What does the ideal future look like? Can it be experienced? I’m hopeful through design that things will get better. I’m optimistic, too, that what we learn will not only maintain, but will improve our fragile environment.

Learning a strong sense of design can sometimes be attained by working with more rugged materials. Finding beauty in transforming rugged into a warm winter light is an amazing lesson in design. Parks Tzeng, legendary creator of user design center experiences, taught...