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Upcoming Conferences

Cumulus Conference
May 24, 2012
Cumulus, a Helsinki-based association of more than 140 universities and colleges of art, design and media, sponsors conferences for creative professionals and leaders in education and media. Its next conference, Helsinki 2012 - World Design Capital 2012, will be held in Helsinki - Espoo, Finland, in May 2012.

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Academic Programs

The Design High School
Learning to think like a designer gives the students the experience and skills they need for productive decision-making. At the Design High School, a free public charter school in LA, the concepts and practices of design will be used to deliver a rigorous and relevant college preparatory and career oriented curriculum.

Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability
Academic course hosted by the Stanford Institute of Design involving graduate students from all seven schools at Stanford University. Multidisciplinary student teams work to create innovations that lie at the intersection of business, technology and human values. The class is project-based, and all projects are done in close partnership with a variety of local and international organizations.

Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship
Program at New York University for educating and inspiring a new generation of leaders in public service. A select group of undergraduate and graduate NYU students are chosen annually to learn cross-disciplinary skills for producing sustainable and scalable solutions to demanding social problems.

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Competitions

INDEX Design Challenge : Design for Education
The INDEX: Design Challenge asks design and business students, as well as cross-disciplinary student teams, to develop design solutions for better education and education environments in developing regions. The challenge centers around three sub-themes: Improved Education Facilities; Sanitation and Hygiene; and Gender Parity in Education. As well, the contest features an open challenge. Participants from all design disciplines are invited to enter the challenge.

Re:Vision
Initiative to create the prototype for an innovative, sustainable urban community. At the heart of the process is a series of contests generating visionary ideas for what can and should be done in the design of urban space.

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Fellowships & Prizes

Gigaton Awards
The mission of the GIGATON AWARDS is to inspire and challenge businesses to make a difference to climate change and global sustainability. The awards will honor businesses for outstanding performances as defined by measurable carbon reductions and quantifiable steps toward sustainability. There will be a number of prizes awarded, including awards for relative reductions in CO2e (normalized against revenue) by business category and a prize for the most innovative plan to reduce emissions. The Awards ceremony will culminate in the presentation of the Gigaton Prize, which will go to the company that has demonstrably reduced emissions by the largest absolute amount on an annual basis.

The Secretary's Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls
The Secretary’s Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls seeks to find and bring to scale the most pioneering approaches to the political, economic and social empowerment of women and girls around the globe. Founded on the premise that the major economic, security, governance and environmental challenges of our time cannot be solved without the full participation of women at all levels of society, this award supports the Department of State’s commitment to the advancement of women globally.

World Design Impact Prize
The World Design Impact Prize is a biennial designation created to recognize, empower and stimulate socially responsible design projects around the world. Presented by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID), the prize will honor exceptional industrial design-driven projects that are making a positive impact on our social, economic, cultural and/or environmental quality of life. The nomination process has two phases: Phase 1 ICSID member organizations will be asked to nominate ICSID member or non-member projects that they believe deserve to be honored according to the criteria of the prize. Phase 2 Designers of nominated projects will be asked to provide detailed information about the project, which will be reviewed by a pre-selection committee and voted on by ICSID members. Call for Nominations/Submissions 22 February 2011 - 10 May 2011

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Organizations

Joey's Corner
Nonprofit design studio founded by Bay Area designer Michael Osborne that works exclusively for charitable organizations, offering solutions that improve group identity and marketing materials.

Worldstudio
Worldstudio is an innovative marketing and design firm that believes corporations hold the power to make lasting social and environmental change. They create and implement grassroots programs that allow clients to engage with their key constituencies in lasting and meaningful ways.

Design Seed Enterprise Creation Lab
Organization founded out of Auburn University's industrial design department to improve the social conditions of Alabama’s poverty-stricken Black Belt, a region of a dozen counties named for the rich soil. The lab employs design thinking and aggressive business practices to develop local manufacturing enterprises with the potential to create hundreds of jobs.

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Programs & Initiatives

Design Ignites Change
A collaboration between Adobe Youth Voices and the New York-based Worldstudio, Design Ignites Change works with participating college, university and high school groups to encourage students to use design thinking to solve pressing social problems. Financial awards are given to students and initiatives "with the most powerful and provocative solutions."

The Foodprint Project
A collaboration between Nicola Twilley and Sarah Rich, The Foodprint Project is a contextual exploration of food. From the cartography of food supply chains to the molecular anatomy of flavor, from the migration of ethnic recipes to the future of urban agronomy, foodprints look beyond the plate to the social, political, artistic and economic forces that shape the way we eat.

Starbucks Shared Planet Youth Action Grants
"Starbucks has a culture of innovation and entrepreneurialism. With the Starbucks Shared Planet Youth Action Grants, we use this spirit of innovation to inspire young people to take action to create positive solutions to real local needs they see in their neighborhoods. We believe that by supporting young people, we make real change in local communities and inspire additional individuals to take part in community service."

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Publications & Websites

1% User's Guide
This document, compiled by Public Architecture's 1% program, introduces the concepts and principles of pro-bono design to architecture and design firms.

Groundswell
"Dedicated to critical cultural production at the intersection of art and activism. We cover artists from around the globe whose work explores and realizes social change. Our goal is to provide a narrative about these activist efforts while simultaneously participating in them."

Design Activism
This blog represents author Ann Thorpe's “reflections on the role of design as activism” based on her explorations of sustainable design, and in particular on her book The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability.

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Social Networks

Design 21
UNESCO and the Japan-based company Felissimo are behind this network, which connects designers, businesses and nonprofits for the greater good and hosts competitions to create socially minded products and graphics.

Open Architecture Network
An online, open-source community founded by Architecture for Humanity. Offers a place where designers can share ideas and projects and host or participate in competitions

BOP Source
"Social network that closes the digital divide, bringing together the 4 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid (the 'BOP') with the companies and NGOs that want to hire them and design products and services for them."

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