Design doesn't happen inside a vacuum. It happens inside teams, inside the context of relationships, inside physical spaces, inside organizations with very particular cultures. Ignore that intricate ecosystem, and you might as well give your project a death sentence.
Teresa and Kate will draw from their experience bringing this holistic outlook to the design process. Pulling from methods used in filmmaking, fine art, design research, facilitation, improv, and UX design, they craft "intentional environments" for their teams and clients. These literal and figurative environments cultivate work that is actionable, co-created, co-owned, and much more likely to succeed in the world.
They'll discuss the benefits of intentional environments and walk you through how to design them and methods for keeping them activated throughout the design process. You'll walk away understanding how to cultivate intentionality, co-create without compromising output, and inspire teams and clients along the way. But more importantly, you'll have a powerful new framework that will enrich your entire design process.
Bio
As a Program Manager at Adaptive Path, Teresa Brazen takes cues from her experiences across a broad spectrum of disciplines (filmmaking, fine art, improv, design research, user experience design) to craft intentional environments for her teams and clients. She believes that thoughtful design of these "environments" (both literal and figurative) results in work that is actionable, co-created, co-owned and more likely to succeed in the world.
She came to the user experience design industry after years of working in the art and not-for-profit worlds; the allure was design's the potential to reduce our impact on the environment, improve our quality of life, and simply make our lives a little easier. She enjoys guiding projects that have widespread impact on communities.
In addition to her work at Adaptive Path, she also continues her work as an artist. Her short films and paintings have exhibited internationally in galleries in Guyana, Malaysia, China, Italy and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. With the aim of cultivating empathy, Teresa uses video, installation, painting, prose and performance to explore universal emotions and experiences that people are often uncomfortable sharing publicly.
She received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Georgia, and also studied fine art at California College of the Arts. When she's not cultivating creative teams or engaged in her own creative projects, she loves to hone her salsa dancing skills.
