#xLDN - experience the next level

Sharing the learning from #xLDN. Experience London is the 2011 edition of the experience design short course at Central Saint Martins.

"In a media saturated world it is getting harder and harder for messages to be heard. Increasingly all sectors are looking beyond the printed page and recorded communication to reach their audience. Industry now demands a new type of practitioner who can engage all the senses of the audience - people who can integrate objects, text, sound, images and film to create meaning in the environment in the form of experiences, events and installations. Practitioners who are able to work within interdisciplinary teams will lead this emerging field."

Ben Freeman and Patrick Swindell, Experience Design short course, Central Saint Martins, London

Designing experiences means creating intangible but memorable moments in people's lives. These can be short and intense, playful and meaningful, interactive and evolving over a period of time. Today we witness already a large number of uncommissioned and spontaneous experiences such us the first flash mobs or some street art installations, but we also start noticing how cultural and commercial institutions are quickly catching up with this trend.



This is not just a cultural phenomenon but a real economical transformation of the way we value commodities, products, services and experiences. In their article published in 1998 titled 'The Experience Economy' (which then became a book) B. Joseph Pine and James H. Gilmore described the experience economy as the next economy following the agrarian economy, the industrial economy and even the most recent service economy.

From improving customer experience, to design a better user experience, to connect people and places through a series of interactive events, we are already talking about experience design, although we may not appreciate the real value of it. The currency of experiences is time and we all understand and appreciate the quality of it: it's easy to distinguish between a good and a bad experience.

Vincenzo Di Maria, commonground co-founder, was invited to deliver the experience design summer short course 2011 at Central Saint Martins, together with its original creators Patrick Swindell (background in narrative environments) and Ben Freeman (background in communication). The 5 days full time course was an intense and immersive experience itself, shared with the 15 participants arrived from all over the world. The course focused on interactive spaces and immersive experiences.

#xLDN - experience london 2011 from commonground on Vimeo.

We also had the opportunity to learn from Hugo Tornelo, co-founder of the first Portuguese based Experience Design studio, Cabracega . He showed the participants a wide range of projects and approaches to experience design, sharing his own experience in setting up his creative business in Lisbon together with his colleague Pedro Alegria.