Hasta La Ideas

We’re very excited for RISD/Brown’s 2011 A Better World By Design Conference, held September 30th through October 2nd. We’ve provided coverage in the past, and will be providing comprehensive coverage this year as well. Unofficial themes for the conference include design for disaster relief and sustainable design. Early bird registration has closed, but regular tickets are still available.

John Fetterman, Mayor of Braddock, PA

Speakers include: Panthea Lee, co-founder of Reboot, a service design firm for governments and NGOs, and formerly of UNICEF Innovation; John Fetterman, Mayor of Braddock, PA and social program entrepreneur; Elizabeth Johansen, Director of Product Development at Design That Matters; and Trung Le, lead designer for Cannon Design’s education group.

Panels include: Better Cities by Design; Designing Behavioral Change; Infographics and Animations; Socially Engaged Architecture; and Urban Access to Food.

Perhaps the most exciting offerings this year are the selection of workshops: Design Thinking for Social Innovation, led by Continuum; Emergency Shelter Design and Distribution, including the chance to build a variety of actual emergency shelters; GIS: An Introduction to Applying Data Mapping to Disaster Planning; and Infographic Design in Disaster Relief.

Lastly, we’re pumped for Friday night’s mixer with our friends at ANCHOR. The mixer will also be the launch party for Makeshift magazine, which we recently spotlighted. The RISD/Brown chapter of Design for America will also be launching during the conference.

Make sure to say “Hi” to our contributor Dave and we look forward to seeing you there!

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(Photos: UnBeige)

The torrential rains have ceased (Anna Wintour must have put in a call), the clouds have parted, and Fashion’s Night Out is nearly upon us. Now in its third year, the after-hours shopping and schmoozing event has gone global, but the epicenter of the retail-themed frenzy remains New York City, where Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week kicked off today at Lincoln Center with spring 2012 collections from the likes of Richard Chai, Porter Grey, and Tadashi Shoji, who took inspiration from Portland-based photographer Ron van Dongen‘s stunning images of tulips. Here are our five favorite ways to spend the sartorial night of nights. Thirsty for more? Check out the official listing of events and happenings on the Fashion’s Night Out website. See you tonight at the shops!

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The DJ’s DJ, behind the scenes of Studio 54 and more from an online destination for global nightlife and culture

Unlike gimmicky social clubs, entrance into
Société Perrier requires little more than being “the best in nightlife, art, music, fashion, travel, mixology and cocktail culture.” To learn more about a few of the fashion designers, DJs and drinks that have what it takes, check out our favorite picks from the site below.

1. Nervo

Australian twin sisters and former models Liv and Mim Nervo have already cut their teeth in the music industry writing pop hits for Ke$ha and Kylie Minogue, but their newest endeavor includes tag-teaming as DJs, while also producing a record of their own. Their single “We’re All No One,” featuring Steve Aoki and Afrojack debuts 6 September 2011. Having opened for Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale tour, the two are already well on their way to being a double threat.

2. Recalling Studio 54

Those of us that never got the chance to experience New York’s Studio 54 in the glamorous, hedonistic glory of its disco days can hear vivid recollections from two former staff members on SiriusXM. The Marc and Myra show recounts first-hand tales of the legendary club and its famous patrons, including Andy Warhol and both Jaggers.

3. Captains of Industry

All kidding aside, Stonerokk and Graham Funke, aka the Captains of Industry, are seriously legit DJs, as exemplified by their strict, records-only policy. Here, they recall a few celebrity encounters and the one song they refuse to play.

4. Catherine Malandrino

A world traveler and bon vivant, fashion designer Catherine Malandrino is an enthusiastic advocate of new media and its facilitation of the globalization of fashion. Adding to her roster of collaborations with fashionable pop stars such as Madonna and Beyonce, Malandrino hints at a unpcoming project with Lady Gaga.

5. Morning-After Mixology at the Standard Spa in Miami Beach

An impressive demonstration of morning-after caregiving, the Standard Spa in Miami offers hangover-plagued guests a menu of restorative elixirs containing ingredients like coconut water, honey, ginger—some with booze, some without. Those suffering from at home will benefit from this quick video course in morning-after mixology.

6. Grand Opening New York: LES Runway

In its latest incarnation, the ever-morphing downtown gallery space Grand Opening offers up fashion two-ways: after dark, the space hosts runway shows by emerging and independent designers such as New Form Perspective, Pip-Squeak Chapeau and Gemma Redux, while daytime hours reveal a pop-up shop selling the previously-showcased wares.

Mark your calendar for Urban Design Week, a new public festival created to celebrate New York’s streetscapes, sidewalks, and public spaces. Today the Institute for Urban Design published the full schedule of events, which will kick off on Thursday, September 15, with the launch of By the City/For the City: An Atlas of Possibility for the Future of New York, a book that brings together design ideas submitted for the By the City/For the City competition. “New York has such an exceptionally rich public realm, and there are so many ways for individual citizens to get involved in shaping their city” says Anne Guiney, executive director of the Institute. “We see Urban Design Week as an opportunity to provide more people with the tools to do just that.” Stock your toolbox at events organized in partnership with more than 50 non-profit organizations, design firms, and city agencies. Among the discussions, tours, and screenings that caught our eye: a celebration on the High Line of trains on film, a walking tour of the Brooklyn Bridge, a chat about “Public Art, Science, and the Sustainable City,” and the U.S. premiere of Gary Hustwit‘s new film, Urbanized.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Here’s a bit of advice: if you’re planning to invite famous cartoonist Robert Crumb to attend a festival in your town, it’s likely best to make sure all the local news outlets will agree not to call him names or he’ll probably cancel on you. Such as happened to Graphic, a weekend-long festival dedicated to “graphic storytelling, animation and music” in Sydney, Australia. After an article appeared in the Sunday Telegraph entitled “Smutty Show a Comic Outrage,” which begins immediately by calling Crumb “a self-confessed sex pervert” and frequently quotes from “sexual assault crisis groups” who were against his appearance, the artist decided to cancel:

“It was strong stuff and it made me look very, very bad,” Crumb said. “All it takes is a few people who overreact to something like that to show up and cause unpleasantness. I have a lot of anxiety about having to confront some angry sexual assault crisis group.”

…Crumb wrote to Graphic co-curator Jordan Verzar on Monday to confirm his withdrawal. “I told him that I’m not coming and to cancel the whole thing,” the artist said. A festival spokesperson said Verzar had last night asked Crumb to reconsider his decision.

So is Crumb’s skin too thin or Australia’s? Given that “Crumb’s work cannot be shown in Australia unless he submits his illustrations for classification” we’re inclined to believe the latter.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.