Few people would think of a shower as a tool to inspire and empowering the developing world, yet this is exactly the approach my student design team took in the slums of Chile and Argentina. During the summer of 2009, twelve students from varying disciplines (graphics, environmental, product design and graduate film) were selected to →
In Part 1 of the “Casting Seeds” series we’ll meet Rudy Ruggles, President of Collaborative Innovation Services, a consultancy that helps organizations use the tools and principles of sustainability to create innovative solutions to strategic and organizational challenges. Rudy is based in Boston, MA, and graduated from MCAD’s Sustainable Design program with a Professional Certificate →
The Minneapolis College of Art and Design is pleased to announce the launch of a new 18-credit Professional Certificate in Sustainable Design. This fully online program was created to cater to the busy lives of working professionals. It is lean and customized to meet our students’ individual needs. Check out the top 18 reasons to →
If the word sustainable reminds you of brown paper wrappers and clunky design, competitors are leaving you in the dust! They see the advantage of an approach that inspires staff, reduces costs, and increases market share — and are running with it. Where do these advantages come from? Almost any designer will do a better →
Nestled into the southeastern coast of India there is something amazing happening: permaculture with a conservation purpose. Since 2003, an eclectic group of volunteers and permaculture super-stars have been working and living together in a planned, sustainable community called Sadhana Forest on the outskirts of the city of Pondicherry (or Puducherry). Pondicherry was put on →
Nothing exists outside a relationship. Everything is related in the working systems of nature, economics, or package design. A designer that does not take into account the effect delivered works will have on users, resources or society, depletes the designs potential and future viability. Systems Thinking requires that we develop the awareness and skills to define and design the functional relationships, which reduces waste and enhances, yield from existing relationships.
I was forced to wear a bike helmet when I was a kid. Our house was on a fairly busy road and my mom was (and still is) a total safety nut; a bad combination. What she didn’t know is that I tossed the helmet into the woods whenever I got beyond the view of →
You know those times when something amazing has the potential to happen? When you’re just on the cusp of a significant opportunity? You know it’ll change your life; you can just sense it. In order to make it happen you attempt to control the uncontrollable by hoping, praying, asking the Universe, refraining from talking about →
About midway through the double-zero decade I decided that I needed to enhance my skills and move in a direction that would give me a possible edge over other designers and creative directors. What I got was a life AND career changing experience. The MCAD Sustainable Design Program isn’t just for people who want to →
What is it like to design for the developing world – to try to create products that will help to lift people out of poverty? In many ways, it’s just like any other design challenge, the difference being that your client may have radically different constraints than you’re used to, and perhaps you’re unfamiliar with →