Archives

Written by Esther

Dan Saffer: How to Lie With Design Thinking

Interaction Designer and Author of Designing for Interaction and Designing Gestural Interfaces.

OK Go – Skyscrapers

To illustrate the song “Skyscrapers” group OK Go , director Trish Sie had the beautiful idea of staging with Moti Buchboot in various environments dancing. Very light, colorful and poetic, this clip is to be discovered later in the article on video. See the video.

Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will change the world

Clay Shirky looks at “cognitive surplus” — the shared, online work we do with our spare brain cycles. While we’re busy editing Wikipedia, posting to Ushahidi (and yes, making LOLcats), we’re building a better, more cooperative world.

Clay Shirky believes that new technologies enabling loose ­collaboration — and taking advantage of “spare” brainpower — will change the way society works.

SDN proudly present the theme for the Service Design Network Germany Conference 2012


WERT(E) SCHAFFEN: Transforming individual behaviour, businesses and society through Service Design
SDN invite you to submit abstracts for presentations and workshops to the Service Design Network Germany Conference 2012. Presentations should be no longer than 30 minutes, workshops no longer than 90 Minutes. Submission should be in the form of abstracts no longer than 250 words describing the content of your presentation/workshop. Please include a title for your contribution and a short bio of yourself in no longer than 100 words. The description should be suitable to be incorporated into the conference website and the program booklet. Please submit your abstract by 1st of May 2012.

Tweethaus

TweetHaus is the fifth project for FLUX. It is a public art + ecology project focused on citizen science and interactive learning. It fosters community through the design, construction and installation of bird habitats and public pathways in urban environments.

TweetHaus expresses itself on multiple scales, using the platform of birdhouses to create an ecologically-oriented place-making experience. The project honors the interconnection of human communities and the natural world and builds an expanding network of birdhouses, pathways, public artists and citizen scientists. Grounded in our belief that art builds community and that community can build art, the first installment of TweetHaus takes place in our own backyard—Oakland, CA, starting in March 2012.

For more information.

Metropolis II by Chris Burden

A short doc about a kinetic sculpture that took four years to build. Metropolis II is a kinetic sculpture that captures “the stress of living in a dynamic, active and bustling 21st-century city,” according to creator by Chris Burden. Mini-cars drive at “240 scale miles per hour” inside a dense, abstract cityscape. It’s on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, right down the block from GOOD Worldwide HQ.

Directed by Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman
Edited by Max Joseph
Cinemtography by Schulman, Joost & Van Neistat
Music by Tortoise (Ten-Day interval) & Mahogany (Windmill International A)

HARRY WEST about the three rules of innovation


Harry West is the CEO of Continuum, a global design and innovation firm. He guides the strategic direction and global growth for Continuum, the mastermind design firm behind many products and brands consumers encounter in everyday life. He travels and learns constantly to stay connected with real needs in our rapidly changing world. At HBR Blog Network he explains his three main rules to give teams the ability to innovate.

1. Manage Creative Friction

The wrong type of friction on teams makes people hate each other and hold back, but the right type gets results. How do you encourage good creative friction?

Share the experience. The whole team, including the client, work together through all steps of the ideation process from consumer learning, to analysis of possibilities, to envisioning the final idea. Working with consumers directly to understand their needs and aspirations is an especially powerful bonding experience that gives the team a common sense of purpose, and creates a shared foundation of facts and feelings.

Remove communication barriers. People communicate in different ways, so we do social styles analyses to help people understand how their teammates tend to communicate. Are they a driver, amiable, expressive or analytical? They learn that it is not that Harry is necessarily overbearing, but that he tends to lead with ideas, it is not that Susan isn’t on task, but she tends to consider people first. Once you understand why people are different, you can laugh about it — rather than get frustrated — and it becomes a way for the team to bond, rather than a reason for breakdown.

Have at it. Lock yourselves in the project room and engage in a passionate debate. The magic in innovation is to combine perception with analysis. Few people can do this alone, but a well-functioning team can be prolifically creative and sharply critical at the same time. The team as a whole acts like one open and self-aware brain that is creating and arguing with itself at the same time. The communication is fast and brutally honest and there is only one agenda.

fvf – Jessica Barensfeld and Simon Howell

Jewellery Designer and Photographer, New York, Brooklyn-Williamsburg

Through working for yourself, did your relationship to money change?
Jessie: Yeah it has a little bit. I learned to realize that there is always going to be an issue with money. Its really how you look at it.

Simon: I think both of us and our generation have been brought up in a consumer society and we are only just now, at our age realizing that it doesn’t have to be that way. You can have good things in life without having a lot of money, or be constantly buying. And that is what is happening now.

Freunde von Freunden is an international interview magazine that portrays people of diverse creative and cultural backgrounds in their homes or within their daily working environments.

Beautiful Graphic Network

BirdWatching is a new platform for women in graphic design, professional practice and career development. Their aim is to develop the field of graphic design as a platform for diversity and cultural democracy by offering a forum for discovery, growth and experimentation.

BirdWatching is a socially driven, international organisation and the only one of its kind. Its list of contributors includes practicing graphic designers that are passionate about design and live and work around the world. Their common aim is to connect, support and promote women in graphic design everywhere. They do this through concrete actions such as initiating dialogue, curating showcases and arranging participatory activities. They organise talks and events, highlight role models and reveal mentors, scout for new talent worldwide and create opportunities for collaboration, knowledge-transfers and recognition.

Go to their website

Sweeping Beauty II

Calligraffiti by Niels Shoe Meulman
Video by Adele Renault
Catering by Christiaan & Saba
Music by Kalyanji Anandji – Dharmatma Theme Music (Tommy’s edit)

Architecture In Helsinki – Heart It Races

Architecture in Helsinki are an indie pop band which formed in Melbourne, Australia in 2000. Famous for their arty, crazy videos and various styles in music. The band created this piece in 2007.

Friends with you

Established in 2002 by Miami-based artists Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III, FriendsWithYou set forth on a mission to spread the idea of Magic, Luck, and Friendship™ around the world, and become Friends-With-You! Every inspriring and crazy work realised with a lot of fun. Step into the joy of friends with you.

Rethinking Education

This video was produced as a contribution to the EDUCAUSE book, The Tower and the Cloud: Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing, edited by Richard Katz.

Problems worth solving

This book was started with the intent of changing design and social entrepreneurship education. As these disciplines converge, it becomes evident that existing pedagogy doesn’t support either students or practicioners attempting to design for impact. This text is a reaction to that convergence, and will ideally be used by various students, educators, and practicioners:

One audience is professors and educators of design, who are challenged with reinventing their educational curriculum in the face of a changing world. For them, this book should act as both a starting point for curriculum development and a justification for why this development is necessary—it should answer the question “what should design and social entrepreneurship education look like?”
Another audience is made up of fresh-out-of-school designers, who are bored and uninspired by their jobs. For them, this book should answer the question “how can I redirect my design efforts to something meaningful?”

Finally, a last audience is made up of practicing designers and entrepreneurs, who are looking to achieve social impact in their work. For them, the book should answer the question “what tools and techniques can I use in my work to drive impact through design?”
Read the book online.

Chris Anderson: How web video powers global innovation

TED’s Chris Anderson says the rise of web video is driving a worldwide phenomenon he calls Crowd Accelerated Innovation — a self-fueling cycle of learning that could be as significant as the invention of print. But to tap into its power, organizations will need to embrace radical openness. And for TED, it means the dawn of a whole new chapter … I do agree :)

Lessons on TED

TED-Ed’s mission is to capture and amplify the voices of great educators around the world. We do this by pairing extraordinary educators with talented animators to produce a new library of curiosity-igniting videos. A new site, which will launch in early April 2012, will feature these new TED-Ed Originals as well as some powerful new learning tools.
For those who can’t wait that long, we’re pleased to announce the official launch of TED-Ed’s YouTube channel featuring all of our new videos. Also, we are happy to extend an open invitation for the nomination of educators and animators and the suggestion of lesson ideas.

You can nominate a teacher, nominate an animator or suggest a lesson here:
http://education.ted.com

Service Design Drinks in Berlin

It’s time to get together again – bringing people with a service-oriented mindset together and share experiences and knowledge. Wednesday, 21 March 2012. Can wait to see some nice crazy people again.


Coding a better government

Can government be run like the Internet, permissionless and open? Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes it can — and that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments — and their neighbors.

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder of Code for America, which matches software geniuses with US cities to reboot local services.

GRAPHIC DESIGN FESTIVAL 02 – 06 APRIL 2012

After School Club is a one-week graphic-design festival in April 2012. Alongside workshops with internationally known designers, the club hosts talks, symposiums and more. Everything will be located in the classrooms which are not used during the semester break. The festival is free of charge. ASC is a project by Klasse König and is initiated by Alexander Lis & Prof. Eike König

For more infos get the newsletter.

JOUR FIXE * Sustainability in Berlin

Thursday, 8.3.2012 von 7.30pm – 10.00pm. SDW Neukölln, Plügerstr. 11 in 12047 Berlin-Neukölln.

Go and see the beautiful workshop and listen to some new sustainable projects build in Berlin. It’s a night to get inspired, give feedback and maybe also get involved. You will find people from various backgrounds and mindsets – and a bar with nice drinks of course :)

* sorry the website and the movie are only in German

The New Rules of Innovation

Carl Bass is president and chief executive officer of Autodesk, Inc. Autodesk is the leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Formerly he was Autodesk’s chief operating officer, responsible for worldwide sales, marketing, and product development. Earlier roles included CTO and EVP of product development.

Sustainable summertime in Helsinki

Well, attending the “3rd Sustainable Summer School” was fun, good input and great people. I am really looking forward to be in Helsinki for the next one. The “4th Sustainable Summer School” for design students from all around the world takes place from August 25th to September 1st.

The “4th Sustainable Summer School” will offer students from all over the world the unique possibility to design and to shape the future lifestyle in a sustainable way.

Registration will start during March 2012!

Find more infos on FB.

Need something new? Go Netcycling.

Netcycler is an internet service that lets you swap and giveaway your old stuff. Swapping is fun, handy, environmentally friendly and free! With Netcycler you can: Swap your old stuff for things you actually want; get free stuff; and give away stuff for free.

If you are in Germany then check out Netcycler.de to start trading. If you are from the UK or Finland please visit netcycler.co.uk or netcycler.fi

It’s a whole new way to swap

When you use Netcycler your old stuff becomes currency. It’s amazing the things you can get with the items you offer. Netcycler creates matches between offers and wishes. All you need to do is list what you want to get rid of and what you would like in return. Netcycler forms trade rings between three or more people, so that each ring member both gives and receives something. This greatly increases the possibility of getting your wishes. You don’t have to arrange the ring – Netcycler will let you know who to deliver your offer to and who to fetch your wish from. Then you can arrange to meet the person somewhere convenient or use our easy integrated shipping service to deliver the items.

Information for change

Established in 2003, Tactical Tech is an international NGO working to enable the effective use of information for progressive social change. Their work is informed by the principles of freedom of expression and freedom of information and the need for transparency and accountability.

THey are technologists, information designers, data and security experts, and human rights and environmental justice activists who share a passion for social change.

The mission is to advance the skills, tools and techniques of rights advocates, empowering them to use information and communications to help marginalised communities understand and effect progressive social, environmental and political change.Have a good look.

Visualisation Tools and Resources

Outstanding data visualisations allow the scale and dimensions of a story to emerge. Drawing by numbers organises data visualisation tools under four categories – Charts and graphs; Mapping and mashups; Design, layout and presentation; and Data management tools. Browse through them below.

However advanced their capabilities, most of the tools profiled here address fairly simple data and design tasks. They also have feature sets that anyone with a little technical knowledge (and some persistence) could use to make something. They all have acceptable support structures and materials and a degree of non-English language support. They are also all free to use or open source. Have a look.

The Global Service Jam is over. From February 24th–26th 2012 people interested in service and customer experience met at 101 locations all over the globe. At lot of crazy great people form different backgrounds like: designer, students, academics, business people and customers jamming together for 48 hours in order to create something good.

I really had an awesome service jam weekend in berlin ** Thanks to great moderation, input, host, food, beer and some every inspiring and motivated people.

Have a look how awesome it was!

Toolkit for Service Design

The team behind Canvanizer:

We are located in the Coworking Space Nuremberg, Germany. At last years Nuremberg Startup Weekend we used the Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder in the teams to brainstorm about the ideas. You can download the Business Model Canvas as a free poster under Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

At this years Startup Weekend Nuremberg we decided to make a simple web tool with easy to share links between team members who are brainstorming on a project, but not necessary in the same room.

This is a very very early prototype. We update it in short intervals. We hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to use, share and give us feedback. Just send us an email or tweet us @canvanizer. Go explore the tool.

This is Service Design Thinking

The Global Service Jam already started in Hamilton, New Zealand. I will participate in Berlin and I am really looking forward to a crazy – out of control – fun weekend. Besides that, if your are wondering: Service Jam? It is about Service Design, a tool that takes a human centered approach to develop and improve services. I think it is a great tool, that can have have good impact, if you use it for the right kind of projects.

The Hub – Get ready!

The Hub is a social enterprise with the ambition to inspire and support imaginative and enterprising initiatives for a better world. It is a global community of people from every profession, background and culture working at ‘new frontiers’ to tackle the world’s most pressing social, cultural and environmental challenges.

They believe that there is no absence of good ideas in the world. The problem is a crisis of access, scale, resources and impact. SO they create places around the world for accessing space, resources, connections, knowledge, experience and investment. Go to the hub.

What is Wheelmap?

Wheelmap is a map for wheelchair accessible locations. On wheelmap.org you can find out if a location is accessible or not and are also be able to tag locations yourself.

 

Where do you get the location data from?
All location data comes from Openstreetmap, the biggest user-generated mapping project of the world. Think wikipedia for maps. Everybody is welcome to contribute.

 

What technology has been used to delevop wheelmap?
The project uses the Openstreetmap API to retrieve (and in the future also save) accessibility data. The website has been developed using Ruby on Rails.

 

Is Wheelmap open source?
Currently the source code isn’t open source. But we’re thinking about doing that in the future.

 

I have a similar project, can we cooperate?
For sure! If you also use Openstreetmap we’re already sharing all location data with you. If you want to help us develop wheelmap.org, fork us on github. Anything else? Just contact us!

 

Who is behind wheelmap?
Wheelmap is an initiative of “Sozialhelden e.V.“, a German non-profit association.

www.wheelmap.org 

Buenos Aires – Inception Park


A charming video from Black Sheep Films. Enjoy the beautiful pictures.

Glorious Science Slam

Come join and present the research at the 4th ScienceSLAM Helsinki, on 27.3.2012 at Korjaamo, Helsinki! Deadline for applications is the 27.2.2012. Get ready to pack your stuff to join the event. Visit the website.

ENORM MAGAZIN – First edition 2012

enorm magazine is an independent business magazine, with a belief in the potential of the concept of Social Business, with all its facets, to overcome social evils and benefit mankind. This is what we aim to achieve.

An idea which has not been considered for centuries is now growing into a full-scale movement: The eradication of poverty, hunger, environmental destruction and global injustice is possible, through a new form of capitalism with a humanitarian approach.

enorm’s ambition is to introduce this new kind of business, aiming to connect to minds open to new ideas and to reach those carrying social responsibilities in politics, business, foundations and NGOs. enorm wishes to inspire and guide you, awe you and motivate you with informative, reliable, entertaining and authentic journalism at its very best.

For Flash On Brighton Beach 2011 Munkowitz Humbly gmunk.com was commissioned to create the title sequence. Beautiful work and dance.

The initial inspiration was to take graphic pixelated light sequencing and integrate it into a live-action modern dance piece. This ultimately translated into building a unique LED light grid that would serve as the primary light source for the talent below. Immediately, A narrative evolved: a creative soul searches for inspiration as he faces manifestations of his inner ghosts. The LED grid provided a captivating device to parallel the emotion while the dancers ultimately led the viewer through this unforgettable journey.

Director: Bradley G Munkowitz
Executive Producer: Matt Winkel
Director of Photography: Kevin Gosselin
Assistant Director: Lloyd DeSouza
Assistant Creative Director: Nick Losq
Choreographer: Kitty McNamee
Assistant Choreographer: Hunter Hamilton
Dance Principal Male: Zak Ryan Schlegel
Dance Reaper: Mecca Vazie Andrews
Dance Gazelle 1: Reshma Gajjar
Dance Gazelle 2: Tara Avise
Dance Fireball: Denna Thomsen

Index award

INDEX: is a Danish-based, non-profit organization that was established in 2002 and coined the concept “Design to Improve Life”. They work globally to promote and apply both design and design processes that have the capacity to improve the lives of people worldwide.

INDEX: is widely recognized for the global biennial design award, the INDEX:Award, which is the largest cash design prize in the world (worth €500,000) encompassing the five categories: Body, Home, Work, Play, and Community.

Created by Denmark, INDEX: Design to Improve Life is in sync with the values and principles that made Danish design widely renowned in the last century, focusing on humanism, social understanding and democratic thinking.
DESIGN TO IMPROVE LIFE! DO IT!


Little Dragon – Ritual Union

Great Musik – just awesome dancing. Enjoy!


A call for “design thinking”

>Tim Brown says the design profession is preoccupied with creating nifty, fashionable objects — even as pressing questions like clean water access show it has a bigger role to play. He calls for a shift to local, collaborative, participatory “design thinking.” (Recorded at TEDGlobal, July 2009, Oxford, UK.Duration: 16:50)

Service Design Tools

This website is the result of the research activity done by Roberta Tassi during her graduation thesis, further developed within the framework of the cooperation between DensityDesign research group at INDACO Department – Politecnico di Milano and DARC – the Research & Consulting Center of Domus Academy.
Service Design Tools is conceived as an open platform of knowledge, to be shared with the design research community. Find the tools!

Bis es mir vom Leibe fällt

The Revamp and Repair Studio Bis es mir vom Leibe faellt focuses on repairing things in the broadest sense: rescuing and renewing things that already exist. Have a good look.

Nice introduction video, that inspires to go and read “The Spirit Level” by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. Published by Penguin. To find out more visit http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Join for the next Kitchen Event with Sozialhelden (Social Heroes), a group of modern heroes so to speak.

The non-profit organisation Sozialhelden works for the better good. With their unique approach they see the smile and not the wagging finger as a means to raise awareness for social problems. They use participatory design to solve key problems of our daily lives and to improve accessibility.
The most recent project Sozialhelden is working on is called wheelmap.org – a location-based service which helps its users to find more than 200.000 wheelchair accessible places around the globe.
Raul Krauthausen, founding member of Sozialhelden, will present some of Sozialhelden’s social projects, share how wheelmap got featured in a google chrome TV ad and also tell you how they got their website translated into Klingon.

As usual, the Kitchen event is open to the public and everyone is welcome.

Fjord GmbH
Friedrichstraße 210, 2.OG, 10969 Berlin, Germany

6.30pm – Doors Open
7.00pm – Start of presentations

The British Psychological Society published an interesting article the other day on what your choice of social networking says about your personality. Here’s the good stuff: www.sustainablecitiescollective.com


Needing and Getting

Well I don’t think we need more car commercials, but OK GO released just released their newest music video. Though I prefer the simple ideas of their older videos, this one is awesome fun!

After the Factory

Screening of AFTER THE FACTORY, Philip Lauri’s stunning comparative documentary film on people’s lives after de-industrialisation in Detroit, USA and Lodz, Poland. Please scroll down for a synopsis.

The film premiered on Feb 2nd in Detroit and we are glad to offer the unique chance of a Berlin screening in the presence of the filmmaker!

The film will be screened in English/Polish with English subtitles and will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker. Free entrance.

SATURDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2012, 18.00 H

CENTER FOR METROPOLITAN STUDIES
TU BERLIN
ERNST-REUTER-PLATZ 7
TEL BUILDING 3rd FLOOR
BERLIN

Do Great Things

Asana builds collaborative software to help teams be more effective in contributing to the world, one step at a time. I agree with the co-founder of Asana, Justin Rosenstein, when he says: “Life is short, youth is finite, and opportunities endless. Have you found the intersection of your passion and the potential for world-shaping positive impact? If you don’t have a great idea of your own, there are plenty of great teams that need you — unknown startups and established teams in giant companies alike.” Read the whole artikel.

All is not lost

Another awesome video directed by OK Go, Pilobolus and Trish Sie.

Lonely boy – a tribute to an awesome dancer

Appreciate this video for “Lonely Boy”. It’s not only a great Black Keys song, but obviously great fun dancing to it.

GOOD.is

GOOD is a collaboration of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits pushing the world forward.GOOD Maker is a platform that makes good things happen.They give individuals and organizations the ability to tap into the public’s creativity and energy to address an issue that’s important to them.

Duolingo – did you had a look yet?

With Duolingo you learn a language for free, and simultaneously translate the Web.

Tom Hulme is talking

Tom Hulme spoke about open innovation and crowd sourcing at the Brisbane Festival of Ideas 2011, hosted by ABC Radio National.