It’s also really interesting in light of the vocation question. But I’ll leave that one there for the time being.

Watch it.

“I can’t stand it when the hippies tell us it’s so easy to be green. The only way to be effective ecologically seems to be give up our entire way of life, completely… we can’t survive without the way we have life now. Even if only places like factories, hospitals, morgues and food storage places where allowed to continue as they are (which they need too) we are still screwed. I just wish someone could come up with a better efficient form of energy that can produce stuff to the levels we need.”

and then I entered the conversation with something like “Bollocks, yes we can”. Great starter, really about getting someone on my side.

So the conversation went on and honed in on ‘Do the little things make a difference’?  As much as we’d like to think the little things don’t always make a huge difference, but the idea of these things and goals like Target 155 (which surely could be lower)  is about attitude change which has bigger implications for overall behaviour. At the moment I feel is fair to call out the world around me as being too comfortable, too selfish, too lazy. Myself included. There are many things in regard to climate change that revolve around changing systems that sit at a higher level than many of us operate in but these systems also rely on an attitude change. So lets start with the little things within reach.

The conversation on facebook made me realise something, I do actually care very much about climate change. And fair bit more than I’ve realised. Just perhaps this will have implications for further altering my own behaviour?

Below is an average breakdown of how you use your domestic water… click to zoom.

Please begin to educate yourself:

FAO Water

UN Water

beautiful rain painting by Leonid Afremov

Information Visualization for Advocacy – John Emerson (Title will download the pdf approx 7mb)

I do value Swinburne for hammering on about stuff that matters, even if this particular example was more a general resource to kick us in to action with our assignments. I intend someday to have a crack at a piece, so if someone wants to throw some data or an idea at me, it would be welcome.

This was not just written for designers the lovely Ellen Lupton (I’m sure she’s lovely – not that I’ve met her, but she’s a twin like me so of course she’s lovely) goes on about making design accessible to all. You go right ahead.

Sometimes I wish I’d discovered information design sooner. On a side note, my assignment piece is on John Friedrich and I will potentially be mapping relationships between him and Iago from Othello (Shakespeare). Should be interesting.

Highlights:

Marina Willer -graphic designer, shared some pretty interesting branding outcomes quite inspiring especially in regards to letting brands be more versatile, she also had some nice comments on work and play and doing jobs close to your heart

Paul Garbett (Naughty Fish) – graphic designer, really enjoyed where he was coming from in showing how collections and objects under-girds some of his work and also his comment on digging into your background and replenishing that lot of experience and not treating it as an everlasting source. I am jealous admiring too of their lovely work. If they weren’t Sydney based I would aspire to work there.

Scott Schuman/The Sartorialist – surprise guest and a blogger! Oh I was happy. Admittedly I’d never heard of the blog… must travel in the wrong circles (fashion not really being my primary interest) but I love his approach and he had some great take away stuff about blogs and point of view and finding the right audience not the biggest one and the potential in blogs for portraying a brand (ie. self) and also about the evolution of input through blogs. The only really sad thing is that he uses blogspot…

Stanley Wong – a very well known designer from Hong Kong some glorious philosophical stuff, comments on ‘staying local’ and designing for social impact and in an alternate field: justice.

Tobias Frere-Jones – a typographer (one of) who designed typefaces like Gotham which was used for the Obama ‘Yes We Can’ campaign, he shared the stories about the development and reasoning behind it, and the Martha Stewart font. Twas marvellous, got the biggest clap. And he totally looked like a Tobias. I like it when people fit their names.

the others also worth a brief mention:

Philip Millar – a puppeteer of dinosaurs (from walking with the Dinosaurs) and movies like Charlottes Webb (think Pig), it was good fun, quite left of field

James Hackett - the guy who worked on animations for title sequences like the Gruen Transfer and Enough Rope… again very enjoyable presentation

Milton Watkins – I was pleased to see that AGIdeas threw a bookbinder in our mix, he was somewhat hilarious and injected some kind of heightened admiration in me for the craft – and evern more so helped to probably lift the glug in my mind associated with trying to track down people who can turn computer work in to reality, a chore sadly made more difficult by living in the Eastern suburbs.

(and there were lots of other good ones besides those listed)

Something I was thinking about today in listening to those around me was (excuse the crappy drawing, the Wacom is new to me, it’s late and I drew it very quickly) is seed vs swing:

And seed vs swing… is knowledge vs. experience. As I listen to some of those around me (and I’m sure it’s a small percentage – but could very well be true of Gen Y) and their comments on which speakers they’ve enjoyed, I wonder if they’re (and myself at times) care more about the experience over the knowledge on offer and that knowledge itself actually plays far less of a role than it should. We kind of assume the knowledge is there (like the tree) and swing off the experience of the conference and the speakers, instead of grasping that start (the cliched seed… which is what that sprouty thing is meant to be) that small birth of inspiration or wisdom or insight. And that friends is as far as that thought has gone.

What I would like to know is: is there anywhere that sells sweatshop-free/fairtrade/ethical boots that are fun like this? Because I think I am finally at the point where I would spend a few extra dollars to go that way (Rather than just being at that point in my idealistic head). Currently I am clueless about where to get that kind of thing and I don’t really want to buy shoes over the internet – really do actually need to try them on. Oxfam shoes (like volleys are really uncomfortable… and erm, I’m after boots).

Which is better? This one, or this one here?

It’s a bit rough, not sure if this is exactly what the final outcome should look like, whether I should remove the overlayed rays or/and add some extra imagery – and I probably need to deal with the bottom edges of the buildings as they look a bit unfinished and cut off. But there you go. Suggestions appreciated.

If I like it enough, I might enter it in this competition.

All images I have used are Public Domain/Royalty Free (some from www.pachd.com).

© Rebecca Matheson 2009

I spent a little of my long weekend pondering what gap we could fill in society (or at least pretty up), what need we could meet. I was supposed to go away and dig up three ideas about combating obesity – frankly I am really not interested in health issues. Obese kids are often the product of their parents and frankly this culture is full of lazy people (*cough who watch West Wing at 10:30 at night) and you can’t force activity… unless at gunpoint. Parents get far too offended if you challenge their actions or parenting and bang you have a sizzler (think sizzler down the drain rather than mmm sausage) of a business idea. *Note that less lazy people would and will come up with wonderfully creative solutions to help combat obesity, all I’ve hit so far is an arson attack on McDonalds but the project gets huge and illegal and not very viable very quickly.

So I have an idea, it is quite simple, quite feasible and not at all about obesity but rather poverty – something I care a bit more about (At least in theory).  I wont share just yet – incase anyone comes along and smoozles my idea before I float it. (Possesive aren’t I?) – or perhaps it’ll be overshaddowed by something else far more brilliant, in which case you won’t have lost out.

But Social Entrepreneurship. Interesting.

My friend Susannah is currently over in Costa Rica with a group of fellow Engineering students. When I look at projects like theirs – which is around building orphanages (I think) and the other less standard remarkable innovative things that are going on in the larger sphere of the design world it gives me hope.

There is something in design thinking in this sense that offers something quite new to the world. It’s not necessarily about creating something out of nothing but of working with what is existing and extending it’s power for positive social change. Reminds me of a bit of the whole ‘a lie based on truth is more believable’ saying, but naturally far less negative. It just works.

To read a little more about Social Entrepreneurs, I suggest you go check out this.