Namesakes

I stumbled, quite by accident, on something rather extraordinary today. Someone with my name is already out there in the world of design, and what's more striking, I actually like his writing.

Jonathan Baldwin is an instructor at the University of Dundee, where he teaches design - though he doesn't like to tell his hairdresser that, evidently.

"If I make the mistake of saying what I teach, well I might as well grab the scissors and do it myself because "design" is universally misunderstood. "Oh I wanted to be a designer" is a common reply but that's okay. "My ten year old brother does that" is slightly less acceptable. "Is that where you make stuff all day?" they might say, confusing me with their school Craft, Technology and Design teacher (or whatever they're called now) who looked after all the thick kids who couldn't quite manage the complexities of more demanding subjects such as, well, anything."

The quote above is taken from his presentation on Teaching Excellence, and it's well worth reading through. The presentation can be found here. Of particular note are his thoughts on The Bauhaus - and his goal of Designing Education, rather than merely teaching design. Reminds me of another instructor I could name. . . his insights are well worth noting, and I'm not saying that merely because of our suspiciously similar names.