Ah that familiar feeling.
The end.
It’s a weird emotional ride that How’s Editor expressed so accurately… “it feels like the end of Summer camp.” The new friends you’ve made, the shared experiences, feeling of community. You almost don’t want to leave.

But alas, all good things…
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As a newbie to the world of design, it blows my mind how much of a social impact the design industry can have. One of the many examples is this awesome charitable organization called Project H Design founded by San Francisco designer/entrepreneur Emily Pilloton. She started this organization to apply product design solutions to social issues in ways that would improve the lives of people across the globe. There are many initiatives spear-headed by Project H, including a product called Life Straw, a filtration device designed to eliminate waterborne disease bacteria, parasites, and viruses. This well designed product brings clean drinking water quickly and reliably into homes, preventing life-threatening disease from spreading through unclean water. Its amazing!

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Between around 7:45 and 9:00 last Wednesday night, The Trustees Theater was filled with riotous laughter. The culprit wasn’t a visiting comedian but a Graphic Designer. Actually, Designer/Art Director/Editor/Musician/Novelist is more accurate. Seeing Chip Kidd’s performance that night gave me, to some extent, a sense of reassurance that I’m not crazy for being in this profession, but mostly an acute case of low self esteem.

Working in the somewhat geographic fringes of the design world, it’s easy to tend to idolize my design celebrities; seeing them as super-designers that can do no wrong and somehow transcend the mundane concerns that I deal with on a day to day basis. But one of the strongest impressions that I left with last night was that Mr Kidd was just as much a brilliant problem solver as he was just another designer having to satisfy difficult clients, deadlines and bosses. So it was great to see his more popular work, but any trip to Barnes & Nobles would do that. What really amazed me were the rejected ones.
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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…

I just got the latest ChangeThis newsletter and immediately read Patricia Martin’s peice on what she’s calling the Renaissance Generation (or RenGen). She has a whole book on the subject but this quick read perfectly encapsulates a lot of the social media trends we’ve been seeing or feeling around us over the last couple of years. Of course it doesn’t hurt to have a catchy word like RenGen to add to the “cool” factor.

Some of the points that resonated with me dealt with the central character of the RenGen: the Cultural Consumer. The CultCon (sorry, I couldn’t resist) isn’t satisfied with the old guard uni-directional flow of information, entertainment or opinions. Rather they relish (and seek out) avenues of creative self-expression. Engaging in more of a dialogue with their media… a conversation, if you will…. sound familiar?

Part of the beauty of a collaborative-rich environment is that phonies are eventually found out. One of Martin’s lessons of the RenGen: “The RenGen prefers products that are imperfect but authentic, over perfect products that pollute.” You see this a lot at professional networking events. You can always tell when the person you’re talking to has checked out of the conversation, and all they’re doing is doing the obligatory nodding and smiling. They don’t care about what you’re saying but they know they need to look like it. Likewise, there’s a tendency now for marketing and PR types to use blogs and social networking sites to appear to be in conversation with their customers. Sure they might be able to pour money into Interruptive marketing campaigns to convincingly appear concerned, but in the RenGEn the currency isn’t dollars but genuine attention; yours in exchange for your customers. And they’ll know when you’re not really listening. Genuine trumps polished.

I definitely recommend investing the 10 minutes it takes to read it for yourself here as well as subscribing to the ChangeThis newsletter. You get to read things like Build Your Brand in Bits and Bites: Building Your Personal Brand Online

As promised, here is an interview with Kiril Jeliazkov where he talks about the inspiration for The Orange Step , why he chosen to bring the project to Savannah, and what went into installing it in Forsyth Park.
The show will remain up until October 30th, so if you haven’t seen it yet or you’d like to visit it again, you’ve got a few more days to enjoy it.

Kudos to our buddy from College, Kiril Jeliazkov who has brought his amazing outdoor contemporary art exhibition entitled The Orange Step , to Savannah. This unique art project that consists of 128 canvases each 20ft tall and 10ft wide, is designed to be displayed in natural settings, creating a juxtaposition between the art and nature. It was designed as a complete set, but each piece is a stand alone work of art, that holds up on its own.

Kiril is a dedicated painter, who for as long as we’ve known him has always been a big thinker…you know, one of those people who is convinced that he can pull off anything, no matter how intimidating. If you’ve ever met him, you’d know that unlike most fine artists, he’s charming and charismatic, able to make friends easily, and more importantly, able to enthrall you with tales of his latest endeavor in a most entertaining way.

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I’m sure we can all agree that packing peanuts are an awful necessity. If you’re like me you probably hate having to dispose of annoying styrofoam peanuts, and feel guilty that they may end up sitting in a landfill forever or killing animals.

I was blown away one day when I received a product I’d purchased online cushioned in peanuts made of vegetable starch. They were so like the usual stuff, that I only realized the difference because of a small note at the bottom of my receipt. It went like this:

“…we have chosen to use packing material that is made of 100% vegetable starch. This allows it to dissolve completely when it comes into contact with water. Unlike some packing materials, ours is completely non-toxic and environmentally friendly.”

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You get to go to Artsy Shing-Dings like the Design Show House

Since Paragon was given the opportunity to design the website for it, this past Thursday night the wife and I got to attend the preview party for SCAD’s Alumni Show House. For those of you who live near Savannah, and are into interior design, it’s like our very own live version of Top Design. I’d definitely recommend going and checking the rooms out while it’s open to the public. ($20 cover gets you in). My favorite room was the 2nd floor Master Bedroom by Joel Snayd of rethink design studio, but the hanging beds on the patio from Elizabeth Seeger were also stand-outs. (no cameras were allowed so sorry no pics to share).

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I know I’m late but I just saw this Justin Timberlake video and was floored by the sleek use of a simple visual device: The audio waveform in black space. This literally gives you an idea of what the song looks and feels like and it managed to keep my attention all the way up to that end part.

Anyone know who did this?