Hasta La Ideas

The second UK Designers Accord Town Hall was held on January 19 at The Design Council offices in London. The event was organised and facilitated by Engage by Design, with sponsorship from The Design Council Challenges Team. People from different industries and ages came together to explore the theme of Social Innovation and what we can do to insure its success. Following an introduction from Zoe Olivia John of Engage by Design and Marianne Guldbrandsen, Head of Design Strategies for the Design Council Challenges Team, six speakers delivered fantastic and thought-provoking presentations:

1: Tools & Skills – The Kaleidoscope Project – Engage by Design
Engage by Design kicked off the presentations with the short film ‘Tools & Skills’ from ‘The Kaleidoscope Project,’ which focuses on using four key values (Balance, Culture, Meaning, and Innovation) to frame the question: “What tools and skills do we need to build a better future?” This was a fantastic way to stimulate the attendees and get the creative juices flowing. Watch all the videos in the series on the Engage by Design website.

Tools & Skills, The Kaleidoscope Project from Engage by Design on Vimeo.

2. Fiona Bennie – Forum for the Future
“How can we enable people to share in a low carbon economy?”
“How can designers make sharing cars appealing?”
“How can low income families save energy?”
“How can looking into the future help designers?”
The prices of everything from food to cotton are rising. As humans and consumers, we need to truly evaluate how we will spend our money. Forum for the Future believes it is all about changing demographics—carbon reduction targets of 50% by 2025 will force people to realize there must be a big change in what we eat, how we travel, and many other things that can easily pass without thought.

Check out this great link from the presentation: Wikihouse bringing affordable housing to the masses in an accessible way.

3. Mike Smart – Challenges Team, The Design Council
“It’s all about being smart with what you can get your hands on, creating ‘low-fi’ solutions to social problems.”
The Challenge Team’s Mike Smart showed us how this is already being done in concrete and non-traditional ways:

• Jamie Oliver is not only a celebrity chef, but also someone who picks issues and creates campaigns to make change in an accessible way. He makes things visual and tangible, importantly starting on a small scale.
• Untergunther is another example – they are a group “with a mission”, breaking into abandoned public monuments in order to restore them.

Check out how the Challenges Team is continuing this work with their current projects: The Amazings and Casserole.

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