Design 21: Social Design Network

Jennifer Leonard, one of the co-authors of the book Massive Change is a member of the D21 Network and resident blogger for the D21 blog. Check out her blog, she has wonderful things to say!

Design Can Change (designcanchange.org) is a project created by designers that believe that positive change can happen by working together. The website is slick (sometimes annoyingly so) however the message is good.

Take the Design Can Change pledge:

In my professional practice, I will endeavor to: Learn, Think, Act, Inform, Unite.

Learn: Engage in the topic and seek to understand the issues

Think: Make a sustainable mindset second nature

Act: Put my knowledge to use in my daily work

Inform: Share information and build awareness for sustainability

Unite: Spark change through collective strength

Take the Pledge

As designers that care about social issues, we must remember that we have strength through out position in the industry. From our choice in vendors to our recommendations to clients - our voice can collectively be heard through the objects we design, the environment we affect, the messages we communicate, the clothes we make and the images we create.

Its not what is being said as much as how it is being said - and that is 100% in our control. Our work is everywhere and the audience is large. We don't need "neon signs" to communicate our message, no, our tools are more subversive than that!

Use the "how" to effect change in a sublime way.

Design diversity or just bad taste? The London 2012 Olympics logo is just another example of the post I recently added about Design Diversity in response to Thoughts on the globalization of design, posted by Christian Etter.

Personally I feel we need to judge design - logos especially - by its function and not just esthetic appeal.

The dictionary says a logo is "a symbol or other small design adopted by an organization to identify its products, uniform, vehicles, etc".

So esthetically, the organization has a right to do whatever they want. But what about its function. If a logo needs to identity an organization and be used in various mediums, then there are limitations to what can be done.

Where will it live? If the Olympic logo needs to be printed on a pencil, will it work? No. Therefore the logo doesn't work.

Stability - A logo needs to look the same in all of its usage. Does the Olympic logo work when its really small? No. Therefore ...

Clear message - A logo is not very smart, it can carry only one message and that message needs to be clear - ie: a symbol. Though the Olympic logo is "symbolic" to the creator, I would say it is not a symbol ... it is more artwork then icon.

Unique - A logo must be unique to the organization. This logo is unique, very very unique ;-) so I guess we have a winner! But alas, uniqueness cannot prop up the other important functions that are lacking.

If a car doesn't have wheels but has a steering wheel, is it a car? It may look lik...

I moved to Paris almost two years ago and there is one major thing that I noticed - the French love diversity! Crazy about it. It's in their blood ....

I noticed straight away that French logos were not very appealing to me, my design tastes ... this is the first thing I noticed (sorry Frenchies!!). Every logo tried to be more colorful, more elaborate, more complex and more different then the next. Creating some of the most (in my opinion) ridiculous and god-awful brandmarks that I've every seen.

But then I realized that this is coming from my American taste for standardization and compliance and my respect for Scandinavian design practices. So now I am split about what I feel is good design and the idea of diversity in design. I ask a French person and they love these logos and say they are more interesting then the American counter-parts. Hmmm ....

Similarly, advertising in the Middle East is very different then the western world. I've looked at it in the past only to think bad design. But, if those billboards were designed in a way that I would think "good" ... would that fly in the Gaza Strip? Would the people think it bad or just strange? Most likely.

So, what of the design principles a communications designer learns in school? Tyography, grid, colors, etc ....

Are these just western standards or inherent principles that all designers must follow? I tend to think that they are and should be standard. They serve a purpose of simplification and communication on a mas...

When I made this post, I didn't realize that there was an article on Curitiba right here on this website. So of course, you must read the article here in addition to the New York Times ... then go to the article and post your response!!! Read article on Design 21

The New York Times Magazine this week focuses on building design that is good for the environment with features on Eco-Housing, Zero-Energy Solutions and a case study on Curitiba, a city in Brazil that has set the international standard for environmentally conscious urban planning.

Check it out

Well it seems that Design 21 is not alone in wanting to connect designers with social needs. Virb, a new media-sharing website (akin to YouTube and MySpace) is now entering into this effort.

read article

Its great to see that more and more companies are taking up interest in the promotion of good causes.

Sustainable Web Development must go beyond money and effort and enters into the realm of public good. Public good means that consumption by one individual does not reduce the good available for consumption by others. A pure example of a public good is air - you breathing it doesn't stop me from breathing it (water was once considered a public good, but alas, times change). Creative works are often referred to as Public Good.

In economy, this topic is highly theoretical, however the Internet starts to offer new examples that are real. This is not to say that the Internet itself is a public good, but accessibility of it is (or should be).

Open Source Development and the buzz word Web 2.0 has marked a clear shift towards Internetworking as a Public Good. Social Networking, Media Sharing, Syndication, Blogs, Wiki's, etc all aim towards sharing and playing well together. Creating software that can mashup with other software is becoming more and more prevalent.

Actually using the web for more than reference and email has drastically changed in the last few years. No longer do you need to be technically savvy (or have a friend that is) to publish, communicate or assert yourself through this medium.

But what is the endgame of Open Source and the Web 2.0 trend, fad, crazy ... whatever you wanna call it? Is it sustainable or is it a burst of energy that is propelling the Internet in order for the private sector to take it over to do business through it?

Big business is scrabb...

The idea of web accessibility has been a hot topic in web development. According to Wikipedia, Web accessibility refers to the practice of making Web pages accessible to people using a wide range of user agent software and devices, not just standard Web browsers. This is especially important for people with disabilities such as visual impairment. Design for accessibility is a sub-category of good design for usability.

Web accessibility has peeked commercial interests also because websites that are accessible work well on mobile devices and allows for easy syndication of content to many platforms - publish once, use many times.

Recently there has been a lot of buzz around the idea of Sustainable Web Development and Design 21 seems like a good forum to discuss the concept. So, I begin ...

From an ecological perspective, sustainability is conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources. I've been working on websites going on 15 years and the same issues always creep up. A website is designed and 1-2 years later, it needs to be redesigned because the organization has grown or the business requirements have changed. This cycle is not sustainable because the website is always behind the organization (as opposed to in-line with it) and creates a financial drain.

Sustainable Web Development includes accessibility but then extends it to scalabilty and agility. Scalability is the ability to grow the website and its functionality without having to start o...