Matthews, KristineSteinem, Abigail Rose2015-09-292015-09-292015-09-292015Steinem_washington_0250O_14742.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1773/33894Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2015Designers are found all over the United States: From large, urban settings (such as Seattle) to smaller, more isolated settings, such as my hometown back in Indiana. Through my research I discovered that professional designers across the country, regardless of their settings, are struggling. With the ever-shifting landscape of design and the expectation to stay current, they are lacking daily opportunities to learn new skills and are feeling isolated from a local and continuous creative community of their peers, an integral aspect of design culture. My thesis addresses these predicaments with MakeReady Initiative, a scalable and customizable service that is dedicated to designers and their creative potential. This service is dispensed through a guidebook that helps designers across the country set up these creative communities that empower designers to connect through knowledge that they not only need, but want, so they can better their lives.application/pdfen-USCopyright is held by the individual authors.Christopher Alexander; Continued Learning; Design Discipline; Design Education; Hackers; MakersDesignEducationfine artsThesis