Hasta La Ideas

We’ve got a post-script from last week’s Designers Accord Town Hall Meeting at Continuum in Los Angeles. Thanks to Theresa Chiueh for her thoughts and photographs!

Los Angeles inaugurated its first Designers Accord Town Hall meeting in Venice at Continuum‘s studio. Attendance was amazing—about 60 designers came to the event, representing all parts of LA: the Valley, Pasadena, Hollywood, Long Beach, and Orange County. Local design schools were also well represented by faculty and students from Art Center, OTIS, and Cal State Long Beach. RKS Design, BLACK Design, Stuart Karten Design and Ashcraft Design were all there, and we were lucky to have Marty Smith visiting from Hong Kong! It was heartwarming to see the design community gather in the former Charles and Ray Eames studio—you could feel the spirit of design in the studio as people mingled over pizza and drinks.

Alexandre Hennen kicked it all off by presenting Colorblind—Continuum’s research study conducted with Communispace to understand why and how people make “green” choices. Alex shared some interesting insights from the study. For example, people don’t understand where they have the biggest impact on the environment. They focus on trash and recycling although it has little impact compared to the food that they consume and the transportation that they use. The environment is an abstract place outside of their home—it’s difficult to understand the impact their actions have on it. As a result people don’t do things because it’s good for the environment—they make choices to benefit themselves and their families in the short term. As designers, we can help people connect their short term choices with their long term implications and to understand better what role they play in sustaining our world for future generations.

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