Design 21: Social Design Network

Responding to current economic, social and environmental crises, London’s New Economics Foundation are this month running The Bigger Picture, a series of creative activities and events, exploring the possibilities of 'a new kind of economy', an economy which is low in carbon and high in well-being.

The event series culminates in a large-scale, public Festival of Interdependence in central London on 24 October 2009 when an interactive, living exhibition will be staged in the dramatic post-industrial setting of the Bargehouse on London’s South Bank.

With over forty-five speakers from a range of backgrounds, including Andrew Simms (NEF), Roman Krznaric (The School of Life) and Richard Wilkinson (Equality Trust) to name but a few, The Bigger Picture offers visitors and audience a chance to actually join the conversations, learn, share and exchange skills and tell stories. Topics are big and far reaching, including the future of food and farming, the hidden costs of economic growth, civil liberties and climate change, local economics and how inequality leaves us all worse off.

Find out more at thebiggerpicture2009.org, or follow the events, live as they unravel on twitter @BiggerPicture_

Greengaged: Monday 21st September 2009:

Design for Life: Barriers to Behaviour Change; Curated by Ed Gillespie, founder of Futerra and slow travel expert.

Environmentally speaking, we’re in a bit of a mess, and we sort of know what we have to do: use less stuff whether it’s energy, materials or chemicals, cut carbon, relocalise and do things like trade in fairer ways. But we don’t. Ed Gillespie curates a day when we ask why is change happening so slowly, and what are the barriers, both behaviourally and in the context of design. This will be a day of challenges, questions and opportunities around the role of design in what we wear, what we eat, where we live and how we get around; food, fashion, homes and travel...provocative speakers, lively interactive debate and clothes-swapping: what more could you ask for?! The whole day will be hosted in partnership with the Talkaoke Wheel of Spiel, with live visualisation from The People Speak webjockeys (No singing. No punch-ups).

Breakfast Panel: 8.30 -10am Is it design’s job to save the world? A rousing debate to kick-off! Our panel of experts will offer their views on the potential for design in delivering change. Our diverse group are sure to bring a range of perspectives to the Talkaoke table and audience contributions will be actively encouraged.

Confirmed speakers:

• Roman Krznaric
• Professor John Wood (Goldsmiths University)
• Martin Hoenle (The Quiet Riot)
• Alastair Fuad-Luke (slow design)
• Sophie Thomas (thomas.matthe...

London Design Festival, 21st–25th September 2009

After an incredible launch year in 2008, the London Design Festival’s sustainability centre, greengaged, will be open again from 21-25 September with a full week of world-class events designed to help the design industry tackle the big issues around sustainable design. Hosted by the Design Council at their offices in Covent Garden, London, greengaged promises to inspire and challenge designers to create positive change.

Competition for greengaged places will be hot. Each day, 100 designers will take part in a series of debates, workshops, seminars, field trips and more – with each day taking a different theme. Everything is free of charge and can be booked at greengaged.com/events

Greengaged has been developed and organised by [re]design, thomas.matthews and the Sustainable Design Research Centre at Kingston University in association with the Design Council and supported by Saint Gobain.

Simon Berry is the founder of ColaLife, a campaign that is trying to get Coca-Cola to use its distribution channels to help save lives in developing countries. For over 10 months, Berry has been using the convening power of the Internet to rally people all over the world to lend their support and skills to a campaign that could change the way multinational businesses engage with developing countries.

Before ColaLife, Berry had spent 12 years living and working in developing countries on the British aid program. He later worked as Chief Executive of rural regeneration charity ruralnet|uk, which he founded in 2002 to help rural communities improve and strengthen their local economies. More recently, Berry worked at Defra (the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) on the implementation of Defra's Third Sector Strategy and Greener Living Fund.

Following his recent activity blogging at the G20 Summit in London (he was one of 50 international bloggers invited to the event), Berry spoke to Kate Andrews about ColaLife and his progress harnessing the distribution channel of the world’s best known brand.

[media#1]

What is ColaLife?

Simon Berry ColaLife is a simple campaign – asking Coca-Cola to use its incredible distribution capacity to get medicines, such as oral rehydration salts and high-dose Vitamin A tablets, to dying children in developing countries. We are currently in a prototyping phase where we are developing the ColaLife ‘aidpod’, a m...

Founded by More Associates Director Luke Nicholson, Kept is a new movement celebrating the "stuff" that can be kept in the world, stuff that isn't rubbish.

To get involved, Kept is asking you to tell your stories and share what "things" you have, that you are not throwing away :) Either submit your stories into the box on www.Kept.it or if you use twitter just add #kept to your tweet!

You can follow the project news on Twitter and please join the project on Facebook where you can ask questions and share news and insights!

If you had to tie a red balloon to your favourite thing, what would you tie it to?

As part of her undergraduate project Douceurs, post graduate service designer Lauren Currie (a.k.a RedJotter), took a dozen red balloons to a park in Edinburgh, and to encourage traditional communication between the public asked people she met to tie them to their favourite thing. Lauren captured the afternoon in this beautiful film!!!

Originally posted on Thriving Too

In collaboration with the Samaritans, talented photographer Hege Sæbjørnsen is organising 'Affluenza'... THE exhibition.

With an aim to promote "creative self-expression as a powerful tool to develop an understanding of ourselves and the world around us", an exhibition of works from over thirty international multidisciplinary visual and performing artists, "...aims to inspire an open debate about the destructive impact of consumer values on our emotional well-being and our integrity as human beings."

The call for artists has been launched, and entries will be selected by a prominent panel of judges, including Jonathan Barnbrook, 'Affluenza' author Oliver James and the Design Museum's Michael Czerwinski.

The deadline for submissions is 30th January 2009 and the events are scheduled to begin in March. For full details about the project visit AffluenzaExhibition.org, and you can also join the exhibition's group on Facebook.

Original Post

Proving that an ethical design career does not mean hindering creative professionalism, Loz Ives' Because Studio is one to watch!

On Tuesday the UK Design Museum announced the nominations for the 2009 Brit Insurance Design of the Year award, including a nomination for the first EVER service design project to be included in the awards – The Social Innovation Lab for Kent (SILK), by Engine.

SILK is a project and a platform Engine have been developing with Kent County Council (a local government authority in the UK) that helps users and providers of public services create better services together using design tools and processes.

Read the full story at Engine and see a video here.

Last weekend The Green Marketing Manifesto by John Grant was announced winner of the Environmental Award at the 2008 British Book Design and Production Awards. Designed and delivered by sustainable innovation practice More Associates, the hardback book reflects its content by reducing its embodied carbon and waste impact through its production methods.

John Grant is author of four books on new marketing and was a former co-founder of St Luke's, a socially aware ad agency. He now operates as an independent consultant and recent clients include the BBC, Cisco, IKEA, innocent drinks, Microsoft and Unilever.

In a blog entry, John notably highlights that books remain a relatively carbon inefficient way of spreading knowledge. However, as Luke Nicholson of More Associates explains "...it's important to remember the impact of the lifespan of the text. If writers like John can create books that will be kept for decades by their readers, then the paper is used hundreds of times more efficiently than most of our print material."

Congratulations go to John Grant, More Associates, to TJ International who produced the book, and to publishers Wiley.

Via. More Associates blog.