February 2010

Design Against the Death Penalty. death-is-not-justice.png The death penalty will be the next focus of Poster for Tomorrow, an international, collaborative poster project. The project will culminate on October 10, 2010, the world day against the death penalty coordinated by the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Posters are intended to be used by campaigners around the world and will be chosen in part for their reproducibility. The call for entries will open on April 10 with posters due in June. The project is run by 4tomorrow an independent, non-profit organization based in Paris that promotes active citizenship through the medium of design.
>  25 February 2010 | LINK | Filed in
Always Wear Your Seatbelt. Stunning short video from the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership. The whole ad is one a simple, slightly surreal scene, but touches a deep, emotional place — a similar place to the recent Google ad, another simple, powerful video that’s surreal in its own way. Nicely done. (Via)
>  19 February 2010 | LINK | Filed in ,

Free Business Card Printing

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Fans of this blog, Next Day Flyers got in touch to offer free printing of 1,000 standard business cards to one lucky reader. These are glossy, full color, double-sided and would make a nice subversive palm card for a worthy cause. Next Day will include free ground shipping anywhere in the Continental U.S.

To enter, leave a comment here before February 28, 11:59PM EST. You must include your email address (though it will not show up publicly on the site) and you must be 18 or over to enter. On March 1, 2010 one commenter will be selected randomly.

Update 3/1:: Comments are now closed. Congratulations Brian!

>  18 February 2010 | LINK | Filed in ,
Job Loss to Recovery. The Obama administration has posted an infographic to bolster claims that a year after its signing, the Recovery Act is working wonders. I get the point, but the y-axis label is confusing: wouldn’t negative job loss be the same as job creation? Regardless, I had a different picture of the recovery.
obama-job-loss.png
>  17 February 2010 | LINK | Filed in , ,
When Fear Turns Graphic. swiss_minarets_poster.png“Switzerland stunned many Europeans, including not a few Swiss, when near the end of last year the country, by referendum, banned the building of minarets... A poster was widely cited as having galvanized votes for the Swiss measure but was also blamed for exacerbating hostility toward immigrants and instigating a media and legal circus.”
>  15 February 2010 | LINK | Filed in

Three Little Words

Love

Artist Unknown. Via.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

>  14 February 2010 | LINK | Filed in

Non-Profit Design

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How does one make design for social change sustainable and scalable? To build a replicable model and an enduring momentum?

As someone who’s worked with non-profits for many years, I’ve occasionally thought about perhaps starting one of my own as a way of institutionalizing some of my activism and work, ideas, research and outreach.

You might be surprised to learn that the largest charity in the world is not run by Bill and Melinda Gates, but is one that promotes and supports innovation in the field of architectural and interior design. That’s the Stichting INGKA Foundation, the Dutch Foundation that owns IKEA.

I have more modest ambitions and checking out the prior art, I found there’s no shortage of design-driven non-profit organizations. A search on GuideStar, a database of non-profit organizations, turns up over 5,000 search results matching the term “design.” In my survey of design-centric non-profit organizations here are some I thought were notable. This list is not exhaustive (for instance, it does not include some amazing educational institutions, museums, or documentary projects) and the examples here are all US-based, but take a look.

Continue reading "Non-Profit Design" »

>  12 February 2010 | LINK | Filed in , ,
Impact: Design for Social Change. This summer SVA will hold a six-week intensive workshop on design for social change in New York City. Sessions will focus on developing a collaborative project as well as your own non-client-based project — and funding it.
>  11 February 2010 | LINK | Filed in

Tracking the Recovery

>  1 February 2010 | LINK | Filed in ,


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