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.

At the beginning of the process, a communications plan was put together. Nebraskans for Peace is the oldest group of this nature in the country, so we needed to re-establish core principles and look at the changing landscape, both in political and technological terms. There are definitely things the organization does well, and of course, other things not-so-much. But coming back to the focus on community building, education and political action, after 40 years of existence, 2010 certainly was an appropriate time to look at making this little non-profit better at being a voice for change out here on the great plains.

Communications Overview for 2010

To make Nebraskans for Peace better at what it does, we looked at four areas: online, in hand, via telephone, and face to face. A new website that can be easily updated by anyone working for the organization. A continued push for thoughtful articles and stories in the bi-monthly publication called the Nebraska Report. A renewed effort at phone conversation and dialogue with the membership and an increased presence in the community with rallies, marches and protests as well as more yard signs and bumper stickers. (Have a sticker already, how about one for your neighbor’s car?) All four areas are currently being carried out feverishly. Give it a year or two, with all of our streamlined advocacy, and war will most likely cease to be acceptable and will thus have to end as more and more people rush over to our side.

The two wars America is mired in are certainly one of the issues that brings people to the group. But as a peace and justice organization, the tent is meant to be big, and includes issues dealing with the environment, civil rights and economic justice and bullying in our schools. Broad thinking on global issues certainly informs the Priorities, but how they apply locally is where the most impact can be had. If Nebraskans for Peace isn’t concerned about the military base just down the road that’s conducting warrantless wiretaps on our citizens or orchestrating drone strikes on Afghans, then who else will be?

Stop the Drones

It’s the grassroots versus the drones. Those drone planes that drop bombs indiscriminately on villages. The tea party droners who go on and on about government spending but have yet to make a peep about our bloated war budgets. And those war hawk droners who love to hold up all the marvels of our technological prowess as if that’s the high point of human accomplishment — dropping a bomb in Yemen from a control panel in Nebraska.

The new, shiny NebraskansforPeace.org

The website is the online arm of the group. Carrying articles of in-depth analysis as well as graphic campaigns designed to get to the heart of bigger issues. The military base is in our community, but those drones belong to everybody. Drones that carry quite an expensive price tag.

Goin' Broke Paying for War

The “Goin’ Broke Paying for War” campaign has become a focus in these times of seemingly unending war. It’s especially appropriate as the worry about deficits grows and the cries against “big government” get louder. The fact is this: if you want to cut down on our debt you cannot do it without cutting our war budget. We spend an absurd amount on blowing things up. Way more than we spend on kids, the elderly, our roads or sick people combined. It’s really kind of sad, building up all that weaponry while the livingry is left to fight over table scraps.

It’s as if we’re out for a crazy night at the carnival thinking our time in the bounce house never stops. We just keep jumping up and down, laughing and giggling as our bodies flail about. Perpetual motion, getting “massive air”. On and on, forever and ever. That is, until China won’t lend us money any more and the whole things deflates. Out there in a dessert. And there we are, with a case of motion sickness and no sense of direction.

As many as you need.

It’s Fourth of July time in 2010 and the battle of ideas in America continues to go on. One side is saying we spend too much, therefore strip down government. Cut medicare, privatize social security and really take on the deficit. The other side simply says, stop spending all our money on war. That’s the side I’m on. The side that says enough of these stupid, pointless wars, 700+ military bases all over the world and this thirst for empire that’s done so all other countries will do what we say. C’mon, it’s just not a 21st century way to behave.

Goin’ Broke indeed. Because of all the war we’ve got goin’ on. It seems too easy anymore, talking to my conservative friends who think we can’t afford Universal Health Care. My response: shift priorities and we got it no problem.

So my question now is, can there be common ground? Is the Tea Party and the Coffee Party set for a union of sorts? Perhaps Obama’s push for bipartisanship is rubbing off on me. Really though, the problems we face are large. Structural problems that exist at the core of our country, whether in education, economy, environment, foreign policy or our general sense of unhelpful exceptionalism. They require a large effort in response. The “fix” cannot just exist along the margins. It must be a full-on assault of all our best intentions from everywhere by everyone. With so much uproar brewing over our debt, it just may be the thing to bring together far left and far right in a very kumbaya moment.

In the back of that little coffee shop it can all certainly seem insignificant. The anti-war movement in general can seem insignificant. The noise it’s made over the last decade hasn’t really accomplished much. Though we didn’t have a major cable news network to back us. But still. One can easily become disheartened. Feelings of futility sink in. It seems like nothing is happening. And nothing is going to change.

But that’s really not true. It’s just self-inflicted drama grabbing hold. Take an honest assessment, and things are getting better. At least for this little community of collaborators. The general agitators that enjoy each other’s company enough to make the little incremental movements that assure the rest of the population that yep, we peaceniks are out here. Still making noise. As long as there’s war to be had, they’ll be peace to throw at it.

So from the designer, the programmer, the community organizer, the communications task force and the group of committed peace and justice types, here’s to a better world.

– Justin Kemerling, Designer. justinkemerling.com

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

The Third Teacher Book

The stack of books I need to read just keeps growing. I haven’t made a dent in awhile. So starting now until the end of summer I’m really going to get after it. The Third Teacher is first up. A project from Bruce Mau Design, it looks at designing today’s schools for tomorrow’s world and includes 79 ways design can transform learning and teaching. It’s a lovely book full of optimism and hope. From Let the sunshine in to Get eco-educated to Put the fun in fundamentals to Dream big and be brave, the efforts of committed individuals are indeed having positive impact. Now add to this list. 

Community Connections Section

Idea 34. Imagine like a child

Certified B Corporation

B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. Part of the responsibility revolution.  

Some notable B Corps

Report, Explore, Share

NowPublic is a multimedia online news magazine where you can make, break, shape, and share international news as it happens. A unique hybrid of content, context and conversation. Here, you participate in the news-making process.

Tugboat Poster Packs. On Sale. 12 Posters for $100

This April at the Tugboat Gallery begins the third year of their space in the Parrish Studios in downtown Lincoln. Part of the First Friday Gallery Walk every month, these exhibitions are quite an expression of a flourishing downtown art scene while bringing people together for a night of community and celebration.

To go along with each exhibition, I work with owner Peggy Gomez to design a poster and do a print run of around 75. All totaled we’ve done 25 different poster designs that have become the voice of this non-commissioned art gallery visible on the streets of Lincoln throughout the year. For the two year anniversary we’re offering the hand-screened posters from this year. 12 posters, 100 bucks. You can reserve your set now by emailing Peggy. You’ll also be able to purchase a set at the gallery walk this Friday from 7 to 10 at Tugboat.

Yours And Mine | Video Stew

New Masters & Mentors | Triumvirate

American Bust | So... How Have You Been?

Cover art for Live at KEXP Volume 4

Let’s hear it for the honest and the authentic: KEXP! The coming together of an amazing, wonderful and extraordinary music community. (No corporate hacks found here.) If you aren’t a member, do consider it. You’ll be supporting some of the best efforts at keeping music alive and well today. The KEXP Podcast Songs of the Day (free downloads) are more than worth the membership. And not to mention their live albums they put out every year. (Yeasayer playing 2080 in their studios is one of the greatest things I’ve ever heard.)

Just to be clear, I have no ties to the station, other than I just think they kick so much ass, it isn’t even funny. I don’t even live in Seattle. But there is for sure a special place in my heart for KEXP. So listen up!

Personal pledge cards for our community group Lincoln Green by Design.

This article is part of The Volunteer Design Chronicles appearing on Design Observer.

On a random weekend evening my wife and I decided to sit down and write some lines about environmental stewardship. They turned into personal pledge cards for a community organization I got myself involved with called Lincoln Green by Design. The cards were designed in an eco-friendly way, made out of paper scraps from past print runs. The messages were both sustainable and witty. One of my personal favorites was “I will eat local. Food not people.” Right up there with “I will stop (using plastic sacks) in the name of love.”

Our small effort was just one part of a bunch of other small efforts by a handful of dedicated creative people who jumped in and helped make this loose collection of concerned citizens into something worthy of attention.

There has never been a budget. No real hierarchy. Certainly no hard, fast timelines. The only thing we could count on was a monthly meeting led by our group’s founder. But what started as a four-page outline of goals/actions has became a visible advocate for a sustainable future in our city.

Now, in terms of visual communications, taking on the design of such a group has been an exercise in volunteering where a designer is just another citizen. And the messy workings of a community organization has led to both “pull your hair out” and “stand up and cheer.” How the identity design has worked shows it’s possible, with extremely limited resources and a good amount of stubborn dedication, to make something happen in your community. Right now. Today. There’s a good chance any given area has people who are good at graphic design, illustration, Web design, programming, writing, event planning, connection making, community organizing, public speaking and joke telling and want to get their hands dirty. Put all those together and you’ve got something that’s ready for positive impact.

1.5 inch buttons. Strength in numbers.

Here’s a quick rundown on how this all came together: I sign up for an email list at which time I find out about a gathering of like-minded environmentalists, so I go. I get invited to dinner the next night to talk about a new organization that’s starting. I get briefed at the dinner. It’s a group that wants to get our local government to think sustainably and in the long-term. The usual things are needed first: logo, brand, Web site, etc. It’s an exciting endeavor that I decide to help in any way I can. I go to my first lunch meeting with a group of about 15 people. We all sit around a big table and discuss our goals. I present my concepts. We discuss. Everybody has their say. We decide on a direction. I finalize things and we have a design.

As things have unfolded, I’ve become a firm believer in a community’s ability to come together and work toward a common goal for a greater good. This group is committed to making our city green by design. And with our intentions and our efforts, we will help Lincoln get there.

Several other designers started getting involved. Brochures and posters were designed. Illustrations were created. Events were planned to showcase LEED architecture. A printer who is working at becoming the greenest printer in Nebraska lent its services. A local design firm offered to build our site. A wildly successful Earth Day celebration was planned and executed.

Screenprint Posters. Power Lincoln Forever.

LEED in Lincoln Event Postcards.

LincolnGreenbyDesign.com: A community hub.

And, of course, we Facebook. Even the Mayor’s Sustainability Coordinator has taken note of the impact our little band of volunteers has had thus far and recognizes the important role we can play in shaping our future policies.

Friend us on Facebook.

What makes me smile when I think about where this group is at today, is just how haphazard, random and messy the whole process has been. Opinions differ. Signals get crossed. Ideas misunderstood. Commitments broken. Meetings forgotten about. Balls dropped. There are false starts and missteps. People move away or stop coming to meetings. New people enter the mix. We of course talk a good game which sometimes leads to that feeling that we aren’t getting anything done. All the while, slowly trudging along.

We aren’t the most efficient group around. And the design process is constantly in flux. But we have certainly built something. The design apparatus that is Lincoln Green by Design holds the thinking and activism of a volunteer community of dedicated individuals who intend to leave the world better than we found it.

Working for a sustainable Lincoln and Lancaster County.

We are a small part of a global movement working on a local level to create a sustainable future. It’s the kind of effort that’s important enough to bring in talented people who are ready to role up their sleeves and get to work. And who have a sunny enough disposition to keep at it when things go a little haywire or our budget of zero goes more into the red. It’s about community. It’s about people coming together to make change where they live. And it’s certainly something my wife and I can get behind. Enough so that we write lines about not eating local people on the weekend.

All of the work shown here are collaborative efforts between a very dedicated group of community-minded creative people. Many thanks to Katie Kemerling, Ashley Rolf, Kevin Fitzgerald, Brad Kindler, Ken Johnson, Miriah Zajic and A to Z Printing, Clint! Runge and Brandon Miller from Archrival, Christine Hunt, Stuart Long, Tyler Mainquist, Dan King, David Ochsner, Cecil Steward and the Joslyn Institute for Sustainable Communities.

– Justin Kemerling, Designer. justinkemerling.com

The Save the City project will bring together emerging artists and city residents to imagine and prompt creative social engagements and civic activation.

I recently discovered Broken City Lab: “an artist-led interdisciplinary creative research group that tactically disrupts and engages the city, its communities, and its infrastructures to reimagine the potential for action in the collapsing post-industrial city of Windsor, Ontario.” I really love the idea of “MAKE THINGS HAPPEN.” I’m blown away by all the projects and research on the site. And I guess I’m still processing all the radness. So yeah, please just visit their site.

Broken City Lab’s creative activity is located at the intersection of social practice, performance, and activism. The lab attempts to generate a new dialogue surrounding public participation and community engagement in the creative process, with a focus on the city as both a research site and workspace. It is not about doing the work of the city’s officials, or social workers, or politicians; it is about finding new creative ways to address our concerns with the city, while recognizing that our concerns may be similar to those of other community members.

Majora Carter visits Omaha. Design by Metro Community College.

The Environmental and Community Design of Majora Carter 

“We create an environment where all dreams can thrive.” How’s that for a 21st century definition of environmentalism? I was able to see Majora speak at the Green Constitutional Congress (part of Dialog:City) during the DNC in Denver in 2008. It was a roundtable discussion led by Bruce Mau that looked at the future of environmental action and what it means to strive for sustainability. Both inspiring and challenging, her vision is one of finding the hidden potential of an area. Of adding the moral costs of denying future generations a clean and productive planet. And of working together to change the world. 

Design Alliance Omaha and Metro Community College are hosting a lecture by Majora Carter at the Joslyn in Omaha on Thursday the 25th of February at 7 PM. If you’re in the area, you should definitely attend.

Pecha Kucha Night

I love PechaKucha. A community of creative individuals get together. They present the finer aspects of their work in a rapid fire, fast and furious format. Each person gets 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide, and an engaged audience. It’s too short to get boring, and it moves too quickly for a presenter to get long-winded. Basically, an artist, designer, painter, photography, architect, or whomever, gets to show off in front of a group of friendly, interested people. It’s a lovely little form of cultural entertainment. If there’s a PechaKucha happening where you live, please go. If not, start a city.

From the official site: PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide.