Speaker Introduction – Irene Pereyra
I often get asked whether I stay friends with all the people who spoke or if we usually lose contact instantly after an event. Surely I never is the same with everybody, but there are those you keep bumping into. At conferences, at dinners, in hotel lobbies, in cities that have nothing to do with each other. Irene Pereyra clearly belongs to that group and I am very glad about that. The last time was in Berlin, where we again ended up in lovely conversations and I had the chance to see what she is working on recently.
Once Already, Back When Düsseldorf Turned Five
Irene has been on the beyond tellerrand stage before with Anton Repponen as Anton & Irene and talked about “Collaborating Across UX & Design”. That is twelve years ago, something I only properly realised while writing this … well, time flies ;)
Three Months a Year That Nobody Ordered
The studio the two of them run out of Brooklyn built the digital homes for the Met Museum in New York and M+ in Hong Kong, redesigned USA Today and worked with Spotify, Google, Kickstarter, Balenciaga, IKEA and the BBC. The thing I always liked a lot, though is, that they keep three months of every year free for their own, self-initiated projects. Not as a marketing idea, but because they wanted to keep making things that nobody had ordered. In an industry where everybody talks about side projects and nobody finds the time, that is a decision I have a lot of respect for and appreciate a lot.
Next to this Irene wrote two books, Universal Principles of UX and, published this year, The Accessible Design Reference & Specification Book. She is a member of AGI, she co-chairs the Interaction Design Master’s programme at Harbour.Space in Barcelona and Bangkok and she teaches Ethical, Accessible & Mindful Design at ECAL.
A Whole Continent as the Brief
As I said above, I had the chance to see some of her latest work and that is something where I think it should be part of beyond tellerrand. For a while now she has been working with the Danish think tank 21st Europe, right at the point where design meets policy. Together they develop what they call Blueprints: speculative proposals that explore how Europe could rethink policy, technology and design, and how you can make complex systems understandable, human and future-focused.
Policy is one of those things most of us only experience once it is finished. It arrives as a form to fill out, a rule to follow, a piece of infrastructure we have to live with and hardly ever does it feel like somebody thought about the people using it. Watching someone take all the craft that goes into a museum website and point it at a whole continent instead is something I find absolutely exciting. And since I know Irene, I know that she will not only show you the nice pictures, but also tell you how the sausage was made, where it did not work and what she learned along the way. Very much looking forward to that.
Say hello and welcome to Irene Pereyra!
beyond tellerrand Düsseldorf 2027 is taking place on 19 and 20 April.