This special topics course is an introduction to critical thinking and making through a poetic and research-informed process. There are many research traditions across disciplines of design—from processes inspired by the iterative nature of the scientific method, the dialogic Socratic method, ethnographic user-centered methods, to the corporate specter of design thinking. In an age of increasingly commodified “design speak” and visual languages that spread around the world at the speed of the internet, what can a designer do to find their way to meaningful form? One approach is to find a poetic resonance with the subject matter of a design brief. This seminar will explore practical, poetic, and playful forms of research-orientated to designerly ways of knowing. This course will give students ways to build a research archive, reflect on their design process, and learn to make cool research decks. Poetic research can emerge in processes that connect critical perspectives, keen and sensitive looking, and emotive and expressive form as a mode of thought.