Design 21: Social Design Network

It may be a day late and a dollar short, but the good folks at Designism 2.0 emailed me that their full podcast is online here. Relive all your favorite moments! Mine, as you know, was Mr. Wolff hushing the whole crowd with his "Stop designing stuff" rant. And then Dr. Milton Glaser operating on him.

Delicious.

Do check it out. The enthusiasm and hope is a great thing. Design can make a difference.

Wow...just to get some of the initial wow off my chest...Michael Wolff was a breath of acrid fresh air that turned a big pat on our backs into a gripping deathmatch of design philosophy.

Milton was right: We should take part in the world around us...because we have to. It's our imperative as citizens to do something. Not just stay home and read, as Michael enjoined us to.

"Design is an Act of Planning"

Yes Milton! He went on to say that Design is not style...Design is its result, its consequence.

Michael said: "Everyone can Design. Design is Over."

Yes Michael! Everyone can use Photoshop and Illustrator and Maya and make a computer model of a shitty product or a bad awareness campaign. Michael said earlier that Design had to be Disruptive to rise above this cacophony of banal design.

But no...Milton told us that New Design is introduced in terms of the Known. Good design seems familiar, then...not alien.

It was so very exciting.

many other good things: Ellen Sitkin's ad work on buyameter.org, Andrew Sloat's sweet and endearing constitutional educational-love-ins. I have a bubble from Ji Lee's bubble project that's going up in the Clinton-Washington G. Look for it!

My thesis is complete and I'm very happy!

Our project was all about getting people moving around cities. The bicycle is great device, but too large for most urban dwellings. Bikes are also long range vehicles - all wrong for the shorter distances many have to travel in dense urban spaces. I think it can replace bikes and encourage more people to leave their cars at home for short errands.

Fact One: many subway lines are at capacity in NYC...and very little expansion is planned

Fact Two: 1 million more people will live in NYC in the next 10 years.

Fact Three: Many of these people will seek more affordable housing...which is largely away from subway-rich areas.

Fact Four: Buses are on average about as fast as running.

Fact Five: Euro-styled Bike parking around subways takes more real estate than NYC can afford.

The footbike is like an oversized scooter-cum-half-bicycle. Our user testing showed that people enjoyed riding it, and that the folding functionality was a welcome feature. The stem also folds down, allowing it to ultimately fold into thirds...It can definitely address some of these urbanization issues...I'll upload some pics on more coroflot site soon...

hey all, my thesis partner and I did a presentation about our solution for crowded cities...foot bikes. Yes, footbikes.

What's a footbike?

Well, it's like a scooter and a bike had kids. Large wheeled, comfortable and stable, you can fold it up and bring in it on the train, store it in your house and use it to get where you need to go...Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan's Design Meetup hosted the event (every month at Design Within Reach) and he was kind enough to blog about us...I'm hoping to get some updated images. He's showing our micro-scooter concept, not the footbike as it is envisioned now...

I was cruising the internet (as I often do) and I found Worrell, a small but powerful design firm in the midwest...check out their presentation

at Solutions Twin Cities, a recurring event to cultivate social design thinking...I don't know about you, but this makes me want to move to Minneapolis. Worrell's presentation is about how they applied design research thinking to make some improvements for Film Aid International. It's seven minutes well spent, so watch and learn!

also, more videos at solutions twin cites including how to make a green room in seven minutes...

Read a great, hard-hitting review of the Cooper-Hewitt show at Design Observer, written by David Stairs. Here's a snippet:

Is there a realistic response designers from developed countries can offer? A starting point might be to recognize that in many cases, we don't need to remake other people or their societies in our image and likeness. The idea of design intervention--sustainable or otherwise--may feel very intrusive to people who are still reeling from 150 years of colonial intervention. (You don't just waltz into a patriarchal society and aggressively advocate equal opportunity for women, or deliver pumps and boreholes to peasant farmers without understanding the sociology of migratory herdsmen). Living among other people and learning to appreciate their values, perspectives and social mores is an excellent tool of design research. (To their credit, both Polak and Fisher have spent considerable time abroad, not just user-testing, but living and working with their client-partners.) Education is also a wonderful access point, as is a required second language. But how many design curricula are supporting, let alone implementing such global initiatives?

Thanks Core77

Which leads to my question - what schools are going this? Parsons, for one. Art Center College of Design is another. Karen Fiss is running the Just Design Studio at CalArts. Anyone know her or anyone know anyone at CalArts? Design21 wants to partner with schools, raise awareness, outreach, depth of involveme...

Check out this article

I think these hand-cranked LED toys are social design, not just because of the "green" aspect which is intentional, but in that they can shift our views of where energy comes from.

Toys that run magically on batteries run down... and we just go buy more. The child thinks that energy is something you go and buy - a commodity that never runs out. This toy might show children that energy is a resource that requires effort - it's not magically stored in a coppertop. Energy is work.

We look at the world as a resource we can exploit - and we need to remember that to get something out of this world you have to but effort in - no free rides!

Check out today's NYTimes Science section for this article on Interface carpet. CEO coins the phrase "Restorative Enterprise" which I really like.

People have been asking what Social Design is...one example I keep giving is Belu Water, which is featured here. An entity devised to be an engine of social and environmental change is social design - design for the greater good.

Anderson had a revelation 10 years ago...he realized that in the future, his company's mere compliance with eco-law would be criminal...in hindsight. He realized they had to do something and they did. 10 years later sustainability has slashed their waste and upped their recycling, among other things. Anderson says that the company has saved $336 million over the last 10 years from these efforts.

Cool Carpet

While no one has developed nylon yarns that can be recycled into new carpet, they have devised a way to repurpose worn tiles into making backings for new carpet, in a product line called "cool carpet", diverting 16.8 million pounds from landfills annually.

Will the introduction of these mesh networked laptops change the web? I feel at the least, with more young people, with more capacity and with education, it's hard to imagine that the web will not develop into a 3.0 that is totally unrecognizable from our nascent "2.0" perspective.

That futurism avoids George's call for thoughtful design, tho'

Cheap always winds up being expensive, I always say...when you try to cut corners, or can't afford corners, there are repercussions.

SELCO-India's profile on Cooper-Hewitt's site points this truth out...if you can't afford a good system, you pay dearly for a cheap one. SELCO indicates on their website that they help finance the purchase of these solar systems, enabling people to wean themselves from petroleum generators or car batteries for their day-to-day electricity needs. it's cleaner, but also cheaper over time. This shows again the power access to credit has to transform people's lives.