John Thackara, founder of Doors of Perception , spoke at Compostmodern 2013. At Compostmodern, John Thackara explored the question: What are the design opportunities where social and living systems meet? About John Thackara For thirty years, John Thackara has traveled the world looking for stories about practical steps taken by communities to realize a sustainable future. He is the [...]

Wendy McNaughten , an illustrator and graphic journalist, spoke at Compostmodern 2013. At Compostmodern, McNaughten discussed how graphic journalism and ethnographic research creates a deep picture of people and communities. About Wendy McNaughten Wendy MacNaughton is an illustrator and graphic journalist based in San Francisco. Her drawings appear in publications like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and [...]

Julie Kim, a producer at Hot Studio , spoke at Compostmodern 2013. In her talk at Compostmodern, Julie Kim made the case that we have a moral and social obligation to be design activists in our own communities first, before looking farther afield. To do so, she highlighted some successful program and business models–rooted in the U.S.’s longstanding tradition [...]

Adam Werbach, founder of Yerdle, spoke at Compostmodern 2013. During his talk at Compostmodern, Adam explored the question: How could sharing become the new shopping? About Adam Werbach Adam Werbach is the co-founder of the sharing start-up yerdle (www.yerdle.com). A lifelong organizer, at age 23 Werbach was elected the youngest-ever President of the Sierra Club. He went on [...]

Alex Gilliam, founder of Public Workshop , spoke at Compostmodern 2013. Amazing things happen to a community when its most resilient members–youth–are empowered to visibly take the lead in designing, building, and problem solving for its future. Through Tiny WPA and other programs, Alex Gilliam challenged Compost Modern’s audience to rethink the roles that youth, communities, and all of [...]

John Bielenberg, founder of Future Partners , spoke at Compostmodern 2013. Welcome to Future Blitz, a program designed to help people rapidly find ingenious solutions to their greatest challenges. About John Bielenberg Ten years ago, John Bielenberg created an immersive and experimental program called Project M that is designed to inspire and educate young designers, writers, photographers, and filmmakers [...]

Cheryl Dahle, founder of The Future of Fish , was a speaker at Compostmodern 2013. How do you effectively intervene in a sprawling global environmental problem like overfishing? In her talk at Compostmodern, Dahle explained how design informed the creation of the Future of Fish, an initiative designed to spur market change and better ocean health. About Cheryl Dahle [...]

Paul Polak, founder of D-Rev Design , was a speaker at Compostmodern 2013. In his talk at Compostmodern, Polak revealed the keys for entrepreneurs, businesses, and others to replicate and expand the methods that have
already helped millions of people get out of poverty without charitable or government handouts. About Paul Polak Dr. Paul Polak is the Founder and [...]

Jeff Barnum, a co-founder of Reos Partners , was a speaker at Compostmodern 2013. In his talk at Compostmodern, Barnum shared his insights on how to train the “inner abilities” for social change and creative work. About Jeff Barnum Jeff is an artist, teacher, and social entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Reos Partners, a global social innovation consultancy [...]

Howard Brown, Co-Founder of dMass and sustainability consultant, was a speaker at Compostmodern in 2013. The products that fill our lives are mostly waste. Brown argues designers must create new ways to deliver more wealth with fewer resources. In his talk, Brown shares a revolutionary yet practical framework to help designers lead the way in building a [...]

Julie Sammons, Chief Community Officer at Hylo, was a speaker at Compostmodern in 2013. Design is Alive: Inspiration from Living Systems. In her talk, Sammons discusses how nature has time-tested strategies for designs that can survive and thrive in a complex, interconnected world. About Julie Sammons Sammons’ career evolved from engineering billions of bacteria as a research [...]

Terry Irwin, head of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design, was a speaker at 2013’s Compostmodern conference. In her talk at Compostmodern 2013, Terry Irwin will discussed five fundamental aspects to designing more responsibly: ethos, systems thinking, an understanding of the dynamics of wicked problems and the dominant economic paradigm and place-based design. About Terry Irwin Terry [...]

Tiffany Shlain , founder of The Webby Awards and a documentary filmmaker, was a speaker at 2013’s Compostmodern conference. Tiffany Shlain’s talk covered the subject of her documentary film, Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death, & Technology: Interdependence, the effects of living in a “Connected” world, and the importance of unplugging. About Tiffany Shlain Honored by Newsweek as one of [...]

Madeleine Lansky , a psychoanalytic psychiatrist and organizational consultant, was a speaker at 2013’s Compostmodern conference. Composting is nature’s process of recycling biologic materials into rich and fertile soil. Madeleine hopes to show how making use of the metaphor of composting can enable design conversations about social change that go deep without going off the rails. About Madeleine Lansky [...]

Compostmodern’s 2013 keynote speaker was Ezio Manzini, Design Strategist, and Founder DESIS Network. Resilience today is a concrete possibility. It appears as open and distributed socio-technical systems and it results from a complex innovation in which the technological side cannot be separated from the social one. The good news is this double trend of technological and social [...]

By Alissa Walker Since 2008, we’ve been we’ve been hosting GOOD Ideas for Cities events across the country, where local creatives team up with civic leaders to solve real-life urban challenges. The initiative has resulted in dozens of implemented solutions, from a board game that helps house the homeless in L.A., to a neighborhood revitalization project in Dallas, to a network of [...]

The Living Principles for Design were borne out of the design profession’s need for an aspirational and actionable framework for integrated sustainability—a common point of reference to which all designers can refer. Originally conceived at the encouragement of AIGA, their ongoing development is dependent upon the contributions of the design community at large. The Living Principles [...]

Heather is CEO and co-founder of Catapult Design, a product strategy and development firm that serves emerging markets. Catapult’s clients are companies and organizations working in impoverished communities with technology needs – including rural electrification, water purification and transport, food security, and health. Before Catapult, Heather worked for several years as a product design consultant in [...]

Dan is the founder of The Phoenix Commotion, a building initiative in Texas to provide housing for low-income families. He seeks to prove that constructing homes with recycled and salvaged materials has a viable place in the building industry. Learn more at http://www.compostmodern.org