dConstruct

John Willshire

smithery.co
@willsh
About

John Willshire is the founder of innovation studio, Smithery.

Smithery helps organisations Make Things People Want, rather than Make People Want Things. It lies somewhere on a strange map that features Product & Service Design, Research, Media, Marketing, Innovation and Organisational theory.

A proponent of a constructionist learning theory (i.e. Making Is Thinking), John has recently completed a new thesis on the relationship in organisations between People and Space, which has spawned a lot of tools, instruments and methods on how you can make the things you want to happen, happen (someone observed one of them “looks a bit... Gallifreyan” which is brilliant.)

Since 2011, Smithery has worked with numerous people including Konica Minolta, Penguin Random House, The Design Museum, Experian, Oxfam, Google, Carlsberg, Adaptive Lab, Gravity Road, Saïd Business School at The University of Oxford, London College of Communications, The Huffington Post, Royal Mail, Samsung, Google, Channel 4 and Skype.

John also created Artefact Cards, a way to help people and teams play with ideas, making up card games to find better ideas whilst having more fun. There are now over a million Artefact Cards are now out there in the world, helping people work in new ways, and they’ve been covered by everyone from the Financial Times and Maria Popova’s Brainpickings.

Prior to founding Smithery, John spent seven years at PHD Media in London, becoming Head of Innovation in 2007 when that wasn’t a thing.

Listen to the podcast episode with John Willshire.

Metadesign For Murph

Cooper: “I thought they chose me. But they didn’t choose me, they chose her!”
TARS: “For what, Cooper?”
Cooper: “To save the world!”

If we’re going to talk about designing the future, let’s understand two things - who is doing the designing, and who is this future for, anyway?

Much of our cultural upbringing, from the pages of comics, to the Hollywood studios, repeatedly told us that we could step up and be the heroes. We’re programmed to feel that we’re the ones who will make the difference.

It’s time to look further than the end of our own egos, because there are problems coming we can’t find answers to, because we’re products of the system that created them.

Instead, whether we’re designers or clients, peers or parents, we must switch our attention to Metadesign; “nurturing the emergence of the previously unthinkable” in those around us, and those who will come after us.

It’s about ideas and environments, books and blocks, objects and systems, all examined through the contents and context of the most intriguing bedroom in sci-fi.

Join these men and women in their
vision of the future

See our
fantastic lineup!

Registration
Opening Remarks
Brian David Johnson Designing the Future…and Building It…with Science Fiction!
Matt Novak A Brief History of Tomorrow
Break
John Willshire Metadesign For Murph
Josh Clark Magical UX and the Internet of Things
Chris Noessel Gorgeous Catastrophic
Lunch
Nick Foster The Future Mundane
Carla Diana Designing the Future Through Tangible Storytelling
Ingrid Burrington Come With Me If You Want To Live, or How To Survive A Time Travel Paradox
Break
Dan Hill The City of Things
Mark Stevenson Up for Grabs
Closing Remarks
After Party

Brought to you by
these great sponsors

And
these great products!

Interested in sponsoring dConstruct?

We’d love to hear from you.

See the sponsorship pack for more details.

Located at
the Brighton Dome

Located in the all new Brighton Space Dome, 2,000 miles above the city of Brighton and Hove. Please make your way to the Brighton Dome Space Port, for your complimentary low earth orbit shuttle service.

Accommodation

Looking for somewhere to stay while in this friendly, futuristic city? Check out the Brighton page on AirBnB for local dwellings.

There are plenty of hotels too: Ibis, MyHotel, Artist Residence, Jury’s Inn, and Fhloston Paradise to name just a few.

To eat

For traditional earthly sustenance, you could beam yourself to the weekly Street Diner food market. There are also lots of ground-level restaurants and cafés nearby, where you can grab a bite during the lunch break (the lunch break lasts for an hour and a half so you’ll have plenty of time).

For liquid refreshment, the popular fuel known as ‘coffee’ is available from purveyors such as the Small Batch Coffee Company (on New Road, very close to the Brighton Dome Space Port).

  • Burgers and Cocktails
    15 North Road
    Brighton BN1 1YA
    (on Sept 11th, show your dConstruct pass & get 20% off food orders)*
  • Coho
    83a Queens Road
    Brighton BN1 3XE
     
    53 Ship Street
    Brighton BN1 1AF
    (on Sept 11th, show your dConstruct pass & get 10% off everything)*
  • Gourmet Burger Kitchen
    44–47 Gardner Street
    Brighton BN1 1UN
    (on Sept 11th, show your dConstruct pass & get 15% off food orders)*
  • Kooks
    56 Gardner Street
    Brighton BN1 1UN
    (on Sept 11th, show your dConstruct pass & get 20% off entire bill)*
  • Taylor St Baristas
    28 Queens Road
    Brighton BN1 3XA
    (on Sept 11th, show your dConstruct pass & get 20% off all hot drinks)*
  • Strada
    160–161 North Street
    Brighton BN1 1EZ
    (on Sept 11th, show your dConstruct pass & get 20% off food bill​)*
  • Las Iguanas
    7–8 Jubilee Street
    Brighton BN1 1GE
    (on Sept 11th, show your dConstruct pass & get 20% off food bill)*
  • Pizza Express
    A3 Block, Jubilee Street
    Brighton BN1 1GE
    (on Sept 11th, show your dConstruct pass & get 20% off food bill)*
  • E-kagen
    22–23 Sydney Street
    Brighton BN1 4EN
*Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer

Presented By

Clearleft is a user experience design consultancy based in Brighton, UK. We design delightful digital experiences.