Design 21: Social Design Network

My name is Angela and I am from Italy. I have just graduated from Central St Martins University in London with an MA in Communication Design with distinction. I specialized in Information Design. My degree in engineering represent an important aspect of my 'dna' even if I have never worked as engineer. Immediately after my degree I did an MA in Industrial Design, I loved it and I worked as Industrial Designer at the Isao Hosoe Design studio in Milan widely known for the range of very different projects carried out at the same time. I have been project manager for a period of four months communicating to different people such as designers and engineers, experts in materials or in casting processes. That one has been one of the most formative experiences ever, but my passion for mathematics and visualizing data brought me to London where I undertook my study in Central St Martins. During my two years MA I became increasingly interested in social issues and for my self initiated I chose to deal with the water crisis. After a research that lasted five months I came across a clever indicator called WATER FOOTPRINT part of a study carried out by Unesco and the University of Twente in The Netherlands. I have visualized the water footprint of 132 countries through a 900 pages book, a flash animation, maps and models made of plexiglas. I have realized that a sustainable behavior is not only dependent on the likes of few people who avoid letting water run for hours while having a shower. There must be a whole social infrastructure to support them. Information Design plays an irreplaceable role in that direction in order to educate people, to visualize complex topics making them accessible to a non technical audience and to raise awareness on issues we cannot witness with our own eyes.