Charlie Cannon

Professor
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RISD faculty member Charlie Cannon
BA, Wesleyan University
MARC, Harvard University

Charlie Cannon joined the Industrial Design department full-time in 2009. Prior to that he spent 12 years as a part-time member of the faculties of Landscape Architecture and Industrial Design, with forays into Architecture and Graduate Studies. He has been nominated for RISD’s Frazier Teaching Award three times. He is also a co-principal investigator for Rhode Island’s National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), a $20 million investigation of the impact of climate change on marine life.

In the Industrial Design department, Cannon teaches core studios in the graduate program and seminars and courses focused on sustainable design and design for social innovation in the undergraduate program – including the advanced elective Innovation Studio. The Innovation Studio brings students from across the college to work on the intractable problems of our day. In the 14 years since its founding, the studio has examined what design can do to reduce carbon emissions, how design thinking can reshape the world’s foremost school of sustainable agriculture and how design capital can be used as an agent for rural economic development. It has also explored how economic development can be used as tool for ecological regeneration.

Cannon’s professional life as a designer has been quite varied. He has worked as a builder and carpenter, co-founded two award-winning architecture practices, developed web strategies and software interfaces for a Forbes 50 company and a successful Boston-based startup, exhibited his studio art and studio furniture, designed books for faculty at Harvard University and created visual arguments for Rhode Island policy makers. He is currently focused on bringing design and design thinking to strategy and social innovation as the chief learning officer for EPIC Decade, a purpose-driven strategy and innovation initiative.

Academic areas of interest

Cannon’s topical research interests include: sustainability, urbanism and social innovation, education and social change.

Courses

Fall 2023 Courses

ID 20ST-12 - SPECIAL TOPIC DESIGN STUDIO
Level Undergraduate
Unit Industrial Design
Subject Industrial Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

ID 20ST-12

SPECIAL TOPIC DESIGN STUDIO

Level Undergraduate
Unit Industrial Design
Subject Industrial Design
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: T | 1:10 PM - 6:10 PM Instructor(s): Charlie Cannon Location(s): College Building, Room 521 Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Juniors take two 3-credit Special Topic Design Studios in the Fall semester. Juniors choose one 3-credit option from the Content category such as Packaging, Typography, Play, or UI/UX, and the other option from the "Process" category such as Casting, Soft Goods or Prototyping. Students will gain multiple competencies by utilizing techniques and methodologies through practice and process. Each studio meets once per week.

Please contact the department for permission to register; registration is not available in Workday. 

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

IDISC 3212-01 - THEORIES OF CHANGE: DESIGN FOR IMPACT
Level Undergraduate
Unit Architecture and Design
Subject Interdisciplinary Studies
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

IDISC 3212-01

THEORIES OF CHANGE: DESIGN FOR IMPACT

Level Undergraduate
Unit Architecture and Design
Subject Interdisciplinary Studies
Period Fall 2023
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2023-09-06 to 2023-12-13
Times: F | 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Instructor(s): Charlie Cannon Location(s): Design Center, Room 210 Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

To effectively address complex problems and work with diverse teams, designers must become skilled at directing their efforts in the service of new outputs and outcomes. This three credit seminar will introduce students to various theoretical and applied frameworks for measurable action. We will investigate how seeking impact shapes design activities, and examine how to use evidence-based practices to assess the effectiveness of our work. The course will read across literature in the social sciences, international development, activism, social-practices, design and business. Students will engage texts with one another in critical discussions and individually through written analysis.

Enrollment is limited to Graduate Students in the Architecture + Design Division.

Elective

Spring 2024 Courses

GAC 715G-01 - INNOVATION STUDIO: A SYSTEMS PRIMER
Level Undergraduate
Unit Liberal Arts
Subject Global Arts And Cultures
Period Spring 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

GAC 715G-01

INNOVATION STUDIO: A SYSTEMS PRIMER

Level Undergraduate
Unit Liberal Arts
Subject Global Arts And Cultures
Period Spring 2024
Credits 3
Format Studio
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-02-15 to 2024-05-24
Times: F | 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM Instructor(s): Charlie Cannon Location(s): Design Center, Room 211 Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Intractable problems demand the effective integration of theory and practice. This three credit design studio invites graduate students from across RISD to take on the challenge of designing for systems change. The studio is intended to introduce liberal arts Masters students to the synthetic decision-making methods that define creative practices and to introduce studio-based Masters students to the analytic decision-making methods at the core of humanities and social sciences. The studio will work on a system-scale problem (like climate change, environmental justice, or social equity) that demands the exercise of both synthetic and analytic skills. By the completion of the course, students will gain a deep appreciation of the productive relationship that design and creative thinking can have with advocacy, planning, policy and practice-based approaches. Over the course of the semester students will work together to build a common language and frame a studio-wide approach to an apparently intractable problem. Following this collaborative effort, students will undertake individual design responses at a range of scales and disciplines.

Elective

Image
RISD faculty member Charlie Cannon
BA, Wesleyan University
MARC, Harvard University