What happens when design meets the real mess of the world? In this episode, Brooke and Leon talk to Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer about designing with complexity - where there are no neat problems, no perfect solutions, and no clear finish lines. From system shifts to directionality, Mieke challenges the dominant worldview of design as problem solving and offers a new lens: one that values relationships, learning and navigating the unknown together. Mieke shares her journey from traditional industrial design to tackling complex societal challenges, emphasising the importance of systems thinking, transdisciplinary collaboration and a shift from a mechanistic worldview to a complex relational one.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Designing Out Crime Research Center in Sydney
• Professor Kees Dorst and the frame innovation methodology: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23461421-frame-innovation
• New South Wales Mental Health Commission
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their perspective on well-being.
• Terri Trespicio's TEDx Talk on passion and career paths: https://youtu.be/6MBaFL7sCb8?si=IVYS0XRA_GrVbBC_
• Designing Your Life - Odyssey Planning: Activity and worksheets for exploring future paths: https://designingyour.life/worksheets-and-discussion-question

When asked about her ongoing strength as a professional working across the disciplines of design, craft and art, Tiiu Meiner says: partial delusion. Upon further investigation, it is the resilience she finds through language, more specifically poetry, that helps her navigate and persevere. Conducting poetry workshops with working design professionals, Tiiu credits language as a tool for understanding ourselves and our professional practice, and as a way to encourage constructive feedback that can help us in our professional careers and personal wellbeing.

For more information on the Resilient Designers project, visit:

resilientdesigners.com

Itika Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Studio Carbon, takes us on her journey of discovering design. When traditional job opportunities failed to recognise the full scope of design's potential, she and her classmates forged their own path into the professional world. By co-founding Studio Carbon, they've slowly expanded projects beyond the traditional view of design, paving the way for a contemporary understanding of design and its potential. In this conversation, Itika shares how designers can embrace the messiness of pluralism and ambiguity - like water, finding strength in multiple perspectives rather than seeking a single right answer.

For more information on the Resilient Designers project, visit:

⁠resilientdesigners.com⁠

In the intro episode, Brooke welcomes the driving force behind the Resilient Designers project, Rebecca Price. She shares her thoughts on today's design culture and how a crisis led her to a profound discovery of how resilience, at its core, born out of mostly negative experiences, offers us transformative knowledge. Or in her own words, don't waste a good crisis. In this conversation, we explore why we need resilient designers, what motivated her to start the project, and what the Resilient Designers project is.

For more information on the Resilient Designers project, visit:

⁠resilientdesigners.com⁠