Open & distributed + design & production: Design strategies for enabling indie designers and makers

The introduction of ICT and open, peer-to-peer and distributed systems in the design world has generated several changes: from the rise of new kinds of designers (indie, amateur, makers, ...) to the emergence of new processes for developing projects (open design, distributed design, …). Furthermore, the design of an artifact and its production are increasingly closer for designers: after years where production was outsourced almost completely and the role of designers limited to delivering preliminary CAD files, now they are more and more engaged with a production that is more accessible, distributed and open for experimentations. For these reasons we call this phenomenon Open & Distributed + Design & Production, where both designing and making can be open and distributed to new ecosystems of innovation.