Critical Thinking

I learned about 'Contextual Review' today...it is all about exploring your field and placing it in the context of history and the present. Jeanette Paul spoke about 'key words'. The words that you would use in an abstract  or a piece of writing etc. I think the way people 'tag' on blogs must train your mind to recognise key words quicker?

Critical thinking is a skill. It is an important asset to a designers skill-set and this is what I will be trying to get across to the first year design students. I learned today that the term has been around for a long time - with Francis Bacon quoting:

“For myself, I found that I was fitted for nothing so well as for the study of Truth; as having a mind nimble and versatile enough to catch the resemblances of things and at the same time steady enough to fix and distinguish their subtler differences; as being gifted by nature with desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and as being a man that neither affects what is new nor admires what is old, and that hates every kind of imposture.”  in 1605

To learn more visit the Critical Thinking website. I recommend this little (20 page pocket size) book to anyone who would like to learn more about the subject:

I have been asked to create a visual representation of my design process. I don't think my process is ever the same...sometimes I'm thinking, sometimes I'm making, sometimes I am in-between...