Jun
18
Teaching sustainability to a new group of students always brings to attention issues with my teaching style, pace of content delivery, and strength of the project parameters. In other words, every time I teach this topic, it's a learning experience. Typically I've assigned projects that last around 4-5 weeks where...
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May
17
In Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, Douglas Coupland talks about takeaways; moments which define “what it’s like to be alive on this planet.” (Coupland, 1991) As they are described, takeaways are not things that you can purchase or plan, rather, they are those moments that seem to happen...
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Apr
14
Nine years ago I decided to attend the AIGA Power of Design Conference in Vancouver, BC to hopefully inspire my seemingly more and more laborious corporate design work. I wanted to talk with other designers and see some really interesting print material that would push me to be more creative...
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Feb
09
Which is greener, a printed or digital piece? Naturally it depends on who is being asked. Talk to a paper manufacturer and he will certainly support printed communications as much more sustainable. Ask the CEO of a web hosting company and she will make the case for digital work. In...
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Jan
13
Why do We Need Standards? Author and activist Paul Hawken argues that our natural resources are “the foundation of our economy.” Without our water, timber, air and land our economy would cease to function. Communication designers must realize the importance of designing with people and the environment top of mind. They...
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Dec
15
As I've written before about teaching sustainability in manageable chunks, I took the opportunity this fall 2011 semester to continue to perfect this pedagogy. I allow the students to only focus on one component of the larger sustainability issue (in this case amount of material) and avoid extra complexities initially....
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Dec
13
Information visualization explores how to represent data and communicate information in effective and interesting ways. This semester at Purdue University, I am taking a course in Information Visualization Design where I am focusing my attention on packaging waste information. According to Annie Leonard, 99 percent of all the materials that...
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Dec
10
From individually wrapped prunes to over-packaged USB drives, excess packaging has become a momentous problem. Required for safety, preservation, and marketing, packaging can be valuable, however excess packaging waste is a growing environmental and societal concern. Pulitzer price winning author Russell Baker once wrote, "The American dream is to turn...
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Oct
27
Sustainability is the wicked problem of design in the 21st century. From now on, all problem solving, decision and policy-making, and all aspects of design have to consider their impact on the health of individuals, communities, societies, ecosystems and the planetary life-support system in order to be sustainable. Sustainable...
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Oct
23
On October 20, 2011 I had the privilege to speak at the AIGA Chicago's Living Principles event with John Harris (principal at a5). The event sold out and featured a discussion of how the Living Principles are being utilized in the professional practice (via John) and in undergraduate graphic design education...
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