Where Are the ID Breakthroughs?
For the spring issue of INNOVATION, We invite the IDSA and industrial design communities to share their ideas about this age of momentous change.
Familiar processes are being broken. We’re in a time of data-driven decisions and AI tastemaking. How can design continue to make breakthrough innovations, delivering something consumers have never seen before?
What causes the big, surprising, market-moving shifts that we are experiencing today? What’s broken? What new tools, processes and ways of thinking can enable designers more freedom to innovate and create? Which ones restrict? Which are defunct and which are relevant?
Is polarization necessary for design to stand out (or break out) in today’s market?
For instance, how does the Cybertruck represent a design shift, aesthetically or socially? Is its creation evidence of a pathbreaking approach to social engineering, a brutalist design, or just a sci-fi fad? Is it a breakthrough, a distraction, or a disaster?
For the next issue of INNOVATION, we’re looking for articles about how industrial designers can productively break out of their ruts and cause new relevance. We want to hear about new approaches to ideation, designing, and prototyping that led to outcomes that delight and surprise, even the incredible. Skunkworks projects, noble failures that delivered meaningful lessons, out-of-the-box approaches, serendipitous moments—we want to hear about them. What was the trigger, the means, that made them happen?
We value and invite submissions from a diverse range of voices, including industry professionals, academic researchers, independent designers, and passionate writers with a keen eye for design and culture. Articles should be well-researched, engaging, and provide a novel perspective on the theme. Additionally, content does not have to be written. Ideas can be presented in the form of a graphic statement, poem, photo essay, etc.
Submission Guidelines
- Articles should be between 1,000–1,500 words, if submitting written content
- Submissions must be original and not previously published or generated from AI
- Please include a brief bio (up to 25 words) and a headshot with your submission
- Submit your article in a Word document
- Please include 2-3 high-resolution graphics, more is OK too, related to your submission (300 dpi) with proper credits and permissions
Deadline to submit your article: COB, March 15, 2025. Send all submissions to [email protected].
Questions? Please email INNOVATION Lead Editor Mark Athitakis at [email protected].