Spring ’23 DES.805 Graduate Seminar Guest Lecture Series 1: Design Thinking (with Guilherme Toledo)

For this Spring’s graduate class, DES.805 Seminar in Design Methodology, Prof. Fernando Carvalho has organized the course program around five areas of critical importance for contemporary research and practice: participatory design, design thinking, design for behavior change, decolonial design, and more-than-human design. Each of the areas is presented to the student via an introductory lecture; three of them delivered by specialized guest speakers, and two delivered by Prof Carvalho, as they relate to his own research expertise.

The introductory lectures serve to support the graduate students’ preparation and delivery of their own mini-lectures, expanding from the contents discussed and recommended readings, connecting the topics addressed with their MA Creative Work Projects, via in-class group discussions facilitated by the students.

Last Wednesday, February 18^th, the class welcomed the first guest speaker of the series, Guilherme Toledo, who discussed historical and contemporary perspectives on design thinking, from the initial appearances of the term, in the 1950s, up to the early-2020s, when more mature discussions emerged around drawing key differences between design- and business-oriented uses of the term and understanding of its meaning and application.

Guilherme, who teaches strategic design and innovation to students in engineering, business and design courses at the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), further addressed various models of representation of the design processes, illustrated by case studies.

Upcoming guest speakers will include a research-practitioner working from a decolonial design methodological perspective, and a designer-artist investigating the application of living organisms in both contemplative and functional projects.

Guilherme Toledo

Guilherme Toledo holds an M.Sc. in Production Engineering, with a focus on Management and Innovation (COPPE/UFRJ, 2023). He graduated in Industrial Design, with concentrations in Product Design and Visual Communication from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio, 1998).
With over 20 years of experience in Visual Communication and Strategic Design, Guilherme Toledo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Arts and Design at PUC-Rio, and serves as Project Supervisor for Human-Centered Design. He teaches undergraduate courses in Design and Entrepreneurship, as well as postgraduate and executive education programs, including specialization and MBA Courses at the university. Guilherme also mentors innovation projects through the ECOA Institute’s Technological Innovation Programs and at PUC-Rio Apple Developer Academy. His academic and research interests include Service Design, Strategic and Systemic Design, Entrepreneurship, the intersection between Psychology and Design, Collaborative Design Methodologies, and Creative Processes.