are perennially relevant and offer constancy as a counterpoint to the uncertainty of the future.
Through a Theravāda Buddhist lens, Meredith will present how spiritual wisdom can help us chart our way forward, both as designers and as citizens.
About our speaker:
Meredith James serves as an Associate Professor in the Jordan Schnitzer School of Art, Art History and Design at Portland State University. Her scholarly research is focused on design theory, and how to develop a culture of design that is more reflective, equitable, humanist, and self-aware. James has presented her work across the US and Europe, speaking in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Brighton, and Paris. Her writing can be found in Ethics in Design and Communication: Critical Perspectives, and Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design History. Meredith received her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art.Event is in person and online
We are in person at the Jordan Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design
5:00 - Doors open to tour the new art school building
6:00 - intros and event
Zoom link to be posted several days prior to event on the CHIFOO event page.Accommodation requests
If you have any accommodation requests, please contact us.***
If you have any questions or would like to connect with other members of PDT, join our Slack community.PDT is a volunteer-run Oregon nonprofit organization, and as you can imagine, organizing events can be expensive. We rely on sponsors and donations to help us offset these costs. If you would like to help, we accept donations through Venmo @PortlandDesignThinkers.
11 attendees
Past events
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