Tag Archives: DESIGN

Nike Talks Trash

Andrew Hartman, Design Director from Philips Design, Claudia Kotchka, Former Head of Design at Procter & Gamble, and Valerie Casey, Lead of Digital Experience Practice at IDEO and Founder of the Designers Accord, were among 20 star designer judges at the IDEA 2009: Designing a Better World competition that took place in May of this year.

Hartman stressed the importance for designers to deliver an experience to their client, rather than just an instance.
Kotchka expressed her belief that design thinking is a necessary tool for solving design challenges.
Casey spoke on the prioritization of sustainability as moving beyond trend. Casey referenced Nike’s success in marrying sustainability with innovation. This is not surprising considering the company won the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) “Best in Show” for its Trash Talk shoes made from manufactured waste.

Nike Trash Talk

Gold Award/Best in Show
Category: Ecodesign
Design: Kasey Jarvis, Andreas Harlow, Fred Dojan, and Dan Johnson, Nike (U.S.)

This performance basketball shoe is made from manufacturing waste. It incorporates leftover materials—leather and synthetic leather, foam, and rubber—into new shoes without sacrificing any of the performance aspects that come from shoes made from virgin materials.

Source: BusinessWeek

Social Alterations: Forum

How can education foster sustainable change toward socially responsible fashion and apparel design and manufacturing practices?

Social Alterations hopes to foster socially responsible fashion design education through aggregating relevant material that will inspire fashion/textile and apparel instructors, researchers, designers and design enthusiasts to get on board with thinking about consequence in the industry.

Sign up to the Social Alterations Forum if you’re interested in sharing and contributing ideas on curriculum, research, projects, materials, design, etc. with this community.

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

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

Copenhagen Co’creation Summit: “Designing for Change 09”

Title: Copenhagen Co’creation Summit: “Designing for Change 09”
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Link out: Click here
Description:

2008 was the year when the well-described model for growth based on industrial thinking finally proved to be unsustainable in terms of economy, ecology and equity. We are not facing future change and challenges; we are in the midst of them – and will continue to be so for years to come. We need to approach this new reality with new tools and a new mindset – a mindset based on co-creation and design thinking.
Summit
The Danish Design Association has set out to gather in Copenhagen twenty-five international leaders, experts and practitioners to join an executive network for an inaugural summit, which will take place on August 29, 2009. The purpose of the summit is to address business issues of significant global interest through engaging in, exploring and developing new practices within co-creation and design.
Seminar
The following day, On August 30, we invite further 200 leaders, experts and practitioners to join the network at a seminar where the executive network will unfold and share their knowledge and discussions from the day before through talks, on-stage-interviews, workshops and discussions with the audience.
Manifesto
The outcome of the two days will form the Copenhagen Co’creation Manifesto. The Manifesto is a set of business actions based on the agenda of this year’s theme, Designing for Change, and is open and free for everybody to bring home and bring into practice.

Click here for a list of speakers, including
Bruce Nussbaum, BusinessWeek, Richard Grefé, AIGA, and Emily Pilloton, Project H Design.

Start Date: 2009-08-29
End Date: 2009-08-30

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

Portland Fashion Week: Sustainable and Independent

Title: Portland Fashion Week: Sustainable and Independent

Location: Pearl District, Portland, Oregon
Link out: Click here
Description: As a longtime hotbed of creativity for modern art, design, and urban development, Portland is being unveiled as fashion’s best-kept secret.
On the runway since 2003, Portland Fashion Week is the second-longest running fashion
week on the West Coast. PFW stages the collections of the upcoming season through a
week-long series of high-production runway shows in downtown Portland, and exposes
independent designers to regional, national and international press, buyers as well as
style-savvy consumers.

Source: Portland Fashion Week
Start Date: 2009-10-07
End Date: 2009-10-11