Category Archives: Education

Design Currency 2010// Design Week, Vancouver

Design Currency: Icograda Design Week In Vancouver Cur”rency\ The state or quality of being current; general acceptance or reception; a passing from person to person, or from hand to hand.

Design has the power to influence our core values, our identity, our expectations and our worldview. Design brings clarity and enhances meaning. Design Currency 2010 offers designers, business leaders and government the opportunity to experience current design thinking. Reshape your understanding of the value of design. 

As a Vancouverite, I am so excited for Design Week Vancouver: Design Currency 2010.

I’ve written before on SA on the inspiring research and work of both Nathan Shedroff, author of Design is the Problem, and David Berman, author of Do Good Design. Both Shedroff and Berman will be speaking at the conference on sustainable practice, alongside Valerie Elliott. Click here for a full list of speakers.

To ice my gluten-free cake, the outstanding Giant Ant Media is one of the supporting partners: there is no doubt this event will be brilliant and inspiring.  

Title: Design Currency 2010// Design Week, Vancouver
Location: Vancouver
Link out: Click here

Start Date: 2010-04-26
End Date: 2010-04-30

READ// the Fair Wear formula

The Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) has launched a new publication, the Fair Wear formula.

“The design by Ruben @ Buro RuSt combines with the more than readable texts by Anne Lally combine to create an innovative, attractive description of the FWF approach to improving labour conditions in garment supply chains. In hardback or paperback.” (FWF)

Image: FWF’s focus (image from the Fair Wear formula, (c) Buro RuSt

 

If you aren’t already familiar with the Fair Wear Foundation, an international verification initiative dedicated to enhancing workers’ lives, take a minute to check out their guiding principles:

Supply chain responsibility = realising that the Code can only be fulfilled when sourcing companies, as well as factory management, actively pursue practices that support good working conditions.
Labour standards derived from ILO Conventions and the UN’s Declaration on Human Rights = basing FWF’s Code on internationally-recognised standards which have been set through tri-partite negotiation.
Multi-stakeholder verification = verification processes developed through multi-stakeholder negotiation, and involving experts from diverse disciplines and perspectives in FWF verification teams.
A process-approach to implementation = paying special attention to the means (i.e. building functioning industrial relations systems over time) in order to achieve the end (i.e. sustainable workplace improvements).
Involvement of stakeholders in production countries = engaging local partners in shaping FWF’s approach in a given region or country.
Transparency = keeping relevant stakeholders informed of FWF policies, activities, and results; publicly reporting on member company efforts to fulfil FWF requirements.

 

For more information on this publication, and others, contact info@fairwear.nl

VOTE// Fashion Takes Action, Design Forward Award

Who’s your favourite responsible Canadian designer?

Fashion Takes Action (FTA) has officially launched Canada’s 1st annual eco design award, Design Forward.

I had the pleasure of working on this project, and I am so excited that Social Alterations could support this important initiative in Canada,  and I will explain the extent of our participation in an upcoming post, so stay tuned!

Here are the nominees:

All the information you need has been made available to you, the public, and you are invited to vote online for the designer you believe best represents ‘eco design’ in Canada. Once you have cast your vote, the decision will be left in the hands of the jury, who will select their winning choice from the top three finalists.

The criterion for voting is based on production, material, design, and special features. Take your time getting to know each designer: you only get one vote, so make it count!

Check out the prize, valued at approximately $50,000!

  • A free membership in Fashion Takes Action
  • A three-month national PR campaign, provided by Third Eye Media
  • Feature in EcoSalon – the number one green fashion blog!
  • Participation at Nolcha Fashion Week’s Ethical Fashion Preview in NYC in September 2010
  • Travel and accommodations for two, provided by Air Miles Reward Program
  • 75 meters of eco-friendly fabric, supplied by Telio (to make a sample collection to show in NYC)
  • Look book photo shoot with full creative team including photographer, models, hair & makeup and stylist
  • Look book graphic design by pencil design
  • $1,000 towards Fair trade and Organic certification, provided by Ecocert.

The voting will close @ midnight on Friday, April 16th.

To all the designers, we wish you luck!

Call for Participants// Synthetic Aesthetics

Synthetic Aesthetic asks: How would you design nature?

The project is a collaborative effort between artists/designers and scientists/engineers that strives “to bring creative practitioners and those who are expert at studying, analysing and designing the synthetic/natural interface together with the existing synthetic biology community to help with the work of designing, understanding and building the living world.” (Synthetic Aesthetic)

Through the creation of “balanced exchanges” artists/designers will spend time in bioengineering labs, and scientists/engineers will spend their time in design studios, for 12 unique residencies.

The application deadline is fast approaching (March 31st), but there is still time to apply for this amazing project.

Call for participants:

We seek participants for a project on synthetic biology, design, and aesthetics. The project will provide funding to bring together scientists and engineers working in synthetic biology with artists, designers, and other creative practitioners. 

Resources will be made available for twelve funded ‘embedded residencies’, in which six artists and designers will spend two weeks in laboratories, and six scientists and engineers will spend two weeks in artistic studios and design workspaces (institutions or independent studios). The participants will be in six exchanges (synbio/creative), each pair spending four weeks working together over the project.  It is our intention that such collaborations will lead to presentable results, although the form these take is entirely open to the participants. Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the project.

We aim to construct the groundwork for future collaborations that could inform new types of engineering, new schools of art and design, and innovative approaches to the study of synthetic biology in society.

For application details, and for more information, click here.

Source: Core77

Scanning the Transdisciplinary

“To mark the launch of the new Graduate Program in Transdisciplinary Design, this year’s Stephan Weiss Lecture Series in The School of Design Strategies is dedicated to the theme of transdisciplinary design. The series will explore the shifting of boundaries of design in a complex world. Designers are rethinking their practices as they increasingly confront a world in which the complexity and interconnectedness of its people, infrastructures, networks, and economies challenges traditional, disciplinary responses. Designers are increasingly designing businesses, services, experiences, policies, and even emergent social forms; and along the way they are inventing new methods, new tools, and new ways of conceiving design. This year’s series will include a diverse range of designers and design thinkers who are reflecting on these new conditions and envisioning future practices. Staged as a series of four moderated conversations, the Stephan Weiss Lecture Series for 2010 will present multiple vantages on the state of design today and the possibilities for design tomorrow.” (Parsons, MFA Transdisciplinary Design)

If you missed the first lecture, Transformational Networks, on Feb. 23rd, you can still catch the next two in the series:

Transfiguring Practices, Thursday, March 25, 6-8 pm

What are the pressures on design consultancies and businesses as the rules of the game are shifting in unpredictable ways? How are design-led businesses succeeding at defining new territories to work in and new ways of operating?

Transitional States, Tuesday, April 6, 6-8 pm

Can design play a role in governmental and non-governmental delivery of things like infrastructure, education, and health care? What kinds of alliances and collaborations are forming to bring design-led practices into large scale social and technological services?

Source: Parsons, MFA Transdisciplinary Design

Organic Exchange/MADE-BY: ‘The Case for Sustainable Fashion’

“MADE-BY and Organic Exchange is delighted to invite you to a unique 2-day intensive seminar on sustainable fashion (clothing and textile) in Stockholm! This seminar is the perfect opportunity to assist textile and apparel professionals working in brands and retailers to come up to speed on changes and opportunities in the supply chain.

Speakers and several important topics covered include:

• Environmentally Friendly Fabrics – Understand the Definition, Sourcing and Production Issues,
• A Discussion on Recycled Materials – Polyester and Nylon,
• Responsible Processing – The Good The Bad & The Ugly of Dyeing and Finishing Industry,
• Product Integrity – Certification, Labeling, Transparency and Traceability,
• Social Compliance – Understand the Different Systems and Learn The Actual Work Done,
• Setting Sustainability Strategy – Learn from the Perspective of Leading Brands, Their Pitfalls, Triumphs and Lessons Learned,
• Communication Strategy – How Sustainability and Branding Strengthen Each Other?
• Fashion and Consumer Trends Towards Sustainability in Europe.

Participants will be encouraged to be critical, ask questions and share experiences during discussions. It would be an excellent place to actively share knowledge and information and to network at every possible level.” (MADE-BY)

Click here to download the latest version of the agenda.

Here are some testimonials from past events:

“Most valuable aspect was meeting with other people facing the same issues and discussing how we can work through to a solution together”

– Marks & Spencer, United Kingdom

“After the seminar, striking argument towards our top management on sustainable fashion production has been developed!”

– INTERSPORT International, Switzerland

“A real thorough approach to looking at all aspects of building and implementing a sustainable strategy, fantastically useful and incredibly interesting”

– Ted Baker, United Kingdom

“The most valuable aspect were the case studies of brands committed to sustainable fashion, good networking opportunities and the open atmosphere during interactive discussion”

– PUMA, Germany

Title: Organic Exchange/MADE-BY: ‘The Case for Sustainable Fasion’
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2010-05-26
End Date: 2010-05-27

American Reusable Textile Association (ARTA): Green Summit

“The seminar, to be held at the Chateau Frontenac Hotel, will include an overview of new life-cycle assessment research; information and tools designed to help market the benefits of reusable textiles; and information on how to enhance and measure the sustainability of a facility’s operations.

The Green Summit is open to ARTA members and non-members and as well as education and networking opportunities, will also feature supplier exhibits.

Announcing the event, ARTA president Steve Tinker said that to remain competitive, businesses would need to incorporate sustainable practices into operations and be able to verify those efforts. “Some might argue that ‘green’ is a trend, but legislative and consumer indicators show that the focus on sustainability is here to stay,” he said.

‘The green era offers a unique opportunity for the textile services industry. We’ve been providing and supporting a green product — reusable textiles — for more than a century! The immediate challenge lies in quantifying the green benefits of reusable textiles and of our operations, and then marketing those benefits to our customers.’” (Ecotextile News)

Source: Ecotextile News

Title: American Reusable Textile Association (ARTA): Green Summit
Location: Quebec City, Canada
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2010-07-22
End Date: 2010-07-23

Social Alterations// Slides

Nadira and I both promised to make the slides from our presentations at the FEI conference available online, and here they are, along with a slideshow of some of the images we captured from the event. I’ve reposted the videos of the presentations for convenience.

Thanks to everyone who offered feedback, we were so grateful for your considerations. Please, keep let’s keep the conversation going!

Be sure to contact us with any questions!

Social Alterations: An Education Lab for Socially Responsible Fashion Design

Social Alterations @ FEI from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

CSR Trends in China’s Apparel Supply Chain

CSR Trends in China’s Apparel Supply Chain from Social Alterations on Vimeo.


Find more photos like this on Social Alterations

Responsible Design: Why should design students care?

Earlier this month SA had the pleasure of interviewing David Goldsmith from The Swedish School of Textiles and Parsons, Eleanor Dorrien-Smith from PARTIMI, Kat Ross and Larissa Clark from the Environmental Justice Foundation, Carolina Gomez-Aubert from Lunamano, and Sophie Koers from the Fair Wear Foundation.

We asked them for their take on responsible design, and why they think design students should care.

Responsible Design: Why should design students care? from Social Alterations on Vimeo.

What does responsible design mean to you, and why do you think design students should care?

READ// Kate Fletcher, Matilda Lee, and Sandy Black

 

The ‘Open Space’ at the FEI conference featured celebrated authors Kate Fletcher, Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys, Matilda Lee, Eco-Chic: The Savvy Shoppers Guide to Ethical Fashion, and Sandy Black, Eco-Chic: The Fashion Paradox. You can find these texts and others in our reading section.

 

FEI set the stage for the Open Space format as an opportunity for conference participants to network, strategise, learn, share, challenge, be inspired and stimulate one another in a supportive environment. Fletcher, Lee and Black each presented their own discussion question, and participants were also given the chance to create posed further questions and create discussion groups.

Here is what they came up with:

1. How can we communicate providence to consumers?

2. International cooperation on ethical fashion

3. Raising awareness of organic cotton, and the impact on farmers

4. How do we get youth more involved?

5. How do we encourage behaviour change amongst consumers?

6. Scale-how big, how much? (Kate Fletcher)

7. How to get the media to be a driver for sustainable fashion? (Matilda Lee)

8. Design education-encouraging designers (Sandy Black)

9. How to bring ethics into fashion education internationally

Participants could move around and exchange ideas for a period of over two hours. To close the Open Space, a representative from each ‘talk’ presented key insights.

For those of you that weren’t following along on twitter, here are a few edited highlights that came out of the discussions.

  • What would happen if we could control scale in fashion?

             What about considering ‘Post-fashion stress disorder’?

             Fast fashion, can we raise awareness, similar to smoking bans?

             Can we change the discourse of fast fashion?

  • How can we communicate providence to consumers??

             Changing the discourse depending on who you’re speaking with:

             In some circles fashion is a bad word, so talk garment and apparel and clothing etc…

  • How to connect consumers to the cotton farmer?

             Spread the word, tell stories and stay focused.

  • Design educators encouraging designers:

             Make the experience real

             Connect the designer to the factory

             Make it exciting w/ different design strategies: design for disassembly, for example

What are your thoughts on these issues and questions? Feel free to leave a comment below!