Hasta La Ideas

Outside of their new permanent home in Abu Dhabi, and now possibly also in Helsinki, you might recall that the Guggenheim Foundation announced last October a series of traveling exhibitions, called the BMW Guggenheim Labs, which will travel to three cities every year and camp out at each for roughly three months. Sticking close to home for the first, they’ve hired the Tokyo-based, regular Droog collaborators, Atelier Bow-Wow, to design and build for them a temporary structure somewhere in New York. Now it appears that that “somewhere” might get more specific, as the NY Times reports that the Guggenheim has a request in with the city to use an empty lot at 33 East First Street to house it (the story begins roughly halfway down the page). The paper continues with the news that a “final vote is scheduled for Tuesday” with Community Board 3 (the city owns the East Village parcel of land). If it passes, which seems likely, the first Lab will open sometime in August.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Daniel PInk’s A Whole New Mind states that one of the six essential aptitudes necessary to differentiate one’s business (or presentation!) is that of story. Having to deal with a post-lunch audience full from food and sun, this afternoon’s first round of speakers were up to the challenge as they inspired us with their stories, but also reminded us of the importance of story in the realm of sustainability.

Julie Cordua, Director of Communications for (RED), shared with us the path taken by one of the most successful cause marketing campaigns in history. Started as a way to fulfill the private commitment in the public/private partnership of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, (RED) quickly decided to focus their story on the greatest point of need – AIDS in Africa. Through the leveraging of partnerships with global brands, (RED) has been able to not only send $166 million to Africa, but also share the story of those whose lives have been dramatically improved due to ARV medication. Still, the organization’s story continues to evolve. By 2015, they hope to eradicate mother to child transmissions of AIDS. Using a sustainable business model, (RED) is looking to deliver the world’s first AIDS free generation in 30 years. Now, that’s a story worth telling.

Known for The SHIFT Report as well as her role as a Principal at Ci, Kierstin DeWest emphasized the importance of context. While most sustainability stories include the four pillars of society, environment, financial viability and spirituality, Kierstin says that we will be unable to effectively communicate the need for change unless we frame it in a way that recognizes relationships and values of each individual. Add specificity, credibility and a local story, and we then have the potential to inspire others to “[meet] our current needs without screwing the potential for the future to meet theirs.”

As a perfect closer to a trio of storytellers, Jonah Sachs, Founder of Free Range Studios and the mind behind The Meatrix, educated us on the importance of myth. In an age where many of us are trying to move the cultural conversation, stories must now be powerful enough to change the core stories people carry with them and survive in an age of information overload. For those of you who have doubts that it’s possible, just look to The Story of Stuff and its 15 million views. Jonah further explained that these myths not only include explanation, meaning and story, but also freaks, cheats and familiars (also known as those who break our expectations, those who break the rules and things with which we can immediately relate). Jonah recommends looking to ad campaigns to see how they leverage these elements. I would also strongly suggest reading Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth.

The afternoon’s first round of speakers have faith that we all have the power to tell our sustainability story in a compelling way, whether it be through the written word, presentations or visual metaphors. Still, it is our job to find the appropriate context and meaning for our audience to drive them to action.

Jessica Watson is completing her second semester of the innovative MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts’ where she is focusing on sustainability and social entrepreneurship. This is her first Compostmodern conference, but she is sure it will not be her last.

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As Alissa Walker so eloquently put it, conversations this morning at Compostmodern started with compostable underwear and ended with pee pots. As elementary as that sounds, maybe that’s the point. A running theme heard again and again is that there is a place for all of us in this conversation, no matter how large or small, complex or simple, high-tech or lo-fi, vulgar or politically correct.

Yves Behar, Founder of fuseproject, reminded the audience of some key tenants in sustainable design: don’t apologize, deliver more not less, design for good. As designers, we are in a unique position to change this conversation, but we must do so with products and innovations that create lasting, substantive experiences for consumers and meaningful, sustainable impacts on the people and planet around us.

Christopher Simmons, Creative Director at MINE, and Nathan Waterhouse of OpenIDEO, discussed how we all need to take a seat at the table. Christopher mentioned that as designers, we may be showing up a bit unprepared lacking appropriate business knowledge. That being said, for some of us the few small actions we can take (even if it is just “designing pretty things”) are the best way we can influence change. As exemplified through OpenIDEO, Nathan showed how that celebration of diversity, participation and collaboration can generate solutions to some of our biggest problems.

Some of us may choose to contribute simply through the choices we make on a daily basis. Janine James, President of The Moderns, explained how an office flood became a tsunami of change allowing the organization the opportunity to make conscious choices about the daily experiences within the four walls of their office. Dara O’Rourke, Co-Founder of GoodGuide, is giving us all the tools necessary to learn more about products that we consume every day.

While the morning was somewhat overwhelming, running the gamut of the sustainability conversation before 11am, it left us with a real task. If you haven’t already, it’s time to find your individual place in this conversation. Because, as Nathan Waterhouse says, “No one person’s is right or wrong.”

Jessica Watson is completing her second semester of the innovative MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts’ where she is focusing on sustainability and social entrepreneurship. This is her first Compostmodern conference, but she is sure it will not be her last.

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Miami-based furniture and design showroom, Luminaire, is celebrating their 37th anniversary with a special lecture from renowned designer/architect Patricia Urquiola. The Spanish designer is one of the most recognized visionaires in contemporary design and has played a critical part in Luminaire’s “Love” fundraising series for cancer research. The lecture, co-sponsored by B&B Italia, will also be an occasion to introduce Urquiola’s Bend sofa for B&B, a new work that has received critical acclaim for its technical features.

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Our favorite swiss-miss, Tina Eisenberg, launched a new website today to help event organizers break the ice at their next mix and mingle. Similar to a nametag, Icebreakertags allow users to create their own conversation-starting question, customize with a logo, and generate a printout with 10 tags. The idea came to Eisenberg while organizing her monthly lecture series CreativeMornings. Check out our coverage of last week’s CreativeMorning with Milton Glaser. I <3 NY!

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