NOTE: Ten months ago, Hannah du Plessis wrote an introduction to a series of articles that reflected on the nature of co-design and SCAD’s Design Ethos DO-ference. The below essay was written by Hannah as a way to bring that series full circle. A year after the DO-ference, ideas and projects continue to flourish. By Hannah du [...]

By Dianna Miller Six months have passed since the Design Ethos conference. Looking back, I think we got schooled as a community of designers…in the best way. During the DO-Ference, designers succeeded when we dispensed with ego and worked in the presence of what was possible, what was larger than ourselves, when we came together [...]

By Hannah du Plessis Design is an established discipline with much credibility. Designing in the social field is not. There are inspiring stories of design changing social situations, but no established practice. Learning anything new requires that we pay careful attention to the whats, hows and whys that inform our work. SCAD’s Design Ethos conference in Savannah this [...]

Design Ethos 2012 is an invitation to those who say designers should be talking less and doing more. If you really mean it when you say that, then we want you here. We’re opening up a world of opportunity for those who’d prefer to engage their skills during a conference, rather than just their ears. [...]

While the principal role of visual communication has remained unchanged through modern history, a broader realm of influence must be acknowledged and addressed, and the design community must ask questions that transcend outdated boundaries of culture, influence and motivation. Even as debate surrounding the fundamental issues of form, content and audience has raised the graphic design [...]

So, we do have to talk about the spill , but what about the role designers might play in determining what the spill will mean? Those who are directly affected by it already know what it means to their lives, of course, but what will the spill mark in the walk of history? And will the attitudes and [...]

“I have cast my lot with those, who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” —Adrienne Rich What on Earth are we doing? Is it OK to ask that?  Does the common wisdom of the day monopolize insight into what can and cannot be done in this world, not only despite its gross shortcomings, [...]

Cumulus Association and Tongji University, Shanghai, China will host the CUMULUS Shanghai Conference 2010 , which will be held from September 7-10, 2010 during Shanghai World Expo 2010 and Shanghai Biennale. This event celebrates the 20th anniversary of Cumulus, and will host a special anniversary exhibition, and a student competition with awards of up to 4,000 euro. The conference [...]

Several years ago, I participated in a simulation that made a lot of the sometimes abstract talking points on systems thinking painfully clear. I was in something called the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership (IGEL), a year-long, intensive program that not only placed us, the 30-odd particpants, into some very tense, real-world dilemas around the state [...]