Towards a Dynamic Discipline of Design is an educational, exploratory, and diagrammatic journey into design’s epistemological, ontological, and cultural positions and potentials. The film premiered at the 2025 MODE Summit in Prague. This film asserts that “static” notions of design—and thus static representations of design should be reassessed. In support of this view, viewers traverse through “diagrammatic discourses” of design over the past century—which eventually lead to a set of kinetic representations that attempt to more accurately and engagingly visualize design practice and design culture. Building upon the work of figures such as Bruce Archer, the film secondarily advocates for design as a third epistemological culture. As an information-based design film, Towards a Dynamic Discipline of Design could be seen in the lineage of films[1] such as Powers of 10 (1977), written and directed by Charles and Ray Eames.
Media
- Full Film on Vimeo (~30m)
- Promo Trailer 1 (~1m)
- Sample Clip from Scene 1 (~1m)
- Sample Clip from Scene 17 (~1m)
- Sample Clip from Scenes 32–32 (~1m)
- Sample Clip from Scenes 33–34 (~1m)
- 2025 Motion Design Education Summit Edited Conference Proceedings (.epub, .pdf)
- 2025 Motion Design Education Summit Edited Conference Proceedings (Apple Books)
- Annotated Storyboard/Script (.pdf)
- Annotated Script Only (.pdf)
- Voiceover Audio (.mp3)
- Voiceover Audio With Soundtrack (.mp3)
- Select Screengrabs (.pdf)
- Design Diagramming Toolkit (coming soon)
- 24 x 36 in. Promo Poster 1 “Classic” (.pdf)
- 24 x 26 in. Promo Poster 2 “Dark Mode” (.pdf)
- 24 x 36 in. Promo Poster 3 “Cyan Wave” (.pdf)
Credits
- Written, Narrated, and Directed by Dan Vlahos
- Motion Graphics Led by Steven Cotroneo
Featuring Diagrams By
- Al Gowan
- Bruce Archer
- Terry Irwin
- Julio Mario Ottino + Bruce Mau
Additional Notes, Credits + Resources
- Total runtime: 30m
- Touchtype (Developed by Schultzschultz Studio) [Used in Introduction + Prototyping]
- Browser-based, for use on touchscreen devices.
- Led by Marc Schütz (AGI) and Ole Schulte
- Falling Blocks App Code [Used in Scene 17] by Alex Carr
- An interactive visualization using the Matter.js physics engine.
- “DESIGN” [Used in Scene 36-Closing] by Zach Liljeholm
- Created using TouchDesigner
- Hugh Dubberly’s “Models of the Space of Design” Presentation, 2020 (.pdf)
Soundtrack + Audio
- Introduction, The Nile, Kevin Harris Project, Museum, Vol. 1, 2013.
- Multiple Scenes, Dreaming Of All The Places I Have Visited, Aric Attas, 2025.
- Multiple Scenes, mobygratis, Moby, 2025.
- Closing Sequence, Dorian, Black Plastic, 2016.
- Sound Effects, Panayiotis Panayiotopoulos, 2021.
Further (Suggested) Reading
Ebenreuter, Natalie. “The dynamics of design.” Kybernetes, vol. 36, no. 9/10, 2007, pp. 1318-1328. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920710827328.
Fried, Geoffry. “Chasing Infinity: Defining the Purpose of Design.” Proceedings of the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR) 2009, Seoul, Korea, October 18-22, 2009, pp. 3645-3654.
Lee, Sheng-Hung. “From computation to curation: Expanding the boundaries of design practice.” Design Studies, vol. 101 (2025), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2025.101357.
Sceenings, Workshops + Talks
- International Premiere, 2025 MODE Summit, Hosted by the Anglo American University, 19-21 June 2025.
- Lesley University, Design Thinking & Research with Professor Kristina Lamour Sansone, Panel Discussion with Professor Emeritus Geoffry Fried, 11 September 2025.
Media Coverage + Press
- “Towards a Dynamic Discipline of Design: A Journey Through Time and Thought,” The New Art School, by Lefteris Heretakis, October 2025.
Footnotes
- The format explored here, which includes video, motion graphics, artifacts, and voiceover narration, builds upon what Jarrett Fuller described as a “video essay” in his 2016 film A Rough Sketch for a Video Essay as Design Criticism. Fuller cites Orson Welles, along with Charles and Ray Eames, as precedents and notes that, “The video, or film, essay gained popularity in the 1950s and 60s that trades typical narrative plots for themes and investigations.” More at: Fuller, Jarrett. “A Rough Sketch for a Video Essay as Design Criticism.” 2016, https://jarrettfuller.com/projects/roughsketch.
FILED IN: Design Research
