Design 21: Social Design Network

“Don’t fight forces, use them” is a Buckminster Fuller quote that is especially relevant for designers in these times of converging economic and environmental pressures. I was reminded of this idea at Practivism - a talk on sustainability and communication design - when Brian Dougherty said, “We can all invent this - be the expert.”

Dougherty was referring to the blossoming area of graphic design practice that weaves sustainability thinking into the outcome. It’s a niche ripe for becoming mainstream through the experiments of a set of brave visual innovators.

Practivism is the hybrid word for practice and activism drummed up by the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) BC team to describe this particular form of practical problem solving. The Practivism event in Vancouver this November was an evening of talks by Dougherty along with Eric Karjaluoto and Marc Alt. Marian Bantjes captured the synergy of the night in a heart-racing promotional poster.

Eric Karjaluoto kept the audience giggling through his comedic slideshow which included an advertisement he found depicting an SUV driving into the sunset titled: “Because you Hate Mother Nature.” He introduced a new word he found on a blog: Depletist – a description of an individual with environmentally inappropriate behaviour. Karjaluoto is the author of the web site Design can Change which aims to bring the design community together to design positive outcomes. A self-described “mini-van driving, fast...

I see the automatic sensors in galleries separating me from an artwork as a dare. Last time I visited Stonehenge I had an urge to slip under the rope barrier to stand in the shadows of the prehistoric earthwork. I suspect I am not alone. Three friends have brought me to the Wanås sculpture park in Southern Sweden where appreciating art can be a full contact sport.

We arrive by car, get out and gaze past the parking lot to the fields, forest, stable and barn. The scene looks like a typical landscape painting until we notice a pair of denim trousers worn upside down by a tree in front of us. The legs are fitted snugly over two hefty branches, zippered and buttoned neatly at the trunk. These are artist Peter Coffin's Tree Pants made in collaboration with Levi Strauss & Co. It is a metaphor of Adam and Eve's shame of being naked in the Garden of Eden. In an interview with Art Cal Coffin describes the work as, "…how we relate to nature and understand ourselves within it."

Wanås provides more chances for us to relate nature. It is autumn and layering the park grounds are leaves with a deep-fried tone and texture. We walk pass brown-beamed 15th century farmhouses into the woods. Greeting us is another decorated tree strung wildly with adult-sized swings hanging just out of reach. We lunge successfully for the swings and, once seated, pump our legs. My friend Neil looks diminutive on the oversized swing as he giddily slices through the air. The installation stretches my inna...

In Gary Hustwit's latest independent documentary, we are treated to a portrait of a familiar face – the typeface Helvetica.

Hustwit describes Helvetica through a series of interviews with articulate designers and typographers who tell the story of a font that is frequently used based on a highly adaptive character set. Helvetica is everywhere (think: Evian, BWM, American Apparel). Despite it's neutral qualities Helvetica is a face that still seems to inspire backlash or addiction in the hearts of prolific communicators.

When the Hass type foundry released Helvetica in 1957 it was embraced as the Swiss modernist antidote to overtly emotive typefaces. It was a compelling expressionless blank slate for designers to manipulate. It became ubiquitous. Popular. In the film, we see European grandfathers of design like Wim Crouwel wax poetic about Helvetica and the solutions he found lining its counters.

The backlash becomes evident when the camera turns to Erik Spiekermann's dismissals of Helvetica as simply "bad taste" and Paula Scher's political diatribe on how using Helvetica is akin to supporting the Iraq war. Scher's insight is based on the opinion that Helvetica is so generic, functional and expressionless that it advocates conformity.

The cross-bar to the circular debate between good and bad taste is drawn by Danny van den Gungen of the Dutch group Experimental Jet Set. The studio proves in their stunning posters, advertisements and book covers, that when set in the ri...

David Shrigley is that voice in the back of your mind. He is an artist with the ability to tap into those random thoughts that we all have and mine them for uncanny truths. The inky black illustrations, t-shirts, photo series, sculpture and videos that currently fill 27 rooms at the Malmö Konstall are a culmination of 15 years of his quirky logic.

Shrigley's distinctive black and white drawings line walls in several rooms. Most have handwritten statements along with the image. Others are all text. One poster depicts two people with the caption; "I have a strange feeling but I'm not going to let it spoil the short time we have together." On a t-shirt two characters size each other up with the words; "Put on your plimsoles and we will wrestle."

In the belly of the gallery is a stunning stretch of sky-lit spaces with hanging metre-tall faceless heads, metal copulating spiders and a wall with giant words reading; God is Idle. Another room holds photographs of street scenes such as a freeway entry sign with four simple letters; hell. Yet another room displays tents that ooze with hardened foam next to a taxidermied squirrel holding its own head.

How does this relate to design for the greater good? Well, Shrigley was a graphic designer and his work makes me feel human. I think that's enough. Sometimes when I spend a solid eight hours at my Mac it's hard to feel that way. Good design has humanity at its core.

The whole exhibit culminates in the highlight of the show - a serie...

In a hollowed out industrial factory in the South of Luxembourg is an exhibition that strikes at the fundamentals of human longing. Whether it be for a sip of clean water or the whispers of an admirer the All We Need exhibit cycles us through a reflective, cerebral tunnel of human want and requirement.

According to Manfred Max-Neef, a Chilean economist that has been researching human needs for over a decade, every individual has a set of ten needs. Those needs are; idleness, subsistence, freedom, affection, protection, identity, creation, understanding, transcendence; and participation. I was lucky to visit an exhibit exploring these ideas during a class field trip with my fellow grad students.

Organized in sections based closely on Man-Neef's original themes the exhibit is also a journey through an old steel factory – The Halle des Soufflantes. The warehouse is massive (160 m long, 70 m wide and 28 m high) and still displays some of the machinery that was installed in the early 1900's. The rawness of design and sheer size becomes something to traverse and discover as an element of the exhibit itself.

Headphones and a hand-held device provides auditory samples along with artist and title information. The exhibit has several contributing artists, designers, architects, curators, initiators and other contributors...to find out more visit: allweneed.lu

Read field notes from the exhibit.

Relax + Survive The cavernous size of the first room, the blasting hall, is flooded ...