Serious Play kicked off in a seriously playful way tonight. Even before Kermit the frog introduced us to our gracious hosts, Richard Koshalek (President, Art Center College of Design), Erica Clark (Senior Vice President of International Initiatives) and Chee Pearlman (Guest Program Director), the raw energy of the space was apparent. The Wind Tunnel was alive, radiating with all it had been home to, beginning as an actual test grounds for major aircraft to hosting the inaugural Design Conference in 2004. Now four years later, the Design Conference embraced its history. The seed for this year’s theme, Serious Play, was planted when, at the 2006 Conference, inventor genius Danny Hillis commented that he had just no idea what those delicious robots were doing, scurrying about stage; he was just playing.

See all the photos from Day 1 here…

As Chee explained, the tradition of play has evolved through the playful experiment of Charles and Ray Eames, who professed, “toys are not as innocent as they look, they are often the precursor to serious ideas.” To Tibor Kalman disciplined his endeavor to understanding how the mind works while Ettore Sottsass’ constant agitation that could have only yielded a typewriter designed for poets. Serious play at work.

Then came the jumpers! Double dutch, single dutch, a kind of jumping rope few of us had seen. We all felt tangled just looking.

Tim Brown, President and CEO of the multidisciplinary design firm IDEO, then engaged our understanding of the construct of playing and how we can learn the most from our shortest creators. Kids can inform our outlook on creativity by looking at exploration, building and role playing, as he explained, “forgetting the adult behaviors that are getting in the way our ideas.” As David Kelley founded the idea of IDEO based on friendship, Tim reminded us that it is this friendship that yields true play, allowing us to check our fear, embarrassment and defenses at the door. As FingerBlasters littered the stage, we rekindled youthful playtime spirit.

Tying these themes, sentiments and emotions together was the magnetic performance of kinetic artist Michael Moschen, giving us all insight into the requirements of serious play to design mystical, awe-inspiring and near physics defying creations.

If tonight’s kick off can be any indication, the next two days are sure to ignite, inspire, connect, tickle, and laugh our way to a clear understanding of the profound capabilities and synergies that only serious play makes possible. As attendee Alton Takeyusa remarked concisely, “it’s all about play, how could it not be fun?”