Livable Futures

Peter Chan

Livable Futures Contributor
Graduate Studies Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Design

Biography

I formerly practiced visual identity design and brand management, created visual communication design systems and packaging designs, and conducted design research at Fitch and The Procter & Gamble Company. At Ohio State, I am an Associate Professor of Design, teaching courses in pictogram system design, photo-graphic, brand packaging design, collaboration design, and visual communication design senior thesis research and studio. 

My research focuses on Brand Design, and concerns the methods, techniques, and approaches needed by clients and design students to define, interpret, and apply emotion-driven design to strategic design problems. The term “brand” for me means a name, term, symbol, or design, or a combination of these to signify the goods, services, or messages of individuals or companies and communicate their functional, emotional, social, and cultural qualities. The scholarly and creative activities of my emotional branding practice and research covers three key brand elements—brand perception (brand attributes with a key focus on characteristic and value), brand experience (tone of voice, attitude, and “look and feel”), and brand essence (the promise summarizing the ultimate user experience). 

I have been a visiting professor at the School of Design at Jiangnan University since 2014 and frequently lectured at design programs in China, Germany and Hong Kong. I have served as design advisor and consultant for nonprofit, for-profit and academic groups including AEP Ohio, Columbus Dispatch, Columbus Museum of Art, Dublin Arts Council, Hawk Galleries, Honda, Ohio State News, OSU CampusParc, and WOSU.

Q&A

What makes more livable futures for you?

A livable future, for me, is one that embraces understanding, empathy, and compassion. As a visual communicator I need to integrate these mindsets in my design thinking and practice in order to address complex issues that affect both humans and nature.

What are you reading, viewing, listening to right now?

1. Debbie Millman’s 
   Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits.
   Millman states that “the processes of design define what it means to be human” and “design translated values into tangible experiences”.  Her conversation with anthropologist, Dori Tunstall, provides me a better understanding of the values and how the process of making things actually defines us as a semi-unique human.

2. Roman Krznaric’s 
   Empathy: Why It Matters, and How to Get It.
   Krznaric is a cultural thinker and writer on the art of living. His writing offers me inspiration on the important questions of everyday life and on using empathy and conversation to create social change. In his book Krznaric presents a statement from designer Patricia Moore (whom I had an opportunity to meet, and had a conversation with her at a recent design conference) on why empathy matters so much to her—“I think empathy is an ever-evolving way of living as fully as possible, because it’s pushing your envelope and pushing you into new experience that you might not expect or appreciate until you’re given the opportunity.”

What practices are sustaining you?

Maintaining my broad-mindedness to discover, observe, and explore new design approaches in order to reveal meaningful ways of engaging and experiencing our livable futures.