I was asked to teach a new class on Design Entrepreneurship at the Art Institue, where I am a faculty member. So I will be posting lots of resources for you creative types that wish to eighty six your day jobs and start a creative service or product business that you LOVE!

Here is the premise for class: the students will team up in groups of three or four and they will create a product that both solves a need and they will enjoy producing to sell. I can’t wait to see what they come up with – they are always amazing me with their ideas so this should really be interesting. We have had a couple of successes from me stirring the pot in my classes. First there is Sweet Bricks, a confection company that started from a class project and more recently Blender’s Eyewear, cool shades for college students at great prices. I mentioned these projects to our new academic director and the next thing I know is I’m teaching a class on entrepreneurship (insert shrill scream:0).

I have been involved in R&D and product testing for my own recent endeavers. I have had a few product launches myself with varying success. I have been truly embracing the design thinking mantra of rapid prototyping and failing OFTEN, and I have learned a lot that I will be sharing here with you and for my students. But enough about me– let’s see what we can drum up from my research. I will try to post at least once a week and maybe more often, I thought I would start with posting this video of a talk given by Kate Bingaman of Portland at the Creative Mornings event. I would love to hear what you think, so don’t hesitate to comment.

Portland/CreativeMornings – Kate Bingaman Burt from CreativeMornings/Portland on Vimeo.