NEWS OF THE PRESENT & FUTURE
[ongoing] leading A VERYNICE DESIGN STUDIO, an international social design enterprise. 2009-now[ongoing] co-teaching ENTREPRENEURSHIP 101 at Art Center. 2010-now
[forthcoming] volunteer coach for students in the NETWORK FOR TEACHING ENTREPRENEURSHIP.
[forthcoming] BLACK TEA included in a group exhibition, "It's a Wrap" at KOP, The Netherlands. Mar 2012
[forthcoming] offering a class on ENTREPRENEURSHIP & INNOVATION at UCLA Design Media Arts.
SELECT RESEARCH PROJECTS
[ongoing] THE EMPEROR'S NEW POST-IT™ is a collection of business-design methodologies that use hyperbole to provoke critical discourse around the notion of “design thinking.” The project is meant to be a catalyst for the development of new approaches to the entrepreneurial endeavor. MFA thesis.[2011] THE MERCED PROJECT is a site-specific workshop for building social, speculative, business
[2011] KNOWLEDGE SHARING 2021 is a mural representation of a 10 year outlook on the humanities
[2011] DEFIANT DEVICES is an exploration of severe constraint as a tool for self-expression
[2011] OUMEDPO is a trans-poetic trio that performs poems made by computers
[2010] YPORTNE is a business plan fiction about a reversed entropic future
[2010] WEATHER LORE is an alternative future manifested in a weather report
[2010] MANDOLIN & UNICYCLE is an attempt to learn how to mandolin and unicycle... simultaneously
[2009] BLACK TEA is a fictional tea brand for the anarchistic demographic
[2009] RADIO ROAD is an online archive of an abandoned radio station in Redwood Shores, CA
[2008] TOGETHER WE LEARN is an augmented flashcard system developed with Casey Reas
[2007] HUMANS AT THE ZOO is something that got me into trouble
SPEAKING TOPICS
• Reinterpreting the Role of the Designer (Designing Entrepreneurship). It is an unfortunate stereotype that designers are makers of "facades." In this talk, I introduce the idea of entrepreneurship as a medium for design, and the new obligations that new medium brings forth.• The Emperor's New Post-it™. As design-thinking has become a universally accepted approach to innovation, the method has become polluted with laziness. In doing so, Design-Thinking has become a form of prescribed creativity that trivializes innovation, and thus strips the authenticity of it’s empathetic intentions by favoring form over function, and aesthetic over meaning... The Emperor's New Post-it aims to seek out, and make visible, the flaws of current business methodologies in order to inform a future practice that aspires to design new methodologies for innovation. The goal is not to bring down these institutions, but instead to raise the bar for the development of future approaches to entrepreneurial endeavor.
• Workshop: Serendipitous Business Plan Generator. A series of workshops that use speculation and serendipity to generate business. I have developed a series of workshop templates for approaching this activity, and have deployed the workshops with groups ranging from 1 to 100 participants.
• a verynice story. The story behind starting and building the world's first internationally operating social design enterprise. Case studies from recent projects. The philosophy behind the business. The tales of the start-up. The secret model that makes it all possible.
WRITING SAMPLES
[2012] The Dehumanization of Entrepreneurship. MFA thesis paper (work-in-progress). 4,371 words.[2012] BeMySatellite. Published by Beautiful/Decay Magazine.363 words.
[2012] P.A.U.S.E.S. Published by Beautiful/Decay Magazine. 361 words.
[2011] Gillette's Other Model: The History of the Future. 2,032 words.
[2011] Censorship as a Method of Creative Writing Restriction. 1,131 words.
[2011] Futuring Practices: Tools, Terms, and Perspectives. 1,437 words.
[2011] The Spectacularization of Information. Response to Situated Technologies Pamphlet 3. 795 words.
SELECT CLIENTS
Matthew has helped build over 300 brands in every sector and industry across the globe, and his studio works with a diverse clientele that range from Fortune 500 companies to small local shops. Prior to founding verynice, Matthew also worked with clients within various agencies in the Los Angeles area. If you are interested in learning more about the professional services offered, please visit a verynice design studio.
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To book Matthew to speak... Interviews and press inquiries... To just say hi... get in touch.
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