Design 21: Social Design Network

London's Royal College of Art are to launch Slow Water, an exhibition set to explore new design concepts focused toward sustainability and water useage.

Featuring the work of Platform 10, a group of Design Products students from the RCA, the exhibitors were asked to engage in sustainable thinking and offer practical, design-led solutions to the way people use and think about water in their day-to-day life. Their brief: to 'slow water down between the sky and the sea'.

Slow Water is open 10am-6pm daily from 21 September - 4 October at the Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore, London, SW7.

As part of the London Design Festival, The UK Design Council are holding a breakfast discussion on 21st September focused toward Sustainability.

• Sustainability - there's no bigger challenge, and no bigger opportunity, for design right now. Over breakfast, three quick-fire conversations will aim to cut through the terminology and spark fresh thinking on how design fits into sustainable production and consumption, climate change and energy, and sustainable communities.*

Speakers include John Thackara from Dott07 and Doors of Perception, Andreas Zachariah designer of the Carbon Hero, winner of the BSI Sustainability Design Awards 2007 and Greta Corke from designers DIY Kyoto (pictured).

*Design Council Event

I am quite excited by the news that just came through to my inbox. The EcoLabs panel discussion The Greening of Design and Illustration at the London Design Festival has announced that the panel will now be moderated by design theorist John Thackara. As an huge follower of John's work, this has made my day!! and undoubtably is sure to enhance the event. What an exciting combination of future thinking designer's all to be under the same roof.

Scanning the pages of Flickr, I came across a great initiative called Good 50x70; a poster design contest run this year. Focused toward five social issues: Aids, Environmental Damage, Human rights violation, Underdevelopment and War; Amnesty, Amref, Emergency, Greenpeace and Lila created briefs for the creative contestants to answer. The aim; "to raise public awareness (particularly amongst people inside the communication industry) of the relevance and importance of social communication. A successful communication is a real drive for social change."

Good 50x70 describes the project: "Social communications nowadays is moving in two directions that rarely meet: on one side there are the occasional work that an agency donates to its social clients, often mixing different aims; and on the other side, really creative and innovative communication which tries to get free itself from the agency/client logic. The very meaning of our contest is to shake the current state of things by creating workshop where free creativity faces crucial issues while being enlightened by experience, with the aim of making a real contribution to society and truly making a difference."

Do take a look at the Good 50x70 exhibition photos on flickr, and the competition winners here. This is a undoubtably an inspiring project with a timely future mindset; yet scanning the winning designs I am yet to find a unique style, that separates this socially conscious graphic design from any other...

Review by Kate Andrews and Rose Stewart.

A recent Design Week article commented on the UK Government Report; Sustainable Schools: Are we building schools for the future?, highlighting an important area of research for all undergraduate designers, teachers and practising designers to take note of; The Future of Design Education.

The UK Design Council CEO David Kester, Hilary Cottam of Participle and John Sorrell of The Sorrell Foundation, were among those giving evidence for the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee report Sustainable Schools, discussing the Building Schools for the Future programme.

With plans to rebuild and refurbish all secondary schools across England over the next fifteen years it is argued that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity should encompass good design and good design practice to thoroughly embrace a future of better education and educational environments. Parallel to the development plans across secondary education, the design sector is under reform with concerns on the skills designers should be equipped with when they join the industry. The High Level Skills for Higher Value report addresses how the design industry is on the cusp of radical change, which although has been apparent in my eyes for many years, is a promising statement to come from the UK Government.

The report is the UK Design Skills Development Plan created by the Design Skills Advisory Panel, consisting of designers and industry experts, and supported by the Design...

FYS (Finish Your Self) junior is a project by David Graas. An inspiring green-design that uses its own cardboard packaging as its solution. "Puzzle your own chair together (with a little help from mama) using a large part of the packaging. The chair is made from corrugated cardboard and is 100% recyclable." See more images of the project here

Does illustration and graphic design have a role to play in climate change? On September 20th, 2007 at London College of Communication, Eco-Labs open the discussion as part of the 2007 London Design Festival. Greening of Design & Illustration will include speakers representatives from leading UK sustainability design studio, Thomas Matthews and the British Council.

Eco-Labs explain: As creative communicators we are in a position to help to change attitudes – working towards ultimately changing behavior patterns, policies and systems. Here is a challenge for designers and illustrators: visualize a better low energy future. We used to see visions of the future with jet packs and monorails. Now we need to mainstream a picture of a more human sized, earth connected and energy realistic future.

Here is a lovely London studio by the name of RANCH, whom have produce a wonderful sample of socially conscious graphic design solutions.

What would happen if all bloggers, from all 4corners of our planet posted an article about the same topic all on the same day? Well the question is to be answered! Thanks to Georgios for the heads up on this one! An international initiative of bloggers known as Blog Action Day launched on Wednesday, with the aim of uniting thousands of blogging voices, talking about one issue for one day. This year on the non-profit initiative, which is slated for Oct. 15, 2007, bloggers will be discussing the environment. This will hopefully display the potential and the power of the blogging community, which is a disparate community but one with an amazing size, breadth and diversity.

The UK Design Council are addressing an issue that remains on the tip of my tongue. Working with the London Development Agency, the Design Council project entitled Competitiveness in industry, Supporting growth in the creative economy is part of The Cox Review of Creativity in Business.

The Cox Review recommended that a network of ‘Creativity and Innovation’ centres should be set up throughout the UK with a central hub in London. This quite simply sounds like a magnificent initiative and certainly something that I feel would benefit many.

With an educational focus, I have been speaking with students and graduates across the country and am ever amazed to hear of their fears of the industry. With the creative arena more powerful than ever before, how can we expect out innovative designers and young talents to hit the moving runway walking. It is amazing to discover the number of graduate talents who have fears and low beliefs of getting a “good job”, let alone making any impact within the industry.

Consistently told by designers, how the industry revolves by word-of-mouth marketing and employment, I question if this previous method of promotion and sourcing talent needs a new spin. Designers are everywhere and no longer are we looking for the MAC guru, but the industry needs entrepreneurs, and big thinkers. With the rise of Socially Conscious businesses and organisations, not to mention the environmental arena, the capabilities and opportunities for designers are li...