Posts Tagged ‘social change’

 
Apr 12 0 comments
ACTION

Designing Change / Changing Design

designingchange

At a time when the world is faced with rapid and dramatic changes in the economy, technology, and global communication, design can be a powerful agent for positive change.

The SEGD Annual Conference and Expo will be taking place June 2-5, 2010. This year’s theme is Designing Change/Changing Design, which will aim to encourage and inspire a movement of design for social change, as well as shift the approach of the design community towards global problems. Learn more about the conference »

New design approaches must be sustainable both economically and environmentally, must embrace our cultural and economic diversity, and must be accessible to all.

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Jan 19 0 comments
ACTION / IDEAS

Design for Social Impact Guide + Workbook

ideo_social_change

The leading innovation firm Ideo has put together this informational how-to guide (118 pages) and hands-on workbook (40 pages) outlining their ideas and insight into designing for social impact. I found these materials both interesting and informative on how to develop meaningful projects, re-strategize my process, and lead my intentions into successful outcomes.

The guide begins by describing ‘What is Design for Social Impact?’ and is then divided into the following three sections:

  • Design Principles
  • Modes of Engagement
  • Inspiration

The workbook is intended to be used along with the guide as a general framework to help define one’s own process in creating design for change. It is divided into:

  • Goals
  • Tools
  • Plans

These materials contain a vast amount of ideas and exercises, and certainly not all of it is applicable to every design firm or project, however it is a great source of inspiration to get ideas flowing towards design for positive social impact.

Download here:

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Nov 24 0 comments
ACTION

ThinkSocial Announces Inaugural Awards

thinksocial

ThinkSocial is a new non-profit initiative dedicated to advancing the use of social media in the public interest. They recently announced the three winners of the new ThinkSocial awards, “recognizing three outstanding examples of innovation, featuring – an individual, an initiative and a collaboration between institutions, which together represent powerful models for how social media can be used to address global problems.” –ThinkSocial

The winners are:

  • Kiva.org: a peer-to-peer micro-lending web site, enabling entrepreneurs in developing countries to receive loans from lenders around the world.
  • SocialVibe: helping brands direct a portion of their advertising budget into branded activities on social media platforms.
  • The March 18th Movement: Mideast Youth seeks to expand the world’s understanding of bloggers as de facto journalists, and extend the protections normally accorded to journalists to all those who share information and stories of repression and corruption online.

A special commendation award is also being presented to:

Amanda Rose: the founder of Twestival Global and Local, which is a concurrent series of offline events for charity, organized by volunteers in cities around the world via Twitter.

Learn more about ThinkSocial »

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Nov 04 1 comments
ACTION

Aspen Design Summit 2009

Aspen Design Summit

“We envision a select group of 60 designers, change leaders, NGOs,
foundations and experts coming together to engage actively in
opportunities to demonstrate design thinking in crafting solutions
for large social problems, as well as to use existing networks and
programs to accelerate change.”

The impressive list of attendees of the Aspen Design Summit next week will be collaborating to come up with design solutions and create concrete two-year implementation plans for 5-6 new projects. The themes include poverty, health care and education and collaborating organizations include UNICEF, the Mayo Clinic, and the Center for Disease Control. The Summit will include considerable dialogue and discussion of role of the design industry in leading social change initiatives. The goals of the event are ambitious and promising, and I wish I could be there. Hopefully its outcomes will be visible in the near future.

Learn more about the Aspen Design Summit »

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