Clinton Barth | Planning & Strategy
Now looking for work! Email me to discuss opportunities.
Intro
Experience
I have held leadership roles on a variety of projects—including retail design, workplace strategy, interaction design and new product development—at organizations ranging from small innovation consultancies and international design firms to Fortune 150 corporations.
Sample clients include: SC Johnson, Procter & Gamble, McDonald's, Nike, NAVTEQ, McKesson, Credit Suisse, Charles Schwab, Miller Coors, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Edelman.
Work
A sampling of work created while enrolled in the Masters of Design program at the IIT Institute of Design. Design seldom progresses in a straight line, and each project has its share of challenges and lessons. The documents provided here are intended to provide a better understanding of the underlying thinking and process, but are not a substitute for an actual conversation. Please contact me to discuss anything here in greater detail or to learn about more recent professional experiences.
Kids in Cities
Understanding the needs of parents in the city
A year long project aimed at uncovering the unmet needs of city couples with young children, Kids in Cities provides urban leaders with a plan to identify and leverage their city's unique strengths to create a more child-friendly environment.
Download Report: PDF, 1.4 mb
Home Depot
A tiered strategy offers varying levels of service
Big box home improvement stores are continually challenged to offer small-store service at big-store prices. The "Service Continuum" offers a strategy for providing customers their desired level of service while minimizing impact on employees.
Download Report: PDF, 3.5 mb
Facets
Creating a more focused experience for a niche provider
Facets, an independent movie house in Chicago with a loyal following, looks for ways to improve their experience and increase exposure without altering the independent feel their users have come to love.
Download Report: PDF, 1.4 mb
Hindustan Lever
Connecting with consumers and enabling farmers
India's exploding population and emerging economy has placed new demands on an already taxed food supply. As one of India's largest food manufacturers, Hindustan Lever faces a problem of increasing demand and dwindling supply.
Download Report: PDF, 3.1 mb
About
A Design Planner firmly situated at the intersection of business and design, theory and practice, my focus is providing the strategic context for multi-disciplinary teams to generate targeted and valuable ideas.
I am a design planner and strategist who works to help client and design teams create new, unique and ownable solutions.
By leveraging user research and framing it in ways that provide new insight and perspective, I work to provide the strategic construct necessary to focus creative and business efforts. For me, it's not a question of what we can do, but rather what we should do and how we should do it.
The answers to these questions are found through the application of proven techniques in ethnographic and environmental research, framework and insight
development, and the definition of strategic goals and design principles—all presented to teams in fresh ways that encourage exploration and motivate the creation of powerful ideas.
I have applied these techniques at small innovation consultancies, international design firms and Fortune 150 companies, and for a variety of projects ranging from retail design, workplace strategy, interaction design and new product development.
I have a Masters in Design Planning from the IIT Institute of Design and am currently pursuing a Masters in
Business Administration at the University of Chicago. There, I am growing my knowledge of the often cited but seldom understood world of strategy, and mastering best practices for motivating and communicating with clients and colleagues.
I currently live in Chicago, IL, and agree, it gets real cold here. For more detail, please download my resume.
*Quote courtesy of Charles L. Owen, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology