Matt Kahn’s classic Stanford design lectures. Available here for a limited time.
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Week Six: Ceremony
The last lecture in the series. Matt Kahn goes into how common objects transform into uncommon symbols to engage our thoughts and feelings—perhaps more than we would expect.
Week Five: Vanity
Delve into what Kahn calls our “looser fitting garments”—things like fashion, cars, workspaces—and how they express our identity, our conceit, and even help us hide the things we want to conceal.
Posted June 2 3, 2020
Week Four: Pleasure
Pleasure is in the eye of the beholder. As Matt used to say: ”Didn’t the muses themselves cover the ground from amusements to museums?”
Posted May 26, 2020
Week Three: Propaganda
Kahn knew propaganda could be dangerous but refused to see it as always bad. Propaganda can be as much about humor and passion as it is about sales and control. It is both a responsibility and an opportunity.
Posted May 19, 2020
Week Two: Utility
This lecture is an ode to clarity and straightforwardness. Kahn talks about the surprising attraction we have to no-nonsense utilitarian objects.
Posted May 12, 2020
Week 1: Context
As the first in the series, Context is—more than anything else—a masterclass in how to notice. It is also filled with reminders of why, in Matt Kahn’s words: “Design is the art form that is incomplete until it is engaged.”
Posted May 5, 2020