Great Ideas at ChiDM, 2018. Photo: The Office of Experience.
John Massey, former Container Corporation of America (CCA) head of design, encouraged the Design Museum of Chicago to reimagine the Great Ideas of Western Man campaign. We happily obliged. Our reprise, Great Ideas of Humanity, embraces the increasing globalization of our world and celebrates the resulting cross-pollination of ideas, philosophies, societies, and cultures.
Like the original series, a committee meets, creates a list of “great ideas” from a variety of thinkers, and commissions an artist or designer to create a visual response. Also like the original series, the contemporary work does not advertise a product, but an ethos—of the museum, of the community, of Chicago in general—to make the world a better place via thoughtful design.
The work is organized into sections inspired by Mortimer Adler’s Syntopicon, a two-volume work that categorized and indexed all 431 original writings in the Great Books series. Many quotations do not fit perfectly, and others could fit into several categories. We welcome you to think critically about the ideas and their organization.
Business of Design Week, Hong Kong, 2016. Photo: ChiDM.