ABOUT

A new generation of designers is emerging committed to applying their creative talents to address the critical, “wicked” social and environmental challenges of our time. An increasing number of educational institutions have responded by offering interdisciplinary educational opportunities for designers to develop the awareness and skills they need to pursue professional opportunities in the field and approach complex social problems empathically, systematically and collaboratively.

But what are the professional pathways for young designers pursuing careers in design for social innovation after graduation? And are designers receiving the preparation they need to face the realities of this challenging and evolving marketplace?

LEAP I: The Professional Frontier

In September 2013, a diverse group of over 100 thought leaders designers, educators, practitioners gathered for three days at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, for the inaugural LEAP Symposium to catalyze a national conversation about the professional frontier in design for social innovation. The participants recognized the rising trends in social innovation careers for designers but acknowledged numerous challenges facing this emergent field: “Even as the economy generates new and meaningful career opportunities for designers, career pathways in this space, and the
skills necessary to succeed in them, still lack clear articulation.”1

Visit the LEAP Symposium website to explore the great conversations and outcomes initiated at the inaugural LEAP Symposium at ArtCenter in 2013. 

LEAP II: The Value of Design

In April 2016, the Center for Social Design at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) will host a second convening to continue the momentum of the first LEAP Symposium and to further evolve strategies for advancing professional pathways in design for social innovation. The focus of this gathering is to shift from a broader conversation about challenges to exploring actionable opportunities for creating new professional pathways in the emergent field. Specifically, LEAP/2 aims to better articulate the value that design and designers can bring to addressing “wicked” social problems and how we, collectively, can articulate a strategy for overcoming the challenges and barriers to professional pathways in design for social innovation.

Some of the questions we'll grapple with include: 

• What are the emergent careers and professional pathways for designers in social innovation? 
• How do we create new pathways and opportunities?
• How do we better prepare designers with the skills necessary to succeed in social innovation careers?
• How do we ensure greater access, diversity and equity in design for social innovation?
• How might we create new business models to financially support and sustain design for social innovation? 
• How do we better articulate the potential “return on design”?

LEAP/2 will include two interrelated tracks of activities over the course of the four days of Saturday, April 9 - Tuesday, April 12:  ­

• Value of Design Series: an open, public series of evening plenary sessions addressing career pathways in design for social innovation; and   ­
• LEAP II Working Groups: invitation ­only, rapid ideation sessions gathering together leading educators, design practitioners and thought leaders to articulate a strategy for addressing the challenges to professional pathways in design for social innovation.

1 Amatullo, Mariana. “Codifying Practices in an Emergent Space: Insights from the LEAP Symposium on the New Professional Frontier in Design for Social Innovation” in Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal (May 2014).