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It doesn’t happen here, But Now!

Outdoor campaign for Amnesty International. Headline reads “It doesn’t happen here, But Now!”.
Agency: Walker, Switzerland.
Found at: Houtlust.

Social Cause Design - The Girl Effect

After much effort by the Nike Foundation, run by Maria Eitel, and the UN Foundation the folks at Davos were pursued to have a plenary focused on how unlocking the potential of adolescent girls in all parts of the world could have tremendous social and economic impact.

The session was an interesting lesson in experience design. Conventionally Davos sessions go straight into introductions and statements by the panelists. This time two videos were shown that powerfully communicated the potential of this movement. Before one word had been said by the panelists the audience was engaged. This made a big difference to the energy in the room and the sense of momentum that came from the session. Once again it was an example of the power of storytelling to open up opportunities. I hope the folks at Davos take note and make more use of good storytelling to set the scene for future panels.

You can see the Girl Effect video here.

Tim Brown » 08 February 2009 » In social impact »

FreeRice

Free rice began on October 7, 2007 and since then has donated 42,090,276,230 grains of rice. Test your skills by being quizzed in categories of art, chemistry, English, language learning, geography and math. For every correct answer you get, they will donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

FreeRice is a sister site of Poverty.com. Our partners are the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the United Nations World Food Program.

FreeRice has two goals:

1. Provide education to everyone for free.
2. Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

This is made possible by the generosity of the sponsors who advertise on this site.

Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your education can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.

Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.

“The 39 Clues” - Book and web-based game

Author of Book Series Sends Kids on a Web Treasure Hunt
By MOTOKO RICH
Scholastic is releasing “The 39 Clues,” a new series by Rick Riordan that is tied to a Web-based game and collectors’ cards.

“The 39 Clues” is planned as a 10-book mystery series for 8-to-12 year olds, with a different historical figure making a central appearance in each one. Scholastic is publishing it on an aggressive timetable, with plans to release one book every two to three months. In addition to writing the first book, Mr. Riordan has outlined the next nine novels, which will be written by other authors.

The story, devised in part by Scholastic’s editors, follows the exploits of Amy and Dan Cahill, two orphans, 14 and 11, who are competing against other branches of the sprawling Cahill family (a clan that has had “a greater impact on human civilization than any other family in history”) to discover the first of 39 clues. Those clues are the keys to a secret that, when revealed, will lead to ultimate power.

Scholastic has deployed its considerable marketing fire power behind the new series, which is tied to a Web-based game (www.the39clues.com) and collectors’ cards. The publisher, which thrived on the enormous success of the Harry Potter novels, is now facing the reality that many children are now as engrossed in the Internet and video games as they are in books. Read more...

Design Matters - RememberTibet

RememberTibet.org is an initiative started by Jonathan Barnbrook and Pedro Inoue designed to engage people during (and after) the Beijing Olympics Games through art and design to help raise awarness of China's policies towards Tibet. I asked Barnbrook to explain his goals:

What is your long term plan?
Our long term plan is, in some small way, to add to the weight of opinion that will change the situation. It's important, though, to not see this as only a design project even though we are asking for creative pieces; it is these pieces that can be used as tools but without getting hung up on whether they are legitimate design or not.

Do you think this will make a difference?
We will never know. Things aren't as simple as someone putting up a poster and the world will change. But I do believe that things change because of people forcing an issue onto the agenda.

What is the inspiration for the animated sequences (shown below)?
The animation is the first part of the project. It is there to publicise the web site and encourage people to contribute their own work.The main point of doing this animation is to remind people very simply and clearly about this situation in a balanced way. That is why it is just two people [in the narration] discussing the situation; there is no heroic ranting and we are trying to tackle the grey areas that Chinese government constantly tries to bring to this argument. By Steven Heller

Social Cause - Why it matters?

Liga da Kriação A full-service design studio working in corporate communications, package, and branding with a social program to help non-profit organizations. São Paulo, Brazil

Design can change is a smash/LAB initiative to help other studios to become sustainable. Vancouver, Canada.

KT Meaney: Greening the Grocery Store

In 1988, the Society of the Plastics Industry developed a resin identification code — a numbering system from 1 to 7 — categorizing different types of plastic. The code is centered in a triangle made of arrows chasing each other. This mark is commonly misidentified as the recycling symbol. Though the system was instituted to “facilitate the recycling of post-consumer plastics,” the chasing arrows graphic is meaningless. Plastic imprinted with the arrow symbol doesn’t indicate that the material is made from recycled content nor that the plastic can be recycled, misleading many.
Read more...

Book Covers Design

Covers is dedicated to the appreciation of book cover design. We update several times a week. Save for the occasional guest editor, this blog is updated and maintained by Fwis, a design firm based out of Brooklyn, NY and Portland, OR.

Let us know if you have a cover that merits posting. If possible, be sure and credit the designer. Also, please be sure and include a link to the cover, or email us an attachment.

What is blik?

blik is an I.D. Magazine award-winning* line of surface graphics created by and for people who like to change their mind. These self-adhesive wall decals (think stickers for grown-ups) allow you to easily transform the look of a living or office space in minutes. Affix blik to any smooth, flat surface such as a wall, window, mirror, ceiling, tabletop or floor. Choose your space, plan the design you'd like to make, and literally, just peel and stick. And when you're tired of your design, say after years, a month, maybe a day - the decals are removable.

Help us Choose!
Our next installment of Threadless original designs is in our voting booth. Check 'em out and voice your choice.

About Threadless
Threadless is an online-community-based tee shirt company with an ongoing open call-for-submissions. Designers submit ideas which are evaluated by over 500,000 people in the Threadless community. All submissions are evaluated by the community and given a final score. Tee shirt designs are selected by Threadless from the pool of the most popular designs. Designers currently receive a payment of $2,500 in cash and gift certificates. The project was started in 2000 by skinnyCorp. Since then, over 900 designs have been chosen for print from more than 130,000 submissions. Go say hi!

SAPPI: ideas that matter

the creative ideas of designers can have an impact far beyond the design world. they can be a powerful force for social good.

this is a call for involvement. a call for change. To submit a proposal, visit us at www.sappi.com/ideasthatmatter

deadline May 30, 2008

'Ideas that Matter' is a program from Sappi to support design for the public good.

We award monetary grants to designers throughout the world to help them create and implement projects that serve the causes that are closest to their hearts.

We want to encourage ideas that have the potential to change our lives, our communities, and our world. If you have a cause you would like to support, we invite you to make your idea a reality.

Sappi Limited - We are the leading producer of coated fine paper in a world where, despite many predictions to the contrary, paper and print continue to play a more important role in our daily lives than ever before. Our range of fine paper is widely used in a variety of applications, from books to wine labels, from magazines and brochures to catalogues and calendars.

10 Cool Gadgets You Can't Get Here -- Yet

A high-definition TV you can carry in your pocket. A remote you talk to. A dongle for bringing HDTV broadcasts to your laptop while you're on the go. Sound great? Too bad, because you'll have to cross an ocean to get them.

Illustration: Kindred T-shirts

Kindred: T-shirt designs
All of our t-shirts are printed on American made 100% cotton (except where noted) fine jersey material with a great fit. We use an intense process to print our graphics on tees which gives them a soft hand and comfortable wear. Our inks take on some of the shirt color during this process and become less bright to achieve this goal. Kindred is the combination of the rural durability ethic and the aspiration of a design metropolis. Kindred's tshirt designs are based on the causes of inspiration, be it a work ethic, exploration or nature translated into a visual language.

powerHouse Books: Why I make books

powerHouse Books, world-renowned and critically acclaimed publisher is best known for a diverse publishing programme—specialized in fine art, documentary, pop culture, fashion, and celebrity books. We have blazed a trail through the staid book publishing industry, releasing books that have sparked cultural trends and redefined commonly held perceptions of the purpose and role of art books in contemporary culture. While much is known of our books, little is known of the people who have made powerHouse Books a global name.

Founder and Publisher Daniel Power started powerHouse Book in 1995 and was joined by Craig Cohen in 1996. The early years had Power and Cohen tag-teaming on a few books at a time, raising the bar each season when, in 1998, powerHouse Books had its first best-seller, Women Before 10 A.M. by Véronique Vial, and followed up that success in 1999 with the critically-acclaimed cult monographs X-Ray by François Nars and Life is Paradise by Francesco Clemente and Vincent Katz.

Why I make books by Daniel Power
Some people ask me why I make books, in my case illustrated volumes of photography and the photographic image. To some, I say "We're stupid and don't know any better," and to others I lament it's the only thing we know how to do, and such is our lot. But then, truth be told, thinking about it, it's our native human desire to tell stories, or more precisely help others tell them, and our medium is the photographic image, and few have become literate in appreciating it (hence the minute audience), and even fewer in constructing it well, even among the highly regarded publishers. Read more...

Welcome to THE POWERHOUSE ARENA a laboratory for creative thought.
The POWERHOUSE ARENA showcases a series of landmark exhibitions, performances, and controlled mayhem fusing the worlds of art, photography, design, fashion, pop culture, advertising, music, dance, film, and television into a glorious whirlwind of captivating spectacle.

Peter Mendelsund: Book Cover Design

An Interview with the Designer by Christopher Tobias | January 30, 2008

This is an updated, revised and greatly expanded edition of an interview that Peter Mendelsund graciously undertook for Books Covered. As a senior designer at Knopf and the art director for Vertical Press, an independent Japanese-American publisher, Peter has risen to become part of the all-star lineup of designers at Random House, including John Gall, Carol Devine Carson, and Chip Kidd.

The Talk Market: Making a Web Commercial

Mr. Singer joined last year with Amanda Eilian, a former Baker scholar at Harvard Business School, to build The Talk Market, which helps businesspeople shoot, edit and post videos to the Web. The service costs nothing, although users share with The Talk Market a 5 percent commission whenever someone clicks on the “buy” button in the video window.

The Talk Market begins with an online tutorial on how to shoot product demonstration videos: light well, change camera angles, speak as if you are talking to a friend and look directly into the lens “as if you’re locking eyes with your audience.”

E-Commerce Report

A D.I.Y. Approach to Making a Web Commercial

By BOB TEDESCHI

Published: March 10, 2008

Online start-ups are percolating new methods to help companies create passable videos and commercials on the cheap, and distribute them across the Internet.

MOMA: Design and the Elastic Mind

Over the past twenty-five years, people have weathered dramatic changes in their experience of time, space, matter, and identity. Individuals cope daily with a multitude of changes in scale and pace—working across several time zones, traveling with relative ease between satellite maps and nanoscale images, and being inundated with information. Adaptability is an ancestral distinction of intelligence, but today’s instant variations in rhythm call for something stronger: elasticity, the product of adaptability plus acceleration.
Design and the Elastic Mind explores the reciprocal relationship between science and design in the contemporary world by bringing together design objects and concepts that marry the most advanced scientific research with attentive consideration of human limitations, habits, and aspirations. The exhibition highlights designers’ ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and history—changes that demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior—and translate them into objects that people can actually understand and use. This Web site presents over three hundred of these works, including fifty projects that are not featured in the gallery exhibition.

Lexus Missing H ad

H Is for Help!What's wrong with the new Lexus H ads.
By Seth Stevenson
Posted Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008, at 11:19 AM ET

The Spot: Children in a classroom recite the alphabet. When they reach H, they fizzle into an awkward silence. Subsequent scenes show us a typewriter with a blank where the H key should be, the Yahoo logo spelled Ya oo, and the famous "Hollywood" sign missing its first letter. The ad concludes by showing us the H as it reappears on the back of a Lexus automobile. An announcer says: "The power of h. The Lexus hybrids." (Click here to watch the ad.)

Loremo: The 'Low Resistance Mobile'

The idea is deceptively simple. Forget about fancy batteries, regenerative braking, and alternative fuels. Instead, make a car that's elegant in its minimalism and efficiency. The Loremo's German designers revisited the basics — engine efficiency, low weight, and minimal drag — to create a car that offers fuel-efficiency in the neighborhood of 130 to 150 miles per gallon. The Loremo is likely to dazzle drivers not with its acceleration, but with its ability to drive from New York to L.A. with only three stops at the pump. Read more...

Super Bowl XLII Ad Showdown

Pick your favorite commercials and then vote for the overall winner.