Hasta La Ideas

So much for all those good feelings we had so recently about Prince Charles and his Foundation for the Built Environment stepping in to help the rebuilding efforts in Haiti. Thanks to the massive budget cuts put in place by the British government, the same that forced the Design Council to go independent, funding has been cut for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and the Prince has offered to step in to let his foundation take over their now-gone duties. As the Guardian describes it, should this happen, the Prince “could soon be providing verdicts on plans for landmark developments, potentially altering how they are built.” That would mean no more of this sneaking around, whispering to developers about who they shouldn’t be hiring, since the threat of a slight legislative hand-slap would no longer be something to fear. Modernist architects are, of course, furious about all of this, as are organizations like the Royal Institute of British Architects, whose new president, Ruth Reed, has posted a damning response to the Prince’s power play. Here’s a bit:

Good design must not be determined nor constrained by arbitrary stylistic preferences, or the notion of what buildings “should” look like; good design is simply about delivering both the client and the public’s needs within budget, in a way that is appropriate to the building’s context. It has to take full consideration of the aesthetic, future use and technical ambitions and constraints of the client, site and brief.

If you thought last year’s battle between the Prince and Richard Rogers was bigger than big, we have a feeling that this has the makings of eclipsing even that. For some further, more grounded reading, we highly recommend Jonathan Glancey‘s response to all of this, “Great Architecture Doesn’t Come Cheap,” wherein he asks his fellow London residents what the point of architecture even is there anymore, no matter who is in charge, since they largely don’t seem to care as much about as we used to anyway. It’s certainly harsh, but a great additional angle to this sure-to-warm debate.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

I’m working on a feature for the next issue of UPPERCASE magazine. I’d love to hear your opinion:

What makes a good business card design?

Please leave your comments below this post with your name and url.

Are you proud of your own card or one that you’ve designed for a client? Submit print-resolution files here by November 15 to be considered for publication in the magazine. Make sure to include your contact info and all appropriate design credits.

love this new shirt from Threadless

Core77 is proud to announce “Sustainable Refrainables,” our second Design Arena Community Challenge in association with the San Francisco chapter of AIGA to support their fourth biennial Compostmodern conference.

“Sustainable Refrainables” is a poster design competition celebrating words of persuasion. We’re inviting designers to share those mantric phrases they find most powerful in communicating positive action. Maybe the phrase is something as simple as “I never use the word ‘sustainability.'” or “The first rule is listen. The second rule is to ignore what you heard and do it better.” or “There is no silver bullet, just silver buckshot.”

Whatever your magic phrase, design it up in poster form, upload it to the competition site, and comment on your favorites. We’re looking for your most graphic, persuasive quotables!

There’s five prizes to be won:
Jury Prize Winner
$500 and a copy of Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 Master Collection.

Popular Vote Winner
$500 and a copy of Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 Master Collection.

Three Runners Up
Each receive a copy of Adobe’s Creative Suite 5 Master Collection.

All five entries will be printed and displayed in transit shelters for one week prior and during San Francisco Design Week, June 13-19, 2011. Each winner will also receive a printed copy of their poster design.

Jury:
Scott Thomas, Obama Campaign
Robynne Raye, Modern Dog Design Co.
Allan Chochinov, Core77
Lea Hickman, Adobe
Valerie Casey, Designers Accord
Steve Heller, School of Visual Arts

Schedule:
Competition platform open for entries: November 1, 2010
Competition Closed: January 2, 2011
Voting Closed: January 7, 2011
Winners Announced: At Compostmodern Conference, January 22, 2011

We are grateful to Adobe for making this competition possible and to Clear Channel for providing transit shelter space for this competition.

Enter Now!

(more…)

Kikut; containers for dried mushrooms by Anderssen & Voll, top, and Gro, a watering can by Petter Skogstad, Hallgeir Homstvedt, Espen Voll and Torbjorn Anderssen, pictured bottom

Oslo-Tokyo is a design exhibition as part of the Design Tide show in Tokyo currently running until November 3rd.

The Oslo-Tokyo exhibition has been set up by a group of Norwegian designers to explore the notion of ‘Norwegian’. The cultural origin of a geographical affiliation, has in recent years become less relevant as a sales argument therefore these designers have chosen to focus on their individual experiences of Oslo. The brief was to develop a prototype based on a specific situation or place related to the city of Oslo with each product detailing their own personal story.

(more…)