TED2011: The Rediscovery of Wonder Happening this week in Long Beach. I’m at TEDActive in Palm Springs. It’s going to be an amazing few days.

This year’s TED Prize Winner: JR. One Artist. One Wish to Change the World

More in the coming days…

WE HAVE ONLY BEGUN TO TAP INTO DESIGN’S REAL POTENTIAL TO SERVE AS A TOOL FOR POLICYMAKING, GOVERNANCE, AND SOCIAL AGENDAS. WHEN USED CORRECTLY, IT CAN INTEGRATE INNOVATION INTO PEOPLE’S LIVES.

On Governing by Design, by Paola Antonelli from SEED Magazine

• transparent (complex problems require simple, clear, and honest solutions); inspiring (successful solutions will move people by satisfying their needs, giving meaning to their lives, and raising their hopes and expectations); transformational (exceptional problems demand exceptional solutions that may be radical and even disruptive); participatory (effective solutions will be collaborative, inclusive, and developed with the people who will use them); contextual (no solution should be developed or delivered in isolation but should instead recognize the social, physical, and information systems it is part of); and sustainable (every solution needs to be robust, responsible, and designed with regard to its long-term impact on the environment and society).

In late January of 2011 I had the pleasure of giving a talk for the Art Directors Association of Iowa in Des Moines. Katie and I made the trip from Omaha. We totally had a great time and it was very nice to meet all the creative folks from the area. (Thanks for listening, and thanks for buying some prints.) And damn, we went through the super impressive wind farms of western Iowa. It was like seeing the future, one where you could still breathe the air.

The gist of the talk was on Work. I’ve been an independent designer since July of last year. It’s work that I really enjoy doing and I wanted share the framework I’ve put together to help guide it as I move forward. As of now, the structure of my practice consists of four parts:

1. Project/Client Work (Traditional Graphic Design)
2. Volunteer Design (Design as Community-Building)
3. Collaborations (Design as Extracurriculars) and
4. Self-Initiated Projects (Design as Art/Entrepreneurship). (more…)

COMMON mission statement

It’s the time of collaboration. Not competition.

Alex Bogusky, Rob Schuham and John Bielenberg present COMMON.

• Benefiting people, communities, society, the environment and future generations is the new advantage in business. Our new capitalist brand is about transitioning from competitive advantage to collaborative advantage. COMMON is a brand that is community designed, community owned, and community directed. It is a single open source brand — a living network — for rapidly prototyping many progressive businesses that unleash creativity to solve social problems.

Stop and Play is an organization, online portfolio and idea exchange/curatorial forum. We use art as a medium to raise awareness and funds to help protect the living. This website compiles images, texts, videos and news from a range of different subjects aiming to inform and inspire you to join us as an art internet curator and act. We place a special effort in working together and speaking out with those who show what the media does not cover, living realities which do not sell, that have been omitted, forgotten, lost or suppressed and must be brought to light. The closer we get to this, the bigger our hopes and chance for a future where the living exists with the equal rights they were born to. We filter with the desire to provide valuable and life changing information. Our home is your home and we want to publish what you love and show the world new ways of making a difference through our PROTECT THE LIVING THROUGH ART SPECIAL PROJECTS, which you are invited to be a part of. Together we fight for the rights and the love for our bigger family, bringing different organizations/players together. We believe all knowledge is golden as long as you celebrate it, and we have chosen art as our instrument as it lives in all of us, indifferent of our backgrounds. We must immediately share the knowledge that enlightens our daily lives but which also travels way beyond our humble and precious existence. Our knowledge is our art, and together we curate and work to make a difference.

Alex Bogusky's FearLess Revolution

The FearLess Revolution.

• Founded in 2010 by Alex Bogusky and Rob Schuham, The FearLess Cottage has become an informal clubhouse for insurgents in a new consumer revolution. On most days you can find a confederacy of passionate teachers, entrepreneurs, chefs, marketers, ecologists, moms, farmers, engineers and tinkerers. Glued together with an understanding that we can do better. Better for our kids. Better for the planet. Better for each other.
• We see ourselves as advocates in this new consumer revolution. One founded on the principles that we have the power and the tools to reshape the world again.
• We humbly put our shoulders behind the best ideas and look forward to some laughs along the way. Just because the fate of our children lies in the balance, doesn’t mean we can’t have a good time.

We can do better indeed.

Year-End Giving Made Easy

The World is Full of Problems.
GlobalGiving is Full of Solutions.

Happy New Year’s Eve!

Interesting things from interesting places

When I was in New York I went to this awesome little store in SoHo called KIOSK. We offer a curated range of prod­ucts from all over the world in an exhibition format. Everything is sourced during our travels; we build the collection while away and then feature what we found at KIOSK for 4 — 6 months. A terribly good time. And I got a sweet comb: The Knights of Nit. Read more on their Where the hell am I? blog.

Longevity.
Maintainability & Transparency.
Evolvability & Scalability.

Go slow, expect restarts, and expect bad weather. From the Long Now Foundation, established to creatively foster long-term thinking and responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.

Shareable is a nonprofit online magazine that tells the story of sharing. We cover the people, places, and projects bringing a shareable world to life. And we share how-tos so you can make a shareable world real in your life. In a shareable world, solutions like clothing swaps, childcare coops, potlucks, carsharing, community gardens, and cohousing can make your life more fun, green, and affordable. When we share, not only is a better life possible, but so is a better world.

Looking to the future with a mindset of sharing in Life & Art, Work & Enterprise, Cities, CivicSystem, Science & Tech and EcoSystem. The site is full of wonderful ideas looking at what sharing could mean for the world of tomorrow.