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Shifting from Human-Centered to Life-Centered Design

How living in a tiny village surrounded by nature inspired us to incorporate nature and underrepresented communities in our design work, shifting from human-centered design to life-centered design and inspiring other designers along the way.

Self

Field

Format

Talk

Day

Thursday, Oct 15

Room

Aula M

Time

01:10 PM

What is the central idea?

Life-centered design (LCD) is an actionable design approach that gives designers and other creatives the mindset, opportunity, and ability to include all life forms in their work and advocate for biological ecosystems and invisible communities. LCD transitions from creating value for the end user and shareholders to adding value for nature, communities, and the economy.

Why is this conversation important now?

At a time when AI seems to be taking over the design conversation, we want to show that there are other ways to design worth exploring.

Who is this session for?

For designers and design leaders who want to make a positive change in their career and work.

Key takeaways

  • People will leave the idea, how both designers & great design work can benefit from living with nature in a small rural community.

Jeroen (Dutch) works & lives with Marcela (Costa Rican) and their kids in a tiny village in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees. It has 16 inhabitants, of whom 5 are named Joaquin.
After moving to Spain in 2018, they founded Unbeaten Studio to help conscious organisations translate their vision into reality, combining inspiration from nature with co-design and graphic design to create clear, actionable designs. They launched the Life-Centered Design School in 2022, inspiring creative professionals to do the same.
Living in a tiny village surrounded by nature inspired them to shift from human-centred design to life-centred design, incorporating nature and underrepresented communities into their work. Today, nature is integrated into Jeroen’s life and work.
Jeroen studied industrial design. After working for a few years as a product designer, Jeroen embraced human-centered design in 2009, focusing on sustainable and social challenges across the educational, startup, government, and NGO sectors.

Service Design Disrupted 26

 

DHub Barcelona
Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, 38
08018 Barcelona, Spain

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