It’s a design emergency. Road trauma is the number one cause of death and injury for children in every country of the world. And crashes disproportionately affect the poor with 9 out of 10 deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.

While the engineers huddle over traffic and urban planning, there’s one monster big enough for the educational front.

Your lovable pal Grover has taken on the role of Global Road Safety Ambassador in support of the United Nations’s Decade of Action for Road Safety.

Ambassador Grover stars in a series of PSA’s developed by Sesame Workshop and the Global Road Safety Partnership to accompany a Road Safety Education Framework for educators, parents, and communities.

Inspired by the success of the red ribbon for HIV/AIDS and the white band against global poverty, the Decade of Action group is also promoting a yellow Road Safety Tag to increase awareness of the issue. Sports figures, celebrities, and politicians have been spotted wearing the tag.

Click below for high resolution versions.

Images can play a vital role in how effectively messages can reach various audiences. When images accompany text or a story, which element makes the difference in engaging the reader or viewer? Which motivates one to act? Using images strategically in external and internal communications planning and execution can be a vital component of success for an organization.

In addition to “reading” photos, topics include legal rights, photo sharing and distribution, and managing your archive.

Page through below or download as a PDF. (via)

Order a hoodie at cost from Spreadshirt.

Or download a printable PDF poster in black or white.

The Washington Post has state-by-state database of projects, but this piece by Stephan Salisbury on the sweeping militarization of local law enforcement puts it into perspective:

“So much money has gone into armoring and arming local law-enforcement since 9/11 that the federal government could have rebuilt post-Katrina New Orleans five times over and had enough money left in the kitty to provide job training and housing for every one of the record 41,000-plus homeless people in New York City. It could have added in the growing population of 15,000 homeless in Philadelphia, my hometown, and still have had money to spare. Add disintegrating Detroit, Newark, and Camden to the list. Throw in some crumbling bridges and roads, too.”

It’s not just policing, policy, and policy making that have changed. And its not just another transfer of wealth from tax payers to defense contractors and their shareholders. Driven by fear, cash, and “national security,” America is being physically redesigned.

The Latina art collective fulana produced the image above to satirize an ad campaign on the NYC subway.

The group is running a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a massive print run of posters, to distribute them anywhere there are #occupy supporters, and to print a limited edition portfolio of screen printed images, which will ultimately live in the permanent collections of museums, libraries, and other arts institutions.

I’m very late posting this and the funding goal has been reached, but you can still help fund an even wider print run and receive some posters and stickers for yourself. Check the project video below:

One of the first posters to be screen printed was my own riot cop image, which is an incredible honor. Click through for a video of the printing in action.

Damon Rich takes it to the bottom line and helps launch Newark's recycling campaign at City Hall in style with a lovely infographic poster "Where Newark's Garbage Goes."

Happy birthday Angela Davis. The quote is from this talk of hers on how change happens. If inclined you can download the image as a PDF.

A few things have been written on the supporting role of design in the revolution and the urban landscape as both site and medium of protest:

• The role of protest signage
  
  
• Graffiti and murals
  
  
• Planning, public squares and cities as tools of rebellion
  
  
• Flyers, manifestos and ephemera
  
  
• Cellphone cameras and social media
  
  
• Even product labeling.

But I think my favorite detail is in this annotated overview of Tahrir square by BBC News.

The authors of direct action (particularly in West Asia and North Africa) are often depicted as a rowdy mob of thugs. But instead of the usual sea of angry Arab men so often shown by the mainstream media, the photo shows a kindergarten set up in the square. Schools in Cairo had been closed during the protests, but many mothers wanted to attend the demonstration as well. So demonstrators organized an impromptu kindergarten.

The image captures the spirit of mutual support that sprang up around the occupation. And my favorite detail: the newsprint under the paintings to keep the square, the city and country they love, free from spills. No random acts of violence here, but using the city to create something new, a different future, with hope and love.