[the lack of...] Sustainable Graphic Design

“I wish I could report that it [graphic design] was doing its bit. Trouble is, tap “sustainable graphic design” into Google and you get a thousand suggested links. But, tap “Helvetica Movie” in, and guess what, you get fifteen thousand. So in cyberspace at least, that makes people 15 times as interested in a move about typeface than how to design responsibly. Great.”

- Johnson Banks [04.10.07], Thought of the Day: Leaching it of any Meaning.

Filed under: On Culture, On Graphic Design, On People, On Research, On Social Design, On Sustainability, On Typography, Design, google search, Graphic Design, helvetica, helvetica movie, johnson banks, sustainable graphic design

Innovation Triangle: Design London at RCA and Imperial

DesignLondon will develop, research and deliver radically new practices, tools and processes to transform the way businesses innovate, and translate their creativity into commercial success.

This new venture combines creativity and expertise in design from the Royal College of Art, engineering from Imperial College’s Faculty of Engineering and the business of innovation from Imperial College’s Tanaka Business School. It was established following the Cox Review: Creativity in Business that highlighted the need to stir together the scientific, engineering, business and creative design communities to enhance business and public sector innovation.

Filed under: Art & Design, On Education, On Graphic Design, On Research, On Social Design, Creativity in Business, DesignLondon, Imperial College, Innovation, Public Sector Innovation, RCA, Research, Royal College of Art

The History of Visual Communication

With thanks to Core77 for crediting Turkish artist, designer, and educator Elif Ayiter responsible for putting together the [visually enthralling] chronological History of Visual Communication.

Filed under: Art & Design, On Culture, On Education, On Graphic Design, On Research, On Typography, Education, Elif Ayiter, Graphic Design, History, Technology, The History of Visual Communication, Typography

Good 50×70 is Back!

GOOD 50×70 is back for 2008! Good 50×70, the initiative that ‘promotes awareness amongst the creative community of the power they have to be a force for good,’ is back for its second year.

Entrants are asked to design posters (on as many briefs as they wish) and the best submissions will be selected by a jury of graphic design luminaries [listed below] and given to the supporting seven charities to use for global campaigns. For 2008, seven briefs fall under the themes of: Child Mortality, Global Warming, Human Rights Violation, Hunting, STDs, War Victims and Water Scarcity.

Filed under: On Education, On Graphic Design, On Social Design, 2008, Awareness, Charity, Competition, Good 50x70, Graphic Design, poster, Social Design, Visual Communication

Design|Value

Singapore’s Design Management Institute present Design|Value, a unique international conference that aims to demonstrate how to use design and design thinking to solve business objectives. On 13-14 March 2008, at Grand Hyatt in Singapore, a panel of international experts, will communicate how to create value through design, based on the triple bottom line: economic, social/cultural, and environmental value.

Filed under: On Education, On Events, On Social Design, On Society, Business, Conference, Design Management Institute, Design Thinking, Design|Value, DMI, Singapore, Social Design

The Masdar Initiative… straight out of Hollywood

Norman Foster’s Masdar City is poised to become world’s most sustainable, zero-waste, car-free, carbon neutral city. This promotional video reminds me of a sci-fi blockbuster trailer.. and quite frankly, if this is the future of sustainable living, I am absolutely terrified!

Via. Inhabitat.com

Filed under: On Sustainability, City, Eco, Foster + Partners, Masdar, sustainability, Urban

INDIGO: International Indigenous Design Network

The INDIGO: International Indigenous Design Network is a research initiative, which explores the role of indigenous visual culture within contemporary society and looks at its relationship to National identity. The issues and pressures facing indigenous cultures around the globe are similar. INDIGO’s aim is to encourage and promote constructive exchange between the worlds’ indigenous communities. The objective – to help to elevate the profile of indigenous design by encouraging contemporary interpretation of traditional techniques and themes.

In 2006, a pilot of the collaborative projects possible through the INDIGO: International Indigenous Design Network was demonstrated when Monash University (Australia) and the University of Hartford (United States) created MIX06. MIX06 was a cultural exchange project that explored the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous culture within the context of national identity. Workshops, research, and collaborative teamwork took place in both countries and included indigenous participation. The workshop results can be found under the title: One Step Back, Two Steps Forward, an Icograda endorsed website. Inspiring results!

Filed under: Art & Design, On Culture, On Education, On Graphic Design, On Research, On Social Design, Icograda, indigenous Design, INDIGO, Mix06, Visual Culture

Participle: Future Public Services

In 2005, Design Strategist Hilary Cottam won the title of Designer of the Year. Since which, the London Design Museum continue to pitch her “radical design rethinking” of the “UK’s schools, prison system and health service” and her “work as director of the Design Council’s experimental RED team”, to be “championing a more inspiring and efficient approach to design in the public sector.” Hilary is now currently setting up her latest initiative, Participle – a new social venture to design the next generation of public services.

Participle is a unique hybrid: bringing together systemic policy thinking and new ideas with project methodology which enables us to harness the broader creativity and latent solutions visible on the ground to service users, front line workers and communities: we call this methodology Transformation Design. Participle creates future services with and for the public. Most attempts at innovation and service improvement start within existing institutions and ask how they can be reformed. We start from the individual, unlocking a unique set of insights and motivations, which we then apply to the broad systemic problems we are seeking to answer.

The four prestigious directors; Hilary Cottam, Colin Burns (former MD of IDEO London), Charles Leadbeater (internationally renowned thinker and innovator) and Hugo Manassei (entrepreneur and enterprise consultant), will be working with a small inter-disciplinary team of economists, designers and policy analysts. The Participle website [and plan] are due for public launch this coming April, to which I look forward to finding more about.

Filed under: On People, On Social Design, On Society, Charles Leadbeater, Colin Burns, Hillary Cottam, Hugo Manassei, Participle, Public Service, Social Design, Transformation Design

White House REDUX

What if the White House, the ultimate architectural symbol of political power, were to be designed today? To celebrate the election of the 44th President of the United States of America, Storefront for Art and Architecture, in association with Control Group, challenge you to Redesign the White House. The best ideas will be featured in a month-long exhibition at Storefront for Art and Architecture in July 2008. All three winners will be flown to New York to collect their prizes at the opening party.

Via Design Observer. Also see Ali Kriscenski’s review on Inhabitat.

Filed under: Art & Design, On Social Design, On Society, architecture, Politics, President, Storefront for Art and Architecture, USA, White House REDUX

The Real Work Experience

Communication design graduates, certainly have the creative ability to make significant change to social and public service, and yet I question why this is not sold to designers as a credible route to take post Graduation. Pitching the fact that only 23.2% of design graduates will find jobs in the creative industry itself, London based [public sector] design agency ThinkPublic, introduce The Real Work Experience. This is one of the most inspiring initiatives I have seen for a long time. The situation so many design graduates find themselves in is frightening, and yet there are so many possible avenues for us to vehicle our talents toward.

The real work experience aims to open design graduates’ eyes to the opportunities of using their skills beyond the usual design roles and the possibility of working in the public sector. Concurrently, the programme aims to educate public sector bodies on the skills and value designers can bring to their organisations.

Filed under: On Education, On Graphic Design, On Social Design, On Society, design education, Design Industry, Graduates, Public Sector, Social Design, The Real Work Experience, ThinkPublic

“I’m really worried”

Having recently commented about the pressures facing Undergraduate Graphic Designers in my response to Meredith Davis’ article The Cult of The ASAP, I have been assisting some research into anxiety and design education this past month. Quite timely, I received another concerned email this morning, from a UK design student. This is not the first time I have been contacted for help, and by no means shocks me at the level of fear and concern for future success. I would like to share the student voice with a wider collective this morning:

hello,
I really enjoy your graphic design and typography group and have found it really useful. You probably get this a lot but im in a bit of an un-nerving situation.I’m months away from graduating from De Montfort University. I have no actual work experience (except for about 10 designs ive done for bands/gigs) and I’m really worried about how to get my first foot in the graphic design ‘door’. Your job section of the group has been really helpful and has shown me there is plenty out there, but I’m not sure what to do as I’m worried they’ll all be snapped up by other people graduating.

Filed under: On Education, On Graphic Design, On People, career, Design, Education, experience, graduate, Graphic Design, higher education, industry, job, students, Success, undergraduate

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson is author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative (2001) and a leading expert on creativity, innovation and human resources. In 2006, at the TEDtalk “Do schools kill creativity?” he made an entertaining [and profoundly moving] case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize – much less cultivate – the talents of many brilliant people. “We are educating people out of their creativity” he explains, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original… We don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather we get educated out of it.”

Ken has been one of my all time inspirations for many years, and having had the pleasure of meeting him at the Education Schow Conference “Creativity vs. Curriculum” in 2005, I never fail to be inspired by his humour and passion for this overly obvious problem with our education system.

Filed under: On Education, On People, Creativity, Do schools kill creativity?, Education, learning, Sir Ken Robinson, TED

What is Success?

[In response to Ellen Lupton's (2007) AIGA feature: What is Success?].

Having recently immersed myself into Oliver James’ book Affluenza, this is a wonderfully topical discussion, which I have also been discussing with colleagues and students. Affluenza (which at most criticizes and abruptly awakens its readers to a money-grabbing, consumer “must-have” society), ultimately questions if success can be gained in any competitive industry and within any consumer-focused society. For example: Can a single ambition ever be experienced? As one success, ambition or goal is reached another one is created, superceding its previous. Therefore, I agree that a consistent “raising of the bar” (Jared Lantzman, AIGA response), certainly plays a part of being a “successful” designer. Why this is the case, however, is an entirely different discussion.

Success is subjective to personal ambition and at its core is defined by each individual. The problem I see however, is that success is taught initially by a grading matrix and later by an overly powerful “celebrity” culture. I believe being a successful Designer entails the creative ability to evolve and grow at the same pace that the industry does, yet whilst remaining unique in ones own ability and passion.

Filed under: On Culture, On Graphic Design, Affluenza, AIGA, creative, Ellen Lupton, Graphic Design, Impact, Success