LETTER n.5Week no.1: Intro. FridayDesign 101, Iversity.

Greetings from Bamako,

Good morning dears.Today’s letter arrives directly from Africa, Mali to be precise. To be even more precise, we are in Bamako’s main market, looking for masks.

Did we tell you that we love masks?

We really love masks. And Dogon masks are some of the most fascinating objects in the world. Here’s a video to get you started!

While we’re here, we found Saul Steinberg, another very fine expert on masks (we’ll tell you about him later).

Question of the day: Am I able?Best way to answer to this question is to set up a specific goal, define some parameters of success and get to work.

No one is born “able”. We become “able” because we try, try again, try over again. Lots of mistakes, do it again, other mistakes, do it again, until the magic moment where “we are able”.

What do we do today? / Homework n.7Make a mask representing yourself. And then, make a second one for a friend of yours.

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Time to do this: no more than one hour.

Once you’re done, upload a picture of yourself with your friend wearing the masks to the iversity platform.

Don’t forget to give feedback on other people’s work (in order to get them assessing yours...).

What will you learn?Making something new. Challenging yourself with a real project.

Find examples and references. Get the proper “how-to”. Define the constraints: how much money you have, time, your skills...

Here you have Saul Steinberg’s masks (as a starting reference...).

Here’s the link to the video we were watching together with the Dogon people in our postcard.

And here’s the link to the oldest mask ever found.

Why do we do this?The value of skill. We can have great ideas, but if we are not able to “make” them, nothing happens.

Someone said (sorry, we forgot who): “Know one thing on everything, know everything on one thing”. This is so true...

Something to remember:

Design is making things. Now.

Further inspiration...It is Friday.We made it through the week.Hope you enjoyed yourself!

Today, a special link/gift. One of the nicest books on design ever written.

It is simple, little, it is one of “the” books: Bruno Munari, Design as Art.

Actually, we have different opinions on the subject (design is design and art is art), but the book is so inspirational that we are happy to link such a nice read.

By the way, Munari is the same guy who said: “To make things easy is very difficult. To make things difficult is very easy” (we couldn’t agree more!).

Here’s another quote:“Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.” Charles Eames

This is another great definition of what design is and we are happy to leave you with such a simple (but deep) thing to think about…

Regarding the courseThis appendix is to remind you some general things. What you are reading now is one of the seven letters belonging to the so-called “Introduction Chapter”. We made this unit to test the whole thing before the course is fully underway.

We will test a number of things, you test if you like our mood and attitudes. The course will work in a very easy way.

Every day from October 28, 2013, to January 24, 2014, we will send out a digital postcard and a letter.

One shipment per day.

We will work on a weekly system. Each week is a new chapter made of seven postcards and letters.

You will receive a postcard a day with a visual description of where we are (remember? Design 101 is a journey into contemporary design).

Once the postcard flips to it’s back side, you will find the day’s brief.

Then, in the letter, we go broad in terms of content, explanations, this and that, lalala.

Following our input, you start working.

Then, of course, there is the discussions section. Questions and answers. Doubts and ideas.Whatever comes to mind.

You will be able to post your questions and reply to other people’s. This section is the backbone of Design 101. It is a perfect place to get entangled into conversations and become a true actor within the community.

One more thing!If you are of the curious kind, we set up a special document where you find all the people, places, things mentioned throughout the course. We consider it our mini-encyclopedia.

Design is foremost a language.A language shared by designers all over the world.Things, people, places we all know about.

Once we have a shared language, things become nice, fun, and meaningful. Conversations start up quickly and flow nicely.

Of course, like any other language, “design” is in constant change. Hence, to try mapping it for good is an impossible task. This is why we like to share our current

map / mini-encyclopedia. Lots of things are missing, other people would have chosen different entries. It is a start for your own collection of references.

Follow us:Enrol (if you haven’t done it yet) Check out the videos we have been making. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

If all of this is not enough, you can follow Stefano Mirti on his personal Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts (there you get the real daily feed), as well as Anne-Sophie Gauvin, on Facebook, and Instagram...

Today’s postcard

Dogon mask

Saul Steinberg’s drawing on an Eames’ chair

Saul Steinberg

Stefano Mirti, your instructor

Dogon People