I had the pleasure of travelling to Taipei this past week to give a talk to some students at a design school. It's always great to discuss design with people who are really excited about the possibilities of creating something cool. The presentation was titled "Building a case for including designers at the beginning of the design process". So many companies in Taiwan do not truly understand or fully employ design in their process when they build product. It is usually only appied as window dressing at the very end of the development cycle or as a way later to mask fundamental problems that may not have appeared if they had actually utilized some design or designer at the outset (this is my generalised view). An added bonus for me in this class was that they actually asked questions. So many of the classes and talks I have been invited to are a one sided affair - me talking and everyone else listening (or falling asleep!). I certainly enjoyed the interaction that these designers created as it allowed us to approach far more interesting topics than I had proposed. It was cool and they were quite nice. Unfortunately I came away with a bloody bad cold that has had caused my life to come to almost a complete stand still.

The second day I travelled back to Taipei, sick, and faced the full force of the Canadian beaurocracy here in Taiwan as I applied for a new passport. Time has passed. The only highlight to that day was being able to buy good bread and the sight of so many wonderflly dressed women. Simple joys which help you through the day.

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Categorized: Living in Taiwan

Tagged: , Living in Taiwan

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