Design 21: Social Design Network

Employing a clear spot-varnish, New York-based designer Reiner Tiangco has devised a poster that requires interaction to disclose its pertinent message.

With the proliferation of lip-service being given to the world's increasingly complex challenges – we feel he makes a highly valid point.

See more on Osocio

Twenty thousand South African women of various ethnicities marched on Pretoria’s Union Buildings to protest the Urban Area Act in 1956. The legislation required ‘non-whites’ to carry identification documents. Demonstrators sang a song which included the line “wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo.” (you strike women, you strike a rock) and delivered bundles of petitions for the Prime Minister.

In honour of this collective stance, August 9 was declared a public holiday in South Africa in 1994 – National Women’s Day.

See full-size image at Osocio

The DIGITS campaign seeks to elevate interest in science, technology, engineering & math in the United States. It promotes “a middle school program opening minds to math and science. Figure this. Imagine that.”

A collection of illustrators, including Nate Williams, were commissioned to playfully depict hand-drawn chalkboards that would appeal to young minds.

Irreverent, imaginative and inspirational.

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Mumbai mobile service providers Aircel recently promoted their network via a novel billboard campaign which had a real rescue boat attached which was used by Mumbaikars stranded in monoon flooding.

The initiaive made front page news and although we ackowledge it could be viewed as corporate 'cause washing' it certainly highlights the failings of civic bodies in handling of the plight of those in monsoon effected metros. Plus it brilliantly leveraged the resulting publicity beyond the billbaord itself to further the advertiser's cheeky message to "sail through our network this monsoon."

Giving a whole new meaning for mobile Customer Care! See & read more on the campaign from the Aircel site and at Osocio

Oxfam International has been given a bold, typocentric makeover by Barcelona's Hey Studio which is expected to resonate with a young Spanish audience. Oxfam pursues education, disaster management and health initiatives alongside advocacy and policy research to ensure sustainable development in combating poverty and injustice. The new look highlights issues through confronting icon-typographic mash-ups applied to a vividly coloured range of products from posters to pencils.

Colourful, cause-related and compelling.

See more at Osocio

This amazing exhibition is closing on the 24th! If you're in NYC please go! you won't regret it.

Thanks:)

Let me just say that I am very happy to be a member here and being able to read so many good things. Love to all of you!

• Manufacturing a cellphone uses approximately 1390 MJ of energy and produces 60 kg of CO2 emissions
• A gallon of gasoline has 131 MJ of energy and emits 8.8 kg of CO2
• Manufacturing a cellphone uses as much energy as 10.5 gallons of gasoline and emits as much as 6.8 gallons of gasoline
• Using a cellphone for a year on average uses 4,221 MJ of energy (equivalent to 32 gallons of gasoline) and emits 112 kg of CO2 (equivalent to 12.8 gallons of gasoline)
• replacing a cellphone every 2 years rather than one would save 30 kg of CO2 emissions (about 3.3 gallons worth) and 700 MJ

Source: Fat Knowledge Blog & UMTS report (ESU-services Ltd.)

Bucking the Trend and Dialing it Back

Generally speaking, I tend to go against the grain. I reject trends, I change jobs when I shouldn't (ask my wife), I ride the bus everywhere and I have the economy cable package (although DVR takes care of the time shifting).

Admittedly, though, until recently I was a BlackBerry user (also known as the “CrackBerry” around my house) with a serious affliction. For the most part it began as a work-related nice-to-have – something all the managers carried – and was a sort of necessity.

It wasn't until the prospect of ditching the BlackBerry came up that I realized the impact it had on my everyday life. From a purely practical standpoint, I was scanning email 24/7 and perpetually strapped to it. From an psychological perspective, I was always "waiting" for something to come in, and basically like Pa...

What a debt we owe to Michael Bierut for advocating for us designers, and proving that the design's role in our culture and surroundings is one of importance and prominence.

To say that as designers we have a responsibility to the people we work with, and that we have power as agents of change is indeed an understatement.

In the following interview, given by AIGA Phily, Pentagram partner Michael Bierut discusses this in the context of the global economic climate, the proliferation of forces like "Target" and their ability to democratize design in today’s culture. He is also asked to comment on IBM’s Watson’s idea that “Good design is good business.”

If you had any doubts about the collective influence of the design discipline, take a listen to one of today's foremost thinkers on the subject.

With this slide, Saul Griffith, inventor, MacArthur Fellow, Ph.D., launches into his presentation at San Francisco’s recent AIGA event, Compostmodern. I saw a re-broadcast of Saul’s speech at AIGA Portland’s event of the same name, that also featured Brian Dougherty from Celery Design. Shortly after showing this provoking slide, Saul is quick to report that he hopes this is not true, he hopes that there is still a chance for design to change the world, and he devotes the remainder of his presentation to showing us how.

First, Saul presents the problem we all face: climate change. He shows how he evaluated his own lifestyle and figured out how much power he required in watts annually. He included not just the typical statistics, the power used in heating/cooling his home, the miles he drove, etc, but also he included all the objects he owned and factored in the power used to bring that product to life. These results were populated in a graph. The largest portion shown on the graph represented all objects that he owned that were designed, and this is the area he challenges the audience to rethink. He calculated the average watts used per person in North America at 11400 Watts, compared to the average European at 5400. Obviously this heavy power use has damaging side effects, as most of our current power sources expel carbon into the atmosphere at a rate of 8 billion tons of carbon every year. Which in turn, scientists now agree, is contributing to global warming and cli...