Let’s look “behind the design”

By Jared Cole, VP of Design Strategy, Context Partners

From the time I could hold a pencil, I did, but it was Commander Mark who taught me how to draw.

A scrappy child of the ’80s, I’d lie on the floor with my face too close to the TV and wait for The Secret City to come on the air. There was something about its low-budget sets and costumes that drew me in. As Commander Mark’s pencil gave shape to The Secret City, it felt like magic — he wasn’t just telling a story, he was showing me how to create an entire world with nothing but a pencil.

In my adult life, I’ve continued to gravitate toward people who want to share what they know. I’ve been fortunate: most of my employers and clients have proactively circulated their thinking and practice for the greater good. That openness goes far in building trust and community.

In this spirit, Context Partners will leverage our space on Medium to lead an honest — and often unpolished — look at our work in practice. We call this, Behind the Design. Our curiosity about what brings people together to solve real, complex problems will sit at the heart of this conversation. We’ll explore big questions, methods and practices we want to get better at — all in service to making design a force for good.

If this work inspires or intrigues you too, join us as a reader or contributor. We’ll be exploring everything from project kick off to final delivery — meet us in that messy middle ground that makes up the work we do.

Watch in April for our refreshed Medium publication, Behind the Design, and invitations to join the conversation.