Category Archives: Education

Don’t Mess with Design Thinking…..?

This week, Michael Roller challenged young designers to reconsider saving the world.

Stop Saving the World

…Unless you actually are. Designers have identified that their skills can help people beyond the mass markets of the first world, but we’re far from making a big impact on our own. The truth is, some designers like talking about making a difference more than they like actually doing it. Raising awareness is only a small first step towards fixing one of the world’s many problems. If you really want to make a difference, think about volunteering at a soup kitchen…or moving to India.

Ramsey Ford is an industrial designer who recently took on this challenge by moving to India and starting the non-profit Design Impact. “Last year, I attended the ‘Design for a Better World’ conference at RISD. What struck me most about the conference was that the common thread was not design, but entrepreneurship. The mantra for the weekend seemed to be, ‘shut up and do it’.” Ramsey plans to make a real difference by gaining empathy for India’s true design needs. Admittedly, this is pretty bold, but what have you done lately to design a better future?

Rolland is merely advising recent graduates to, in a sense, shut-up and get-started already. In the context of ‘self-promotion’, selling your personal brand as ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’ (or whatever buzz word you happen to run with) is really nothing above insult if you are not in fact taking this challenge seriously.

Matthew E. May wrote “Design Thinking 101” earlier this month and cited the Wikipedia definition of the process (taken from a 1969 book by Herbert Simon called The Sciences of the Artificial):

Design thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result. It is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to meet user needs and drive business success. Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the “building up” of ideas.

Pergaps the real challenge is for designers to stay away from Design Thinking as a brand image alone, and move creatively toward incorporating the process into every aspect of their work.

Source: Core 77, Open Forum

FEI Staff Training and Student Workshops

Ethics have a high profile in the fashion industry today. Are you equipped, as a tutor or student, with the knowledge and skills to engage with these issues?

Fashioning an Ethical Industry (FEI) runs staff training and student workshops at schools, colleges and universities on themes related to working conditions in garment manufacture. Through our training events we encourage staff and students to critically examine different perspectives on workers’ rights and initiatives to improve conditions.
FEI training combines our extensive knowledge with a participatory educational approach, building on participants’ existing knowledge and experience and using a range of activities and different media such as films, role-play and presentations.

More info: Fashioning an Ethical Industry

Source: FEI

Watch: FTA’s ” Sustainable Fashion 101″

Based out of Toronto, Canada, Fashion Takes Action is a member’s based organization dedicated to transforming the fashion industry. FTA helps businesses, as well as designers, students, consumers and researchers, become more aware of their social and environmental impact, while learning the benefits of operating a more sustainable business.

Up this week on the FTA site is video coverage of their recent event “Sustainable Fashion 101.” Presentations from FTA Founder, Kelly Drennan, Andrea Stairs, Head of Marketplace Development at eBay, Ellen Karp, President of Anerca, Elsa Poncet, ECOCERT Europe, and Lorraine Smith, an Independent Sustainability Consultant can be viewed here.

Also, stay tuned to FTA this Fall for the upcoming workshop “Eco Garble – Eco Garbage = Eco Garb” with Lorraine Smith.

Here is an overview of the workshop:

Many clothing retailers are offering eco-products in response to consumer demand for green. But it’s not always clear why products are eco-friendly; in some cases the environment may actually be the worse for wear in spite of the greenest of intentions.

There is a lot of information about environmentally sustainable fabric out there. Some of it is helpful and based on scientific, time-tested facts. Some of it is greenwash. And some of it is a confusing mix of both.

Why is bamboo more sustainable than cotton? Or is it?
Is the flame-retardant in babies’ sleepwear safe for the environment? Or for babies?
Why do some say wool is baaaad for the environment even though it’s renewable?

This half-day workshop will take a life cycle approach to garments and environmental sustainability. During the workshop participants will:

Experience a hands-on survey of raw materials in fabrics including wool, cotton, flax, cellulosics (rayon, bamboo, soy), and petrochemical-based fibres, providing an understanding of what these materials are in their simplest form, and how they are harvested/extracted and processed into cloth.
Review the environmental and social risks and opportunities associated with different fibre sources throughout the life cycle of textile products.
Identify through interactive discussion ways to measure, manage, and communicate environmental improvements, firmly instilling the “eco” in “eco-garb.”

Slow Textiles: Making the Myths Visible-A New Approach to Sustainability in Design & Design Education 2009/10

Talk 7: The Movement of Cultural Interpretation – Pattern is Now Good, Pattern is Now Bad (Clips from Ikea’s “Chuck Out Your Chintz” campaign, c.1993.)

Thanks to the Fashioning and Ethical Industry Bulletin for highlighting these upcoming talks – Slow Textiles: Making the Myths Visible-A New Approach to Sustainability in Design & Design Education 2009/10. The slow textiles group presents a platform for Design, Community, Dialogue and the dissemination of Textile Methodologies that are Sustaining as well as Sustainable. There are 9 talks in total. You can catch the details on the Social Alterations Events Calendar. Stay tuned for more updates- sessions 1-5 are up on the calendar, but the dates for sessions 6-9 are TBA.

Dr. Emma Neuberg’s forthcoming talks and workshops are designed to stimulate debate in and around the subject of Sustainable Thinking in Design & Design Education. These unique and pioneering dialogues arise from 15 years teaching experience and design research. They weave design, design education, psychology, well-being theory, sociology and semiotics into a new structure for study and dialogue.

Talk 1(November 21^st, 2009): Oppression and Dysfunction Through Design – A Window on to Destructive Social Aspects of Design

Talk 2 (February 27^th, 2010): Different Ways of Thinking – An Introduction to Making Thought Conscious

Talk 3 (March 13^th, 2010): Identification of Designers’ Motivations – Locating & Giving Voice to the Designer’s Long-term Vision

Talk 4 (May 15^th, 2010): Group Dynamics, Power Struggles & Social Hierarchies – Shedding Light on Old Patterns of Production

Talk 5 (June 26^th, 2010): Imperative Psychoanalytic Tools for Design Practice – Introduction to Projection and the Mechanics of Enactment

Talk 6 (TBA): Repression and Dysfunction in Design – A Window on to the Dark Forces Manifest in Products

Talk 7 (TBA): The Movement of Cultural Interpretation – Pattern is Now Good, Pattern is Now Bad

Talk 8 (TBA): Imperative Psychoanalytic Tools for Critical Theory – An Introduction to Object Relations Theory

Talk 9 (TBA): Semiotics as Starting Place – A Designer’s Constructive Tool

Source: FEI Bulletin

What not to wear – child labour and cotton

NOTE: This event has been re-scheduled from June when it was cancelled due to the tube strike

Title: What not to wear – child labour and cotton
Location: London
Link out: Click here
Description: Uzbekistan is the third biggest exporter of cotton in the world. Its booming cotton industry generates over US$1billion annually, but the industry, which largely supplies the European market, is underpinned by a system of state-sponsored forced labour, particularly of children.

This event will focus on what can be done to end the use of forced labour in the cotton industry. Considering the action taken by some retailers to ban Uzbek cotton from their products, why do other retailers continue to use it? How can we as consumers ensure that the products we buy are free from slave labour and that we are not inadvertently contributing to the problem?

Film Screening of White Gold: the true cost of cotton by the Environmental Justice Foundation followed by a panel discussion featuring Lucy Siegle, journalist, author and presenter (chair), Joanna Ewart-James (Anti-Slavery International), Juliette Williams (The Environmental Justice Foundation) and Steve Grinter (International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers’ Federation).

This event will be hosted by EJF, Amnesty International and Anti-Slavery International on October 8th at the Human Rights Action Centre in London.

Source: FEI
Start Time: 7pm
Date: 2009-10-08

Ethical Fashion Show Paris: Education For Sustainable Fashion

Title: Ethical Fashion Show Paris: Education For Sustainable Fashion
Location: Paris, France
Link out: Click here
Description: Fashioning an Ethical Industry will be hosting a round table on Education for Sustainable Fashion at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris from 1pm to 3:30pm on Sunday October 4th 2009. The event will take place at Tapis Rouge: 67, rue du fg St Martin 75010 Paris.

Speakers and themes are to be confirmed. The event is aimed at fashion tutors and students but everyone is welcome. Tickets will be available from the Ethical Fashion Show website nearer the time.

Source: FEI
Date: 2009-10-04

Project H: 5 Tenets for responsible design

Emily Pilloton is the founder of Project H. If you aren’t already familiar with the initiative, Pilloton’s Design (Anti) Manifesto will give great insight into the type of design goals Project H is working towards.

This week in Inspire, she wrote on the 5 tenets driving her organization.

There is no chapter without action.
Design with, not for.
Start locally, scale globally.
Document, measure and share.
Design systems not stuff.

This is definitely worth a read, with detailed examples on each. If these tenets were adopted by fashion design educators within their individual curriculum, fashion design students might realize their enormous potential and responsibility to design solutions.

You might also note that she has a new book coming out in September, with a forward from Allan Chochinov of Core77, titled Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People.

Below is an excerpt from the back cover. You can sign up here to receive an email notification when the book is available for purchase.

Urgent and optimistic, a compendium and a call to action, Design Revolution is easily the most exciting design publication to come out this year. Featuring more than 100 contemporary design objects and systems–safer baby bottles, a high-tech waterless washing machine, low-cost prosthetics for landmine victims, Braille-based Lego-style building blocks for blind children, wheelchairs for rugged conditions, sugarcane charcoal, universal composting systems, DIY soccer balls–that are as fascinating as they are revolutionary, this exceptionally smart, friendly and well-designed volume makes the case for design as a tool to solve some of the world’s biggest social problems in beautiful, sustainable and engaging ways–for global citizens in the developing world and in more developed economies alike. Particularly at a time when the weight of climate change, global poverty and population growth are impossible to ignore, Pilloton challenges designers to be changemakers instead of “stuff creators.”

Source: Core77 and Project H

New NLC Report on Human Rights violations in Jordan

NLC

A new report out of the National Labor Committee today cites multiple human rights violations at the Muse Textile Ltd. garment factory in Al Hassan Industrial City, Irbid, Jordan.

Human Trafficking
Primitive Dorm Conditions
Substandard Food
Forced Overtime and Seven-Day Work Weeks
A Failure to Communicate

Check out the full report, as well as the Ministry of Labor Report from July 19^th. These workers still have 11 months left on their contract. The NLC is calling for the factory to be brought up to international standards and Jordanian law of compliance immediately.

Source: NLC

Oxfam Hong Kong launches new CSR report for the Garment Industry

Oxfam CSR Guidebook

Oxfam Hong Kong has just launched a new guidebook for the garment industry titled Good Fashion: A Guide to Being an Ethical Clothing Company.

Although they encourage the use of the guidebook for educational use, as well as for research, advocacy and campaign purposes, be sure to notify them if you are going to use the guidebook so that they may assess its impact.

“As an active promoter of corporate social responsibility (CSR), Oxfam Hong Kong launches the first corporate social responsibility guidebook: Good Fashion: A Guide to Being an Ethical Clothing Company today. Good Fashion targets to support the garment sector in Hong Kong to further develop and implement CSR policy. In producing Good Fashion, Oxfam aims to raise awareness within the business sector on the importance of CSR and to encourage them to put CSR principles into practice.

The 71-page Good Fashion, which is divided into four sections, is a comprehensive guidebook containing practical tips for implementing CSR throughout the production process, such as merchandising and manufacturing. Good Fashion also includes CSR insights from various stakeholders, including workers, community organisations, union representatives, and other groups. Online resources and a simple checklist are also included for companies’ reference.”

You can download the full report in English (PDF) here.

Also, be sure to check out Oxfam Hong Kong’s previous reports. In 2004 they published Turning the Garment Industry Inside Out – Purchasing Practices and Workers’ Lives. They have also published two transparency reports: Transparency Report – How Hong Kong Garment Companies Can Improve Public Reporting of their Labour Standards (2006) and Transparency Report II: Have Hong Kong Garment Companies Improved Their Reporting on Labour Standards (2009).

Source: CSR Asia

FIBERcast: Environmental Sustainability in the Apparel Industry

The University of Delaware’s FIBERcast on “Environmental Sustainability in the Apparel Industry” has been rescheduled for July 31, from 2–2:45 p.m. EDT.

If you can’t listen in live, then be sure to check back to the site for the recorded version of this Fibercast (the 3rd), and preivious casts (the 1st, Social Responsibility’s Place in the Global Apparel Industry (February 23, 2009), and 2nd, Global Sourcing Trends in the Apparel Industry (June 5, 2009)), here.

fiberlogo

“Join FIBERcast co-host, Dr. Marsha Dickson, for an insightful discussion of Environmental Sustainability in the Apparel Industry with two experts from industry and academia: Dr. Suzanne Loker of Cornell University and Dr. Huantian Cao of the University of Delaware. The FIBERcast guests will explore:

What does it mean for a clothing or footwear company to be environmentally sustainable?
What specific policies can apparel retailers and brands implement to become more environmentally sustainable?
How does pursuing environmental sustainability impact the bottom line?
How can companies measure environmental sustainability in a transparent and cost-effective manner?

The FIBERcast will also delve into recent findings from the University of Delaware’s Sustainable Apparel Initiative’s guide “Creating a More Environmentally Sustainable Apparel Business: Policies for Apparel Brands and Retailers”, which contains best environmental practices companies can use to promote sustainability throughout their supply and value chain, from production to consumption to re-use. ”

Source: Fibrecast