Hasta La Ideas

Two fantastic SCAD students greeting at the door in their Do-ference t-shirts.

Friday marked the second day of the Do-ference and the first day of the Ethos Conference, with panelists and workshops running simultaneously across the city of Savannah. Ezio Manzini, Italian design strategist, sustainability expert, and founder of DESIS (Design for Social Innovation towards Sustainability), started the day off right for both events with his morning keynote, which left the audience a little more educated about the history behind ‘social innovation,’ as well as some of the driving factors behind it.

Manzini spoke about how designers had the power to create great social innovation through local, yet radical, change. Introducing the audience to a new, emerging world of “small projects to broad visions and vice versa,” Manzini told the theatre of students, faculty, professionals, and DO-ers that the key issue and most powerful driver today is social innovation. Creatives, he said, hold the power to take the resources that exist and combine them in a new way.

“I’ve been one of the promoters of the idea of design for social innovation,” spoke Manzini. “When people talk about social innovation, they talk in a language of organization. You talk about social management, social enterprise—and it’s good! It’s necessary, because the initiative has to be organized.”

The Italian professor went on to discuss the importance of quality through all of this, particularly the “quality of the local-connected.” A delicate balance, the idea of being both local and connected is a difficult struggle, as being local can mean to close oneself from the rest of the world. Manzini urged the crowd to be local and open—also known as “cosmopolitan local.”

Nowadays, there is a lot of people talking about design activists, kind of politicians, designers that participate through political action—doing something to help directly, political meaning, that could promote social innovation.

Delving into the issue of time, Manzini used a metaphor of great wine, compared to a can of Coca-Cola. “You cannot consume deep qualities fast.” While Coke is quick to make and quick to drink, people tend to savor and appreciate a bottle of great wine. After all, “in slowness, you can consume complexities.”

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