Blog Profile / Social Design Notes
| URL : | http://backspace.com/notes/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Arts / Graphic Design | |
| Posts on Regator: | 387 | |
| Posts / Week: | 1.4 | |
| Archived Since: | March 30, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
When Troy Saved Its Library with a Book Burning Party
A guerrilla marketing campaign uses outrage to drum up social media and mainstream media coverage, and dramatically redirects the framing of a proposed tax increase to save the local library. Hoaxing the people you want to support you is a risky proposition. But this time it paid off. (via)
What is the Definition of Manhood?
Well done, Times of India. (source)
Les Casseroles
I love this image by illustrator Matt Forsythe. It nicely captures the spirit of the protests in Montréal last May. As The Globe and Mail notes: “Those clanging pots, known as les casseroles, were initially seen as just another tactic,...Show More Summary
Myths and Movements
From Big Books and Social Movements: A Myth of Ideas and Social Change (PDF) by David Meyer and Deana Rohlinger: “Mythic accounts shorten the incubation time of social movements and omit the initiating efforts of government and political organizations. Show More Summary
Puppets Talk Back
First you ban them from your political convention, then you threaten their funding, now the puppets are rising up and fighting back with a Million Puppet March in Washington DC three days before the election. That should be some photo...Show More Summary
Contraception is a Political Issue
Flipping through some old posters, this one from Australia’s Earthworks Poster Collective caught my eye. I love the humor and urgency, the pop of white ink on newsprint, and the appropriated and politicized style of romance comics. And...Show More Summary
Austerity Isn't Working
Poignant cartoon from Steve Bell riffing on this influential Conservative poster from 1978. (via)
Designing Culture
Great piece via Mike on design and culture in Jacobin magazine. Some choice cuts: “Design is one of the linchpins of capitalism, because it makes alienated labor possible.… [W]hen it comes to design’s influence on social structures, the focus on consumerism distracts from something more significant and interesting. Show More Summary
Social Media Censorship in China
Researchers at Harvard scraped Chinese social media sites to produce this fascinating analysis of censorship patterns: criticism of the Government and its leaders are actually OK, but grievances that spread virally or suggestions ofShow More Summary
Disobey
Enjoyed this détournement of Shepard Fairey’s ubiquitous brand from LibertyManiacs.
Critical Pictograms
Olympic pictograms have been used since the 1936 Berlin games to create a visual system of signs for navigating (and decorating) the games and host cities across language barriers. See this writeup or animated appraisal for a visualShow More Summary
Protest Posters in Québec
Design students at the University of Québec started the École de la Montagne Rouge to produce visual materials supporting the 2012 student protests across Québec.
They’ve posted a lovely collection of poster designs, many in the spirit of Grapus and the Atélier Populaire. Show More Summary
Libya Ink
It’s amazing waking up in Brooklyn to see the euphoric tweets and pictures coming out of Libya as people take to the polls for first election in decades.
I now feel that the 70 days I spent in prison didn't go to waste ?#LYelect ? ?#??????...Show More Summary
A is for Activist
As a parent, I’ve had a very hard time finding progressive children’s books. Innosanto Nagara felt the same way, so he and the Design Action Collective decided to do something about it. They are designing a picture book for radical tots — a full-fledged, pro-social and environmental justice ABC book. I've backed this on Kickstarter and you should too!
Street Tweet
Street Tweet. Here's a nice offline use of Twitter. Last month ONE ran a campaign around the G8 meeting in Camp David and Washington DC outputting selected Tweets in paint onto the pavement.
Foundations
From a recent review of the 2006 anthology The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: ‘Because the [Non-Profit Industrial Complex] looks for “measureable” outcomes, the people we hope to serve and love become “clients”, “constituents”, “customers” and “contacts” rather than brother and sisters or neighbors. Show More Summary
Income inequality, as seen from space
Income inequality, as seen from space.
Follow the green for some real world data visualization: satellite photos of urban trees reveal the geography of income inequality.One could test the thesis in NYC with the OASIS data.
Food Blogging for Social Change
Food Blogging for Social Change. A fantastic use of blogging for advocacy: a 9-yr-old’s school lunch blog attracts international attention and shames the local council into making changes.
Roads Emergency
It’s a design emergency. Road trauma is the number one cause of death and injury for children in every country of the world. And crashes disproportionately affect the poor with 9 out of 10 deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries.
While...Show More Summary
Data Driven Journalism Handbook
Data Driven Journalism Handbook. Data, storytelling, news apps, visualization, tools, and resources — the Data Driven Journalism Handbook is a great resource for NGOs, too.