Leah Ray Leah Ray

Chris Barton on Defying the Impossible—And Building Shazam

Chris Barton’s NeoCon keynote, Bring Impossible Ideas to Life, was a lesson in what it takes to innovate: a mindset of defiance, a commitment to creative persistence, and a deep emotional connection to one’s work. Read to learn how he recommends that designers deploy his strategies.

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Leah Ray Leah Ray

Design as an Agent of Change: Alice Rawsthorn at NeoCon 2025

Design is not a decorative overlay; it is a powerful agent of social, political, and ethical change. In her NeoCon 2025 keynote address, Rawsthorn challenged the audience to reframe design as an attitudinal discipline: a mindset rooted in resourcefulness, empathy, and urgency. And in doing so, she called on designers to see themselves not only as creators of beauty, but as shapers of systems, policy, and public trust.

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Leah Ray Leah Ray

Harvard, Higher Education, and the Architecture of Thinking

As I return to Boston for the AIA Conference on Architecture, I’m thinking about my time at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. It was a defining period in my life because it sharpened my approach to thinking, questioning, and communicating design.


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