Stronger Together

Poster Show Friday the 28th at the New BLK. See you there!

From the Nebraska Appleseed blog: Build A Stronger Nebraska Together

LINCOLN: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7TH

October 7 · 6:00pm – 10:00pm

The Ink Spot at Parrish Studios
1410 O Street
Lincoln, NE

OMAHA: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28TH

October 28 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm

The New BLK
1213 Jones Street
Omaha, NE

A poster show benefiting Nebraska Appleseed featuring art from:

Paul Berkbigler
Doe Eyed
Ella Durham + Sam Rapien
Justin Kemerling
Peter Morris
Oxide Design Co.
Cathy Solarana
Jake Welchert

Historically, the poster has been a powerful means of communicating ideals and advocating for change.

Nebraska Appleseed called upon leaders in the graphic design community to envision how we can build a stronger Nebraska through greater equality, opportunity and justice for all.

We partnered with Justin Kemerling of The Match Factory and Lincoln screen printer Jason Davis of Screen Ink to produce an art exhibition with a collection of posters to inspire all people of our great state to work together to create a more inclusive, more vibrant community.

These powerful posters – eleven designs, hand-signed and numbered, twenty-five prints each on 18″x24″ silkscreen prints – give voice to Appleseed’s core values of Community, Democracy, Equality, Justice and Opportunity.

Why We're Here: The Powerful Impact of Public Broadcasters When They Turn Outward

Earlier this year I completed a project with the Harwood Institute. It’s a book about public broadcasters and the crucial role they play in any community. When public broadcasters actively engage in the places they live, when they step outside of their traditional programming and seek to use the airwaves while working with the people, positive change does happen. It’s a hopeful look at working together after changing fundamentally the way an organization thinks of itself; not apart from, but with. And that, after the turbulence, conflict and friction that comes from collaborative efforts, leads to good things.

The talk, so moving. The artist, so inspiring. It MUST spread to communities across the world. It is up to us. It is time to act, to do, to make change.

• JR, a semi-anonymous French street artist, uses his camera to show the world its true face, by pasting photos of the human face across massive canvases. At TED2011, he makes his audacious TED Prize wish: to use art to turn the world inside out. Learn more about his work and learn how you can join in at insideoutproject.net.

TED Prize Winner JR & INSIDE OUT from TED Prize on Vimeo.

2011 TED Prize winner JR has made his wish: “I wish for you to stand up for what you care about by participating in a global art project. And together we’ll turn the world INSIDE OUT.”

To participate, upload your portrait: InsideOutProject.net.

A Whole Bunch of Peace, Love, & Joy

Katie and I recently did a holiday card for the project called A Whole Bunch of People. It’s a tribute journal of volunteerism and engagement dedicated to the life and memory of Jessica Lutton Bedient who passed away in October of this year after being involved in a severe car accident with her new husband Tony. A truly tragic story, but as Jessica devoted much of her life to helping many humanitarian causes in her community and around the world, the project encourages all those who knew her to do the same. And then, to pass it on.

• Donate of yourself in gratitude. Mentor a youth, paint a playground, rake a yard, buy a friend lunch and spend time listening, and encourage those you have touched to donate themselves and continue to PASS IT ON. Then, inspire others by writing about it here on the Share Your Story page.

As Jessica was a great friend of Katie’s, we’re very grateful to be involved with such an important effort with so many wonderful people.

If we have your address, you might actually get a holiday card from the Kemerlings this year. And if one doesn’t make its way to you via the physical USPS mail, consider this the next best thing as we wish you all a whole bunch of peace, love and joy. Pass it on.

A Whole Bunch of People {dot} ORG

Four Streams of Integrated Sustainability

The Living Principles for Design aim to guide purposeful action, celebrating and popularizing the efforts of those who use design thinking to create positive cultural change. It’s a framework. And a roadmap. With a good amount of resources, connections to other important efforts and the beginnings of an active online community, this site (a very nice-looking site) should become the place for everyone working and thinking in the world of sustainable design.

creative action for collective good

Civic Center champions civic engagement through stories, services, products, and public installations. Post-it Notes for Neighbors is an interactive installation that helps demystify the topic by inviting people to share information about their living situation. Vendor Power! decodes the rules and regulations for New York’s 10,000 street vendors so they can understand their rights, avoid fines, and earn an honest living.

Upcoming projects on urban planning, public art, small businesses, clean air and being neighborly.

Get your yard sign.

A COMMUNITY COLLABORATION

Here’s one for you: a designer, a programmer, a community organizer, a communications task force and a group of committed peace and justice types ranging from well-seasoned academics to bright-eyed progressives get together to advocate for a better world. It’s a collaboration of the first order with high-minded goals concerning matters of crucial importance.

The focus is how to make a peace and justice organization more effective at making peace and justice happen. In the back of a local coffee shop, huddled over the local paper with some veggie sandwiches and fair trade coffee, the plotting and scheming goes strong once a week for many months. Usually in good spirits, with lively discussion and debates about how a little non-profit organization moves forward, what has come out of the effort has been something quite remarkable. We certainly accomplished a streamlining our communications efforts, developing a new website, creating several media campaigns to stoke the political fires and training key staff members on technology that can be used to keep things current. But there’s also been a rejuvenation of the collective spirit. I saw what I thought was glowing from several people at one of the last meetings. It could be because we’ve finally seen the sun out here in the Midwest, but I like to think it’s been this whole “working together” thing that’s the root cause of the newly intense hues.

A bumper sticker for every bumper in Nebraska

Hang out in Lincoln long enough, especially downtown, and you’ll come across several deep blue bumper stickers reading “Nebraskans for Peace.” It’s probably one of the most successful bumper sticker campaigns in American history. And a nice visual mark of identity in the community. (If anybody needs one, I’m sure I can get a couple dozen by the end of the day to whomever’s asking.) In the back of that local coffee shop, a rag tag bunch of liberal peaceniks responsible for those stickers got together to grow this organization. And in between deep conversations about the sad state of affairs for America’s foreign policy, I’d say success has been had. We set out many months ago to make Nebraskans for Peace the best damn peace and justice group it could be, building on the old school tactics of political organizing while embracing some 21st century digital activism. And today, we are moving ahead as planned. (more…)

Uniting a million voices to improve the future of bikes

peopleforbikes.org is making the world a better place to ride. Power to the pedal people. And a nice infographic for “getting there by bike.” via GOOD.

Countless reasons to ride a bike