Dec
2008
Designs on Christmas
There’s no end of virtual Christmas cards this year, and generally you have to ask if it’s as much inspired by thrifty thinking as much making a step towards becoming more sustainable. Most companies’ physical cards are leave something to be desired at best and their virtual versions seem to follow the same character; so it’s nice when the fellows at the Design Council do something a little bit more enticing.
Are you ON for Christmas? The Design council have decided to focus on the small things which have a larger affect. Hopefully this shows a central commitment recognise the indelible link between ‘good design’ and ‘sustainable design’, how many Christmas tree lights will it manage to turn off by converted web visitors, that fact will remain in darkness unfortunately. But it’s great that the sustainable message will mean something for larger numbers of companies. Check out the Design Council’s virtual Christmas card
Recent statistics show that one billion Christmas cards, weighing 20,000 tonnes, will end up as waste this Christmas.
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Mr Rob Ryan
16/12/0820:35
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Creativity |
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I love Rob’s intricate papercut work and prints, it reminds me of the wonderful illustrations and textiles by the Swedish artist/designer Stig Lindberg. Check out more of what Rob Ryan has does in his own subtle, beautiful and curiously haunting way at misterrob.co.uk
Positive, Neutral, or Responsible?
This content of the post (below) is actually a steal from Andrew Zolli; I don’t make a habit of lifting complete quotes without comment (in fact this is a first) but I liked his idea of addressing the ‘Carbon Neutral’ term we are all now getting ‘familiar’ with.
Andrew is a futurologist I linked up whilst at Bruce Mau Design half a decade ago, I remember thinking then what a fascinating line of work it must be to reflect on and plot the future everyday.
And if you are wondering, the above model depicts the fullerene: one of the eight different molecular configurations which can be formed entirely of pure carbon. And now, here’s the post:
Carbon Positive, Carbon Negative, or Carbon Responsible?
“To some the glass is half empty, to others half full. It appears this question of perspective is also afflicting those looking at going beyond carbon neutral. Two terms are being used interchangeably despite being opposites: carbon positive & carbon negative.
In both cases people are referring to offsetting or sequestering more carbon dioxide than is emitted. To date, neither Wikipedia nor Google definitions has weighed in on this matter.
As the point is to leave less CO2 in the atmosphere than you put in, we at Z+ think it makes sense to call it carbon negative.
We are however willing to concede that offsetting beyond neutrality is a positive thing to do!”
Text by Andrew Zolli, from the Z+ blog
News relationships lead to innovation
We’re used to seeing sponsored sections of newspaper, the big player’s version of an inserted flyer, the PR value is varied but always clearly focussed on the sponsor’s product as the result of a simple cash/ad space exchange. In this hard copy news encounter there’s obviously a halo effect between the brands of sponsor and news organisation.
Things have been a little more clear-cut in the online world of news organisations; The Guardian’s website was The Guardian’s own domain, apart from the odd banner ad,
A new kind of relationship with IDEO looks set to change that online balance. Since working with IDEO as a consultant a few years back I’ve kept an interest in the relationship of their practice to the PR, and this recent development is an interesting and rather impressive move. IDEO and The Guardian Online have started a quasi joint venture to publish thoughts on... anything to do with ‘innovation’ (which happens to be one of IDEO’s key self generating labels.) Whilst it could be easy to dismiss this a purely a PR exercise for a big and bright international service and product design company, it is also a significant move for Guardian themselves.
This IDEO driven/branded marketing exercise uses some of the Guardian’s columnists shoulder to shoulder with its own writers. There is clearly an eye for an opportunity from the guardian in this new style relationship. The news industry has been in sharp decline in recent years, and clearly they are looking at expanding and innovating themselves into new relationships with thinkers, content makers, and ultimately it’s increasingly technologically driven public.
In the same way that ‘everyone’ can now call themselves a ‘designer’ (from bioengineers to service strategists), the news industry is opening themselves up to new ‘content developers’ from diverse practice backgrounds. This isn’t much of a surprise when you consider the impressive rise of the blogger, however there is an interesting paradigm shift when institutions such as the Guardian open up their website, and not only their comments and blog in collaboration with their own columnists. Let’s see where this can go next.
Take a look and see what you make of the inspire-innovate relationship.