While checking out 2 books I’m interested in, Daniel Pink’s “Drive” and Shankar Vedantam’s “The Hidden Brain“, I noticed something. It seems their book designers both love using shadows. Nothing new I suppose, shadows are a familiar design device. It was just curious seeing it used by books right next to each other, especially since they’re both dealing with the inner workings of the human mind.
Sure this past Saturday morning was cold and windy, but that was not enough to slow down Project H’s Design Revolution Road Show which cruised into town for the day.
Vintage Airstream that housed the exhibit. Talk about shiny!
I had the pleasure of spending the day with the inspiring folks at the helm: Emily Pilloton, Founder and Executive Director of Project H, along with Matt Miller, Project Architect - two super smart people, who aren’t just talking about making the world a better place…they’re doing something about it.
I won’t rehash previous posts (you can read them here and here).
Not long ago, Emily wrote the book Design Revolution - 100 Products That Empower People and the Road Show is essentially her book tour. The book is a mind-blowing encyclopedia of phenomenal products that are changing our world.
The exhibit was a sampling of around 40 of those products including:
. The LifeStraw a portable water filtration device.
. GROW a new approach to solar and wind power.
. The Hippo Roller a water transportation barrel that rolls along the ground, with a handle attached to the axis of the barrel.
. The SpiderBoot footwear for landmine detection teams
. Adaptive Eyewear inexpensive self-adjustable eye glasses (ONE OF MY FAVS!)
. HYmini renewable power for your gadgets
…and on and on.
(FYI - the book is currently out of stock after sales shot through the roof thanks to Emily’s appearance on The Colbert Report. The link I’ve provided is to another amazing organization called Better World Books a “for-profit social enterprise that collects used books and sells them online to raise money for literacy initiatives worldwide”. I recommend buying your copy from them.)
Early in the afternoon the gathering crowd moved into the Trustees Theater for the presentation. Emily and Matt gave a bit of background on themselves and how they transitioned from commercial design to humanitarian design. I especially liked hearing about her moment of absolute clarity, which came after a 3 hour long meeting to determine the perfect doorknob shape for a retailer’s revamped stores! Ouch.
Then they talked about two projects they’d done in Bertie County, NC a poor, rural, racially polarized county where they’d first created Learning Landscape math playgrounds and then computer labs.
Next they talked about The Designer’s Toolkit a free tool to help designers interested in designing for the greater good. You can download it here.
And last but not least, in case weren’t convinced that they truly believed what they were advocating, they announced that at the end of the Road Show they would be relocating to Bertie County to work in the school system, teaching design principles and implementation (via english, math, art and shop) to kids who are poor and desperately in need of a broader world view. WOW!
I’m thrilled that Emily, Matt and their newly adopted dog Junebug decided to make Savannah a stop on their cross country tour. I hope that all the designers, professors and students who came out were as inspired as I was.
Thanks guys!! We wish you safe travels for the rest of the Road Show and all the best in your new endeavor in NC.
Here’s the book.
SinkPositive: one of the products featured in the exhibit - replaces your toilet tank lid. Fresh water to the sink, grey water into the bowl.
Waiting patiently to see the exhibit.
Inside for the lecture.
I did mention it was cold, right?
Thanks to BFG and their Creative Seed Initiative, we had the opportunity to meet DJ Stout. Head of Pentagram/ Austin and long time idol (but then again who at Pentagram isn’t one of our idols?). While it was great listening to the thought process behind some of his iconic work the most useful aspect I thought came at the end when he answered a student’s question about what a new design graduate should do to distinguish themselves when interviewing in this compressed job market.
His response broke down to the following points:
When talking about your work, emphasize the process you went through, not the “prettyness” of the final product because ”You’re hired for the way you think.“ I couldn’t agree with this more. Heaven knows there are enough tutorials out there to teach you which buttons to push to get the latest and greatest visual tricks. So what’ll set you apart is your decision process. A quote I got from the book Don’t Make me Think that I use constantly is “Not just doing things right, but doing the right thing.”
To that effect, he recommended framing the work within the context of the problem you were trying to solve. So avoid the ever present “Well I did this for class” answer we’re all tired of hearing.
nuff said
This should come as no surprise, research the company you’re interviewing with. What’re their areas of specialization? Recent awards? Cool projects you liked? Which ties perfectly into his last pearl…
While it might seem a bit tongue-in-cheek, his reasons have a ring of truth in them. It keeps you from saying anything stupid for one (always a good thing). Secondly it gives you more insight into the company you’re interviewing with, not to mention shows you’ve done your homework and are interested in them. And which professional designer doesn’t like talking about their own work?
I think everyone who was there was duly inspired and appreciated the Pentagram swag. Of course, I wished we could’ve seen more of the work, but maybe next time, and we’ll make sure it’s a bit warmer for you when you come back.
Just caught this on Fora.tv. Great inspiration and insight from a pro. The audio’s kinda wonky so keep an eye on the volume, but it’s worth watching if only for his process boards and motion tests for 6 Feet Under, The Reaping, The Invasion, Rock n Rolla and Iron Man.
This past weekend was the Annual ADDY awards ceremony for AAF Savannah and it was one of the most interactive and fun ADDYs I’ve been to in a long time.
First of all, there was the controversial Center Piece design competition. Regardless of who won, we had a blast diving into this crazy challenge. Kudos to the committee or whoever’s silly idea this was. Giving creatives a visual challenge and motivating them with booze? Brilliant!
Of course it didn’t hurt that we got a few awards on top of it all. In addition to our own prizes we also semi-indirectly won other awards for projects we participated in through other companies. The tally follows:
SEDA Annual Report (bronze)
SEDA Thanksgiving Day Card (Gold)
Action Hero’s Guide to Saving Lives, Miced Media campaign (gold)
SCAD Fall YIP Video (gold)
SCAD Fall Orientation Video from Paragon Design Group on Vimeo.
SUAF TV spot (bronze)
SUAF TV spot from Paragon Design Group on Vimeo.
filmfest.scad.edu (silver) The brilliant Philip built this one.
My Savannah Is Mixed media campaign (gold and Best of Show)
We did the motion graphics for the TV spots.
SDRA Wonderful Day from Paragon Design Group on Vimeo.
Mark your calendars! The Design Revolution Road Show will be making a stop in Savannah!
Saturday, February 27th
Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St
Exhibition Opens 10:30am - 4pm
Presentation 2:30pm
I am so excited to attend this traveling exhibit and lecture, a initiative of Project H Design, a non-profit organization leveraging the power of design to change the world.
I came across Project H a while back when Emily, the founder was raising funds for a project called the Hippo Roller, a device that enabled villagers in Africa to make fewer trips for water (essentially a big drum with a snap-on steel handle that allows it to be rolled like a big wheel…users could transport enough water for a family for 5 days in 1 trip!). By reducing the pressing need to go to the river every day, more time was available for education and work. I grew up in the Caribbean where it was not uncommon to see people carrying water over long distances and the simple brilliance of these drums really inspired me. You can read our recap of the experience with that project here.
Since then Project H has really come into its own, and along the way has received great press from everyone from the NY Times to Fast Company. Their advisory board includes impressive folks like Ric Grefé, AIGA President (and awesome guy!), and Amy Novogratz, TED Prize Director.
Project H continues to lead creatives interested in “Product design initiatives for Humanity, Habitats, Health, and Happiness”, the organization’s tag line. Emily was on the Colbert Report recently to talk about their work.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Emily Pilloton | ||||
|
||||
I hope you’ll come out on the 27th to meet Emily and see the fascinating work being done by designers motivated to use their talents to make our world a better place.
Until then, you can help Project H win $50K from the Pepsi Refresh Project. They’re currently in 15th place! Voting ends on February 28th and you can vote everyday!
In light of things ramping up for St. Valentine’s Day, I found this beautiful short on Gamma Squad by the geniuses at Spy Films. It’s mostly CG but don’t let that stop you from getting lost in the moment like these two.
Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.
Here’s a shot-by-shot breakdown of how they did it.
Making Of Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.
It’s a big weekend for Savannah with events happening all over town. The two on my radar are IxDA’s Interaction 10 Conference and the play ‘Choices: A Romeo and Juliet Story’ performed by the talented kids of AWOL. Tonight, the Paragon crew will be trying to squeeze as much fun into one evening as possible.
Interaction 10
You might not be aware of this, but a few hundred of the smartest interaction designers in the world have converged on the creative coast this week for a packed schedule of presentations, challenges, workshops and fun activities thanks to IxDA’s third annual conference.
IxDA (Interaction Design Association) is an international “un-organization” (membership is free) focused on the practice of interaction design.
I love the manifesto:
We believe that the human condition is increasingly challenged by poor experiences. IxDA intends to improve the human condition by advancing the discipline of Interaction Design. To do this, we foster a community of people that choose to come together to support this intention. IxDA relies on individual initiative, contribution, sharing and self-organization as the primary means for us to achieve our goals.
And coming together to do this is exactly what’s on the agenda this weekend. Interaction 10 promises to be an exciting event designed to “connect, educate, and inspire” the interaction design community.
The line-up of speakers is quite impressive and include: Paola Antonelli (MoMA), Kevin Cheng (Twitter), Ben Fullerton (IDEO), Guillermo Torres (Adobe), Steve Baty (Meld), Christian Crumlish (Yahoo!), Jamin Hegeman (Nokia)….and on and on. You ought to eyeball the list yourself!
I’m planning to interact (ahem…horrible pun abuse) with some of these folks this weekend and I can’t wait!
Choices: A Romeo and Juliet Story
Scorsese did his modern-day interpretation of the Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Romeo and Juliet, and this weekend at the Lucas Theater, AWOL delivers a hip hop interpretation that does more than entertain the audience; it’s changing the lives of the more than 100 youth involved, and even better, empowering them to educate their peers on the consequences of the choices they make in life.
The adaptation which was written by AWOL’s Theater Program Director, Lakesha Green, updates the language of the original play and interjects hip hop, R&B and dance, while staying true to the themes that remain as relevant today as they were in the 16th century. And in a few months, at the Savannah Urban Arts Festival, AWOL will deliver yet another remix of this play, this time in spanish and incorporating spanish music and dance…SALSA!!!!
Oh and by the way, AWOL recently announced that 50% of the proceeds of tonight’s showing will go toward the relief efforts in Haiti. What an awesome gesture of generosity by a non-profit that no doubt could have used that money themselves. KUDOS to AWOL. They continue to inspire us with all the good they do.
Come join us at the show tonight, at 7pm at the Lucas Theater. If you can’t make it tonight, you’ve got another opportunity tomorrow night as well. Tickets are available at SCAD’s box office.
What’s the easiest way to get our attention? Chocolate! Ok so what’s the second easiest way to get our attention? Do a motion graphics piece that doesn’t just tickle the eye but teaches us something as well. Taking into consideration recent innovations in communication and publishing, these kinds of info-tainment pieces will become more needed. And, for a change, I’m not the only one that thinks so.
We recently read a post from Jay Kinghorn, a photographer, who thinks that multimedia’s the way of the future for his profession. And advertisers might be taking advantage of the full media experience available through Apple’s iTunes for books, seeing this as a new media channel (see: revenue stream).
Anyway, here’s a bit of moving knowledge for you.
You gotta love it when people take the time to put together a video homage to their favorite font.
Well, YOU don’t gotta love it… but we do.
