I'm taking a break as an Envisioner in the Design Strategy Group at Continuum. I used to help companies design better consumer experiences by innovating their products, services and processes.

I really enjoy strategy consulting because of the collaborative design thinking, people-centered research and idea generation involved in helping brands change and grow. Doing great design makes people and companies happy - and that's very fulfilling.

But making great design happen is time consuming work and I started to lose sight of some other things that were just as interesting. Many of the companies I worked with had forgotten how to stay relevant in the marketplace and now I feel that way - I've spent a lot of time becoming an expert in one area (strategic design thinking) and have forgotten what it means to try something different and risky. I need to reinvent.

Now I'm exploring personal projects and getting back to what I love the most which is drawing and painting. There are a couple big projects I'm tackling like designing a new interdisciplinary graduate design strategy program (MDes) at Massachusetts College of Art and Design - MassArt. This new program will fill the gaps between traditional business, design and social sciences curricula and produce the type of design strategists that I was always trying to hire at Continuum. (Rollout in Fall 2010)