More presence, less panic
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We would like to get to know you and allow that to surface what needs designed, as opposed to bringing you a fixed framework or plug-and-play solutions, like many consultants do. We have 40+ years of experience between us to draw upon and have helped engineers, physicians, executives, teachers, and other practitioners design products, processes, and services. We will seek to support you in developing a non-anxious presence for yourself, too, so you can share it with others, which we believe will have an outsized effect in creating a calm company, where it doesn’t have to be crazy at work.
Some of our principles
Practice, practice.
Design theory has its use, but we’re actually more interested in the practice: the experimenting, playing, and exploring that creates connections and lets something useful emerge. So we share stories, practice being half-a-shade braver, play with doubt and uncertainty and take the risk of sharing more of our feelings.
Context matters.
We want design to contribute to a sustainable future. We embrace nature: we design in nature, noticing its patterns and rhythms. Allowing its color and vitality to enhance our experience. Taking into account context also includes designing alongside our local communities.
The body is intelligent.
We move: we do work that involves our bodies, helps us notice our feelings and sensations as we do. In a society that prizes head-heaviness, we recognize that our bodies house most of our intelligence and are our greatest storytelling tool.
Leveling the playing field.
Too often, design feels like its an expert skill for the select few, who then take on a role of designing for, rather than with, others. We believe everyone is creative and can be involved in the process of design, with an emphasis on those belonging to traditionally subordinated groups.
More than a process.
We want to see humans design with greater calmness and presence, and to find more meaning and relationship in their work. We invite people to tend their interior condition when designing, which we believe has an outsized effect on what’s created.
Avoiding the rush.
Design often feels driven by anxiety. Often people and organizations rush the design process. A conventional approach to design incentivizes speed and efficiency as the pathway to success but these can end up leading to messier, less effective products and processes. We end up circling back to fix what was missed or ignored due to the pressures and demands of an urgent culture and race to be first, which burns people out along the way.
“As someone who has the propensity to operate at one speed—fast—this was successful in helping me realize the long-term benefit of slowing down to allow a shift in perspective.”
Jacqueline Brito
Principal & Founder
“There definitely was an unhurried, non-anxious presence brought to every interaction. It’s immediately noticeable and puts people at ease.”
Nidhi Gupta
Senior Director
“At first I was skeptical about tying Unhurried Design to my professional pursuits. Now I feel I can be more intentional with my team, empathy-driven, and present.”
Anthony Bolden
Executive Director
Meet Jordan & Johnnie
Co-founders of Unhurried Design
Jordan Soliday noticed a need for an unhurried approach to design during the pandemic. While facilitating a team that was panicked beneath the pressure of unrealistic timelines, he began to ask, What might be possible without all the rush? Jordan is a learning facilitator with MIT xPRO. He is currently traveling and working between Europe and the States.
Johnnie Moore is the author of the book Unhurried at Work and a co-founder of Creative Facilitation. He’s a visiting tutor on the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme at the Saïd Business School and an occasional contributor to Fast Company magazine. He lives in Cambridge, England, and finds himself coming more alive whenever he swims a few more laps in the morning than what he feels like doing.