Posted by Susan Isaacs
I know we’ve been doing quite a number of “green” themed posts lately, and hopefully you’re just as interested as we are in the conservation and longevity of our natural resources. If you’ve been reading the blog you’d of course recall our mentioning some of the things we are doing to be greener graphic designers.
For me particularly (because of my background in architecture) I am extremely interested in green building technology, so I was very intrigued at the news that Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), one of the premier architecture firms in the world has designed the very first ‘Energy Plus’ and ‘Carbon Zero’ office building (70,000 sq m), to be constructed near Paris.
The entire roof of the structure will house solar panels and the resulting power will be enough the run all air conditioning, heating and lighting required to keep its 5,000 occupants comfy. While most modern buildings of this scale consume between 80 and 250 kilowatts per square meter (older buildings as much as 300kw/sq m), this new building will employ a new type of insulation that will help cut consumption down to as little as 16kw/sq m. [1 sq m is equal to roughly 10.8 sq ft].
Admittedly this is quite an ambitious undertaking and has required some big-name backing to bring it to this point, but hopefully this will be the first of many projects that radically change the way we view large commercial structures and their impact on the environment.
Click here to read more about this project.
Posted by Andrew Davies
It’s a mouthful of a name but from the sounds of it, a very cool competition that asks the question: “What does it mean to be a truly green product when thinking about computing technology?”
Dell’s opened an invitation to students, professionals and design educators to share their ideas about cutting edge environmentally friendly computer technology products. As ubiquitous as personal computing products are, and regardless of my personal feelings towards Dell, I think it’s great that there’s thought being put towards the full life cycle of our next generation of computer products.
We’re not product designers, but like most people, we do use computers a lot and we’re very interested in all things “Green” so we’ll keep our eye on this one to see what innovations come about.
Posted by Andrew Davies
For the Environmentally conscious Package Designers among us there’s a Sustainable Package Design Workshop and Designer’s Resource Expo January 29 - 31, 2008 just a couple of hours away from us in St. Petersburg, Florida.
from the website:
“The workshop will provide structural and graphic designers with
actionable answers, tools, and resources. It will go well beyond
speakers simply talking about outside influences that affect package
design and sustainability.”
Promising to not be the usual “high-brow, stuffed-shirt” kind of workshop, this sounds like it’ll be very informative.
Posted by Andrew Davies
2008’s starting off with a bang!
We just finished this album cover for Gospel artist, Euclid Gray that used some new skills learned from the blogosphere.
The circular swirly shapes I learned from Go Media’s video tutorial on Intricate Illustrator Patterns
The photo retouching and color treatment effect I learned from this tutorial from PSDTuts.
and the grunge edge effects around the edges thanks to BitBox
Thanks for sharing guys!
Posted by Andrew Davies
On vacation in Vegas this Christmas I spotted this sign (a) at a CVS near our hotel which bears a striking resemblance to the Battery Plus logo (b). Both of them are national brands so the questions I have are…
- Is this just a case of great minds think alike?
- Could this be a simple cautionary tale of the dangers of using stock vector art?
- Which came first?
Posted by Andrew Davies
More events happening in Savannah for the design-inclined; this time for those of us who design or build interaction experiences. The 1st annual IxDA conference; Interaction 08 will be held in Savannah this February 8-10, hosted in part by our Alma Mater, The Savannah College of Art and Design.
Unfortunately because of the high registration,the event’s sold out already, but they have a great forum with which you can connect with speakers, session leaders and other Interaction enthusiasts. Plus they’ve promised that some of the conference proceedings will be available online some time after so it’s worth checking back.
Posted by Andrew Davies
Christmas is usually a time of traditions, and none more wasteful than the annual post-Christmas throwing away of the Christmas cards. This year, in line with the our efforts to be a more sustainable family, my wife came up with a brilliantly simple replacement for that tradition. She made these Christmas ornaments out of the Christmas cards we got last year.
So instead of dis-carding try re-carding…
Posted by Andrew Davies
It would be remiss for us to not mention the return of the event that brought about the Paragon Muse 1 year ago. That’s right, BlogSavannah’s UnConference 2008 is just around the corner. It was at last year’s event that the 3 of us discovered the wonderous blogosphere and inspired us to jump in head first.
This year’s schedule looks to be just as informative.
Posted by Andrew Davies
Happy New Year everyone!
Thought I’d start the new year with some info on an interesting upcoming event, namely New Views 2, an international symposium dealing with the future of our fair profession being held in London this July.
There’s an open call for papers for the wordsmiths among us, as well as an accompanying poster competition.
From the website:
“Poster submissions will through the use of graphic language, address issues and the core themes of the conference. We are keen to explore and demonstrate the use of graphic design as a means to critique and reflect upon its future.”
So if you’ve been looking for an avenue to share your perspective on the future of Graphic Design, whether through words or images, here’s your chance.
