Jon Kolko is the founder of
Austin Center for Design, a
progressive education
Progressive education, or protractivism, is a pedagogical movement that began in the late 19th century and has persisted in various forms to the present. In Europe, progressive education took the form of the New Education Movement. The term ''pro ...
al institution teaching
interaction design
Interaction design, often abbreviated as IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." Beyond the digital aspect, interaction design is also useful when creating physical (non-digital) produ ...
and
social entrepreneurship
Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of o ...
. He is also a partner at Modernist Studio.
Kolko has held the positions of Vice President of Design at
Blackboard
A blackboard (also known as a chalkboard) is a reusable writing surface on which text or drawings are made with sticks of calcium sulphate or calcium carbonate, known, when used for this purpose, as chalk. Blackboards were originally made of ...
and at
MyEdu
Myedu ( my, မြေဒူးမြို့ ) is a small town located in Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Region, Myanmar (Burma). The town was the fief of King Hsinbyushin (r. 1763–1776) of Konbaung Dynasty
The Konbaung dynasty ( my, ကု ...
; Executive Director of
Design Strategy
Strategic design is the application of future-oriented design principles in order to increase an organization's innovative and competitive qualities. Its foundations lie in the analysis of external and internal trends and data, which enables design ...
at Thinktiv, a
startup accelerator
Startup accelerators, also known as seed accelerators, are fixed-term, cohort-based programs, that include mentorship and educational components and culminate in a public pitch event or demo day. While traditional business incubators are often g ...
in Austin, Texas; and both Principal Designer and Associate
Creative Director
A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...
roles at
frog design
frog (styled as ''"frog, part of Capgemini Invent"'') is a global creative and design consultancy founded in 1969 by industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger in Mutlangen, Germany, where it was initially named “esslinger design”. Soon after the ...
, a global innovation firm. He was also a professor of interaction and
industrial design
Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...
at the
Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France.
Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Unit ...
. Kolko has also held the role of Director for the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), and Editor-in-Chief of
Interactions magazine, published by the ACM.
Kolko is the author of the following books:
* ''Thoughts on Interaction Design'' (Brown Bear Press, 2007; Morgan Kaufmann, 2011)
* ''Exposing the Magic of Design: A Practitioner's Guide to the Methods and Theory of Synthesis'' (Oxford University Press, 2011)
* ''Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving'' (Austin Center for Design, 2012)
* ''Well Designed: How to Use Empathy to Create Products People Love'' (Harvard Business Review Press, 2014)
* ''How I Teach'' (Brown Bear Press, 2017)
* ''Creative Clarity: A Practical Guide For Bringing Creative Thinking Into Your Company'' (Brown Bear Press, 2017)
References
External links
*
*
How I Teach Designby Jon Kolko
Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solvingby Jon Kolko
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolko, Jon
American industrial designers
American educators
Living people
1978 births