Core77

A gathering of graphic design professionals committed to serving the social good, this year's Designism, Version 3.0, had the misfortune of being scheduled opposite Thursday's Biden-Palin debate. Given that the venue was the ADC Theater in New York, that the constituency was designers and artists, and the topic was social activism, the crowd seemed to have a predictably blue hue. In this case, then, political activism and social activism intersected, and to promote attendance, we were promised from the beginning that the succession of speakers would conclude in time for the nine o' clock debate.

Core77s own Allan Chochinov kicked off the event, presenting a manifesto of design imperatives for ethical design, using examples of modern design, conceptual art and even photography from his travels to get his message across. While the European advertisement he showed using images of polar bears to convey the message "get there before it's too late" proved too awkward a combination of hypocrisy and pathos (since airlines are a major contributor to carbon footprint) to make a cogent point, other images like cell phone graveyards amply demonstrated that even a seemingly trivial field like design had serious repercussions. The subsequent speakers underscored the point with real-world projects and successes that could make any graphic designer feel like they should be doing more.

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Senior Footwear Designer: Women's Lifestyle
Columbia Sportswear
Portland, Oregon

For the Women's Lifestyle footwear products you will conceptualize and perform a wide variety of product design tasks in the development of new footwear products including the selection of components, materials, and colors. Conduct research for worldwide trends in the design of new products. You will also act as liaison for the Product Development Department throughout the manufacturing process.

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The best design jobs and portfolios hang out at Coroflot.

In Design Is More Than Packaging, the New York Times introduces "design thinking," citing Jump's work for Saturn, as well as Stanford's d.school, and Half Moon Bay's C2 Group.

The article takes a stab at actually explaining just what the heck people mean by that term....

They are proponents of "design thinking," which focuses on people's actual needs rather than trying to persuade them to buy into what businesses are selling. It revolves around field research followed by freewheeling idea generation that often leads to unexpected results.

Properly used, design thinking can weave together elements of demographics, research, environmental factors, psychology, anthropology and sociology to generate novel solutions to some of the most puzzling problems in business.

...while offering a gently sober reality check for the bandwagoneers who might be reading.

"It would be overreaching to say that design thinking solves everything. That's putting it too high on a pedestal," Mr. Kembel says. "Business thinking plus design thinking ends up being far more powerful."

Crisis in the Credit System is a four-part drama dealing with the credit crisis, scripted and directed by artist Melanie Gilligan. A major investment bank runs a brainstorming and role-playing session for its employees, asking them to come up with strategies for coping with today's dangerous financial climate. Role-playing their way into increasingly bizarre scenarios, they find themselves drawing disturbing conclusions about the deeper significance of the crisis and its effects beyond the world of finance.

Using fiction to communicate what is left out of documentary accounts of the crisis, the short, TV-style episodes reflect the strangeness of life today in which the financial abstractions that govern our lives appear to be collapsing.

Crisis in the Credit System, commissioned and produced by Artangel Interaction, is the result of extensive research and conversation with major hedge fund managers, key financial journalists, economists, bankers and debt activists.

via Eyebeam reBlog

Style maven Alice Rawsthorne asks in the New York Times style magazine whether design is still a boy's club and do women face the challenge of prejudice and misperception in the field? Personal experience seems to belie the contention, but that might just be me. What do you all think? Here are some snippets to get you thinking...

Richard Grefe, the association's executive director, says he believes women prefer to work with hand-picked teams in smaller studios for carefully chosen clients. Jongerius's experience of teaching in her native Netherlands supports this.

"To make it to the top, you need to be outspoken, self-confident and entrepreneurial, apart from having design talent," she says. "I have taught many talented young women and tried like hell to push them, but most were too shy, emotional, cautious and lacked self-confidence and ambition."

In other words, women are bedeviled by the same entitlement issues in design as in other professions and, it seems, by similar misperceptions. "When I work with manufacturers and issues arise around construction or mechanical systems, the questioning faces often turn to my male partners," says the furniture designer Rosanne Somerson. "They suggest that I could answer better - I have terrific colleagues - but even then, there are times when my answers are ignored and the question is reiterated to them."

It isn't just men who are guilty of this. "If a prospective client calls Pentagram and doesn't ask for a partner by name, I see them thinking, Why did I get the woman? when I walk in," Scher says. "Even the women do it."

via RISD blog

"Peace" by Daniel Chang, Graphic Design, a final poster from a transdisciplinary studio, instructors Martha Rich and Esther Watson, Illustration

Social impact projects that come into the classroom and burst out into the field are thrilling. The rush of creativity and the synergy of many minds working together can result in purposeful design projects to great effect: generating tangible solutions that make a lasting difference in people's lives.

Historically, designers have always strived to create positive social change, and many celebrated efforts--think back to the Bauhaus--started in schools. Both of those things remain true today. In fact, design education has a larger role than ever to play in challenging the status quo around the wicked problems of a crowded planet. Despite, and perhaps because of, the world being in such turmoil, this is a very exciting time for design and designers. I firmly believe that with an expanded tool kit, designers can be instrumental contributors to a conversation about the future that it is getting increasingly layered and multidisciplinary. If we are ever to reduce or curtail dire societal ills and achieve sustainable development--by definition, prosperity that is globally shared and environmentally sustainable--responsible design needs to be front and center as part of the equation. (For an engrossing state of the world report, see Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, by the economist Jeffrey Sachs.)

Educational institutions are vital labs for creative inquiry, entrepreneurial force and experimentation. As such, they can act as a powerful nexus for projects about critical issues that engage students in meaningful work. I have a front row seat in this dynamic field as the lead of the college-wide program Designmatters at Art Center College of Design. At the college through Designmatters, we constantly challenge ourselves to instill in our projects an empathetic approach, and to deliver "real-world" outcomes that have a killer aesthetic. At the root of the process, I am guided by a frontier-like impetus to create unusual alliances that cut across traditional boundaries between development and non-profit agencies, government and business sectors.

Camel Convoys in Kenya and testing of camel saddle and solar panel system for Mpala Community Trust with Bronx Zoo personnel

What does it look like? What does it all mean? The projects below are a few salient exemplars--the voices of some of the individuals who make them happen offer a good starting point to draw an action list from.

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In a perfect world, we wouldn't need to sell what we design--people would just know. When Industrial Designers imagine utopia, it's not only full of beautiful, functional products, it's also full of consumers who recognize them instantly and without prodding. Persuasion, in the form of logos, ad campaigns, and the ever-broadening array of activities known as branding, has attained the status of Necessary Evil to many of us. Designers--as we repeatedly tell each other in school, in the studio, and at conferences--are all about function, emotion and progress; persuasion is for shills.

If we're honest about it though, we'd have to admit that branding and ID have been intimately related for a long time. Moreover, a lot of product designers have made their careers by getting in on the branding game in the past couple of decades. It shouldn't come as any surprise to hear that the same thing is starting to happen in reverse--branding agencies are doing product, and they're doing it fairly well.

Should product designers feel threatened? Depends on who you ask.

When Your Accountant Offers to Fix Your Car
Twist had a problem. By all appearances, the young Colorado-based company had everything going for them. Their line of environmentally sensitive sponges and cleaning rags had touched a chord with consumers, and was selling well at high-end grocery and housewares stores. They were getting attention from all the right magazines and blogs. But in order to expand, they needed a bigger brand with more product offerings; major retailers like Target said so, even as they expressed interest in carrying their line.

Like a lot of companies in this situation do, Twist decided to look for help. After a few months searching, they settled on Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, an award-winning agency that happened to have an office in Twist's home town of Boulder. Crispin, however (or CP+B, as it's sometimes abbreviated), is not a product design consultancy, it's an advertising agency, and has been since its founding in 1965. The proposal that got them Twist's account included a range of brand-building services, among them the design of new additions to their product line. And it's not the first time they've done this for a client.

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Ok, we're over the crystal-bling craze, but crystal-bling-steampunk?! Yep. Hold onto your blowtorches n' chisels, design fans, the new Harman Kardon GLA-55 speakers are exactly that. Kurt Solland, the VP of ID at Harman and Core 77's very own 1HDC judge, gave us the low-down:

"The idea was to meld high-tech with craftsman styling and pushing 'Steam Punk' in an elegant way. For the technology side, there are integrated digital amplifiers with special drivers and a proprietary port to allow this to be your complete sound system. All you have to do is plug it in, throw away your old 'boxy' speakers and enjoy. For the design side, I balanced the outside, inside and refractive aesthetic. The outside surfaces had to work harmoniously with the inside surfaces which both had to combine with the refractive nature of the facets…whew! It a way it was kind of like painting with light by utilizing each individual interior as an art installation, it certainly was a very delicate 'chord' to balance just right."

And when you consider these are stuffed choc-full of treats like a 100-watt bi-amplified digital amplifier coupled with DSP equalization, Atlas AL drivers and woofers, PLUS a CMMD tweeter as well as optimisation for digital sound -- oof! -- these beauties won't stay quiet for long. To top it off, the faceted cut-glass enclosures house touch-sensitive volume controls. Yowzas.

Check out more pix after the jump...

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Gary Hustwit's research for his upcoming film Objectified has uncovered an obscure record from the mid 90's that samples Braun products. Aided by the internet, he not only managed to get hold of the album from a Braun fanatic, he was able to track down the anonymous artist as well.

Braunmusic was actually an art project released in 1996 by Köln-based painter/sculptor Johannes Wohnseifer and a group of musician friends going by the name Diverse.

You can listen to a sample track here.

The Art of Innovation, a report by NESTA, the UK innovation endowment, explores how fine arts graduates contribute to innovation in the creative industries and beyond, and what policy makers can do to support their contribution.