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Compostmodern: Putting together a one-day design conference dedicated to promoting sustainable design |
Compostmodern details available here |
Tuesday, December 16, 2003 The evolution of a blog has got to be one of the most interesting things to watch. Since this is my first blog I jumped in with both feet, offering long and frequent posts about the planning process for the Compostmodern conference. Now, a few months later things have slowed down a bit. I don't want you to think we've lost interest in the process or the blog here at AIGA. That just isn't the case. The truth is that I have been very busy coordinating not only this conference but another 15 events for the spring of 2004. The design community is keeping me very busy. Excuses, excuses. I know. You don't want to hear it. You are a dedicated reader of the Compostmodern blog and these petty issues just don't cut it. So what's happening with Compostmodern? Our list of confirmed speakers has been set for several weeks now and we are working with each of them to assure that their presentation runs smoothly. At the end of last week we put together a tentative speaker schedule for the day with three tracks of content. This will be available for download off our website very soon. Speakers are completing and returning their audio/visual forms to us (2 of 17 so far - who said planning conferences was easy), we are working with the venue to set up the floorplan, working with our a/v techs to provide three theaters of continuously running content and trying our hardest to get folks like you to register for the conference. Without you, the conference won't have the kind of impact we think it should have. We do have a superb group of speakers. So what do I need to do to get you there? Low price, got it! Great content? Got it! Throw in breakfast and lunch with the price? Did it! Feed you wine after the conference during a congenial post-conference reception? Done! Entertain you with a silent auction, bookstore and gallery? You talked us into it! Invitations were mailed last week to 5000 members of AIGA and IDSA on the west coast. Of course we'd like to extend our range and have a some east coast representation. If you would like an invitation please let me know. You can also learn more about the conference at our dedicated website, www.compostmodern.org. We are currently taking registrations. Wednesday, December 03, 2003 Compostmodern keeps rolling on! With seventeen speakers on tap we expect a very full day of valuable content. Recent conference activity includes the purchase of a new url for the conference, www.compostmodern.org. We expect it should be up and running in a week or so. It will include all the information you'll need including a conference schedule and registration information. We have also partnered with the industrial design program at the California College of the Arts to co-present the event with AIGA and IDSA. Conference sponsors have been climbing on board as well. Stora Enso, HP, New Leaf Paper, Anderson Lithograph and Alameda County Waste Management have all agreed to support Compostmodern. Together with conference content we will be hosting a gallery of sustainable design. Here is a great opportunity to display your work to our conference attendees. We are looking for graphic and industrial designers who have completed projects for clients or completed hypothetical projects that deal with the issues surrounding sustainable. We'd love to see your plans, drawings and layouts for possible inclusion in our onsite conference gallery. We will accepting original files and will print out designs in large format on a plotter. These will grace the walls of the California College of the Arts throughout the day and into the post-conference reception. If you would like to participate or need more information please email us at info@aigasf.org. Tuesday, November 25, 2003 First let's wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. While your enjoying all that turkey and stuffing start thinking about how you might be able to join us in San Francisco on January 24, 2004 for Compostmodern. We are just about to release files for our conference invitation. The piece was designed by the dynamic duo of Gary and Robert Williams. The Williams brothers are not only identical twin graphic designers but also two of the brightest and most accomplished designers in San Francisco. Gary had been working at the award winning firm of Cahan & Associates up until recently. Cahan is known for redefining annual reports in the 1990's and they are still doing it today. In 2002 Gary's design for the Maxygen annual report won the AIGA San Francisco Environmental Leadership Award. The piece was printed as a small format booklet on Vision Paper's 100% Kenaf stock using soy inks. If you aren't familiar with Kenaf it is a member of the hibiscus family and makes for great tree-free paper. Regardless of its enviro street-cred, the piece was beautiful. Robert is no slouch either. He had been working with another award winning Bay Area firm, Howry Design. Together they recently decided to move their twin talent to Apple where they will be working to redefine the look and feel of Apple's communication graphics. With the invitation comes some other new developments. We recently decided to purchase www.compostmodern.org. Expect to hear more about this new url and an updated site with all the information you'll need to attend the conference. Early bird pricing is now in affect. AIGA and IDSA members will pay $50, students (with valid ID) will pay $60 and non members will join us for $70. Ah, the benefits of membership. Groups of 5 or more will receive $10 of their registration category. As a reminder, registration includes a continental breakfast, lunch and a post-conference wine & water reception on top off all that superb content. We'll also have a running exhibition of eco work, a silent auction of design items and a hands-on workshop about adaptive re-use. If you're ready to register now we are ready for you. Call AIGA San Francisco at 415.626.6008 to register over the phone using a credit card or send your check (made payable to AIGA SF) to us at 1111 8th Street, San Francisco CA 94107. Rather have a copy of the invitation first? Email us your contact address and we'd be happy to send one to you. Our email address is info@aigasf.org. Have a great Thanksgiving and start thinking about all that compost! Wednesday, November 19, 2003 It looks like our (almost) final list of Compostmodern speakers is available. Of course we have a few last minute invites floating out there but our invitation for the conference needs to go on press shortly. So our confirmed speaker to date are (in no particular order): Keynote Address: Ambassador Richard Swett, FAIA Architect Former Congressman and Ambassador to Denmark Speakers: Jim Weinbauer VP of Environmental Affairs Stora Enso Karl Rabago Sustainability Alliances Leader Cargill Dow LLC Bob Lewis Vice-President Anderson Lithograph Ted Smith Executive Director Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition Nathan Shedroff Digital Design Guru Jeff Mendelsohn President New Leaf Paper Philip White Principal Orb Analysis for Design Jim Ales Design Director Monterey Bay Aquarium Corey Jones Material Lab Coordinator California College of the Arts Bob Adams Sustainable Design Services Initiative Leader The Natural Step/IDEO Shoshana Berger Editor in chief Ready Made w/Grace Hawthorne Daniell Hebert Principal MOTO Engineering Ed Quevado Senior Counsel and Director, Environmental Management and Sustainability Programs WSP Environmental Brian Dougherty Graphic Designer Celery Design Collaborative Dr. Cynthia Flanagan Technical Expert in Plastics Research Ford Motor Company Jon Bielenberg Principal C2 It is a great line up. Now we're working on the conference schedule, the bookstore, gallery, silent auction, post-conference reception and more. If you'd like us to send you an invitation to the event please email us at info@aigasf.org with your contact information and we'll kepp you current. More to come in the next week or two... Monday, November 10, 2003 My dear loyal blog readers, I apologize for not blogging over the last week. Things have been super busy at AIGA. We have our big, annual fundraiser on November 13 and it is taking up most of my bandwidth. I am going to squeeze in this missive with the little time I have. Well, I wish I could tell you that all of the open invitations we had out have been responded to in a purely positive way. Alas, that isn't the case. Most are still open and I am making final pitches to a variety of answering machines. We have been able to confirm a few more speakers. Most recently Dr. Cynthia Flanagan, a technical expert in plastics research at Ford Motor Company's Research and Advanced Engineering Laboratory, agreed to join us. Cynthia is working on a variety of soy-based, flexible polyurethane foams, natural fiber reinforced sheet compounds and bio-based thermoplastic resins for the automotive industry. She contributed to the creation of the Model U sustainable SUV project that Ford unveiled at last year's Detroit auto show. We may even have the Model U on site! We're working with Ford to see if we can have it in San Francisco for Compostmodern. We'll see. As a reminder Compostmodern will take place on Saturday, January 24, 2004 in San Francisco at the California College of the Arts. Registration prices and a conference schedule with all of our speakers will be made available very soon. There is still lots more to do to get ready for the conference. I'll try to find some time later this week for another installment. Thursday, October 30, 2003 So how do you coordinate a one-day conference for designers? I'll give you a great example. AT&T just called me to try and get us to switch telephone companies. They asked to speak with the person responsible for making decisions about the telephone service. I told them that person wasn't here. They asked when they should call back. I told them tomorrow. Twenty minutes later AT&T called again and asked to speak with the person responsible for making decisions about the telephone service. I told them that person wasn't in the office. They hung up on me. The funny thing is that we have AT&T as our long distance carrier. I guess they want to muscle in on the local scene. So how does telephone service relate to Compostmodern? It doesn't really, but I do make lots of repeat phone calls to potential speakers who I'm sure are very busy. I call and leave voice mail, I email them and then I call again. I'm tenacious. I know that I have to be. I am just one person, or one conference, competing for their attention and interest. If I get lucky they'll return the call and I'll have a chance to convince them of the importance of this conference. Paola Antonelli from MOMA in New York just called back this morning. We invited her because we'd like to get a curatorial take on the importance of sustainable design. Alas, she can't make the conference but offered some great suggestions for other speakers. We'll follow up on those this week. By the way she returned my call almost immediately. She's one classy lady. And that accent, wow! So, I must have a dozen open calls out to manufacturers and designers right now. Maybe you can help me? Do you know anyone at a major product design firm, manufacturer or materials company that is doing something awesome (and green)? Give them a call and let them know about Compostmodern. They might be interested and with your referral they might return my calls. It isn't all that bad. I'm just trying to be funny here or maybe it has been a bad week. It's bound to happen. We have confirmed some more superb speakers including: Nathan Shedroff (Nathan is one of the country's foremost digital designers and has started work on a sustainability labeling initiative), Bob Lewis, Vice-President at Anderson Lithograph (Anderson operates what is perhaps the most sustainable printing facility in the United States out of Los Angeles, CA), Jeff Mendelsohn, the president of New Leaf Paper (if you bought the latest Harry Potter book in Canada then you know it was printed on New Leaf stock), Philip White of Orb Analysis for Design (Philip helped establish the eco-design tool kit for IDSA National and continues to design, speak about life cycle assessment, and create eco-curriculum for design schools), and Shoshana Berger, Editor in Chief of ReadyMade Magazine will speak with Grace Hawthorne (also of ReadyMade) about adaptive re-use and they will lead attendees in re-use exercises throughout the day. Monday, October 27, 2003 The weeks are speeding by now and we are getting closer and closer to our Compostmodern sustainability conference. We have invitations out to a variety of companies who have made efforts to show how sustainable design can lead to great results. These include Patagonia, Interface Fabrics Group, Ford Motor Company, Nike, and HAG Furniture. We hope that our contacts will agree to speak. We were able to confirm Bob Adams from The Natural Step. The Natural Step is an international organization that uses a science-based, systems framework to help organizations and communities understand and move towards sustainability. As an international advisory and research organization, they work with some of the largest resource users on the planet to create solutions, models and tools designed to accelerate global sustainability. The Natural Step engages with companies to transform the way they do business by integrating sustainability principles into their core strategies, decisions, operations and bottom line. Since 2001, Bob Adams has been working on the development of The Natural Step's Sustainable Design Services initiative. Trained as a mechanical engineer and product designer, his background is multi-disciplinary. He has practiced and taught in the fields of design, music and agriculture for the past 20 years, worked as a consultant for corporations including Hewlett Packard and Interval Research Corporation, and served as an analyst with groups such as IDEO and Jupiter Communications. Bob has taught at Stanford University and the Royal College of Art where speaks on product design, human-computer interaction design and music. He holds six patents in human-computer interface design, and has been the recipient of several international design awards. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University in mechanical engineering and product design. We're excited to have him join our growing list of top notch speakers. | |
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