Formative Concepts is a living glossary of the ideas, distinctions, and metaphors that shape your work. It’s not a dictionary or a toolkit. It’s an evolving vocabulary—one that helps you notice patterns, name tensions, and design with intention.
Some entries are original frameworks. Others are borrowed phrases, lifted from reading, teaching, or conversation. All of them hold formative power: they offer new ways to see, make, and care.
Rather than being sorted by discipline, the glossary is structured by conceptual function. Some terms name habits of mind; others name architectural or cultural forces. Each one asks:
- What does this concept help you see more clearly?
- What does it push back against?
- What design decisions (or life decisions) does it inform?
Modules in Progress
Module Ideas:
- Agency
- Protocols
- Transition Design
- Diagrammatic Thinking