Maddox makes it all sound very simple, but underlying her approach to design is a basic tenet of good leadership that many people fail to understand. It's one of the central tenets of Archeworks, and it comes straight out of her mouth. Here's how Maddox went about breaking down those boundaries at Archeworks. Don't stop with the sketch pad. Before she helped start Archeworks, Maddox had taught at some of Chicago's best design schools, and she had received plenty of complaints.
Good ideas are a dime a dozen, and most schools are either all about theory or all about practice.
Unless you can make that happen, a big idea won't mean anything. One of Maddox's primary roles at Archeworks is to search for projects that contain the best opportunities for students to produce those actionable big ideas. We look for clients who have a problem and don't know what to do about it. That's the kind of work that gives you a reason for being. Otherwise, you're doing work that anyone could do, or that people could do for themselves.