We stumbled upon some of John Maeda’s classic design work today, over at Fast Company. One of the world’s most famous designers, and ever prescient, John’s been preaching some form of “design thinking” for many years now. As a keynote speaker, and as President of the Rhode Island School of Design, he talks about a subject close to his heart: the crucial role of the arts in education. Our current educational system, in its quest to produce tomorrow’s innovators and leaders, has narrowed its focus to four core subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. The so-called STEM subjects. John makes a powerful case for making the Arts just as prominent. Innovation happens, he says, when art meets science and technology. If we’re to stay competitive today, tomorrow, and fifty years from now, we’ll need to turn STEM into STEAM.