Hasta La Ideas

DesigNYC, a one-year-old organization that matches nonprofit/community design needs with pro bono designers, has just opened its call for their second round of project submissions from nonprofits, community groups, and city agencies, eligible if they are serving the public good. A round-up of the most compelling projects will be selected by the DesigNYC team and matched with a professional design leader in the fields of architecture, landscape design, interior design, comunication design and more.

To enter your project in the running, visit read over the requirements and submit before November 5th, 5:00pm. If you’re a designer based in NYC interested in contributing your services, you can submit a profile at any time. The organization is sporting a brand new website, with images and project descriptions and updates from their inaugural round of organization-designer partnerships, so worth a visit even if you aren’t submitting.

For even more info, read the post we did on the results of DesigNYC’s first year.

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Design + Sustainability + Profitability

We’ve all known for a while now that it pays to be green. But beyond the deployment of green values in publicity and marketing, what are the hard and real costs, choices and trade-offs design companies face when they integrate sustainability thinking into their core business strategy? Our guest speakers, all active and influential within their respective creative disciplines, have innovated their products and processes so that today’s profits don’t compromise the needs – and profits – of tomorrow.

This town hall is hosted by NYDesigns and will take place at 45-50 30th Street, Long Island City. Please RSVP, space is limited.

The evening
6.30 – 7.00 pm Networking with drinks
7.00 – 8.30 pm Speakers each present a project/issue
8.30 – 9.30 pm Questions and discussion – with drinks

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If you are in the bay area today, then bring your skills down to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St, for Cut & Paste, SF edition! Compete live against other talented creatives in 3 areas, 2D, 3D, and Motion Graphics. An open bar starts at 7:00 (now your interested), and the competition kicks off at 8. Winners from this event get to compete at the Global Championship in New York City in February. Come join in the fun, cheer from the crowd, and meet a star studded cast of jurors including: Robert Mudock, CCO of Method, Stacy Nimmo, Creative Director of Gunshop, Brett Lovelady, founder of Astro, John Edson, President of Lunar, and of course myself, Michael DiTullo, Creative Director at frog design and contributor to Core77.

More info can be found here.

Bring it SF!

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The discussion about sustainability has been in full swing for quite awhile. How do we move past talk and towards action? Join together with designers throughout the city to develop and begin exploring an action plan. Start responding to the questions raised around the responsibilities of designers in society. University of the Arts Industrial Design and Bresslergroup invite you to join the conversation during DesignPhiladelphia 2010.

The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators, and business leaders working together to create positive environmental and social impact. This town hall meeting is your chance to join fellow Seattle designers who care deeply about these issues, and share in the discussion of how we can make designing in sustainable ways a reality in our region.

6:00 – 6:15 socialize and network; refreshments
6:15 – 7:15 presentations
7:15 – 7:45 roundtable discussion
7:45 – 8:00 in depth conversation

The University of the Arts
211 South Broad St
Terra Hall 5th floor – Industrial Design Department

Speakers:
Mathieu Turpault, Senior Designer at Bresslergroup
Monique Curry, Founder, Association for the Advancement and Integration of Design
Third speaker to be confirmed

Free and open to the public

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Painting, jazz and poetry in a trialogue between David Breskin, Nels Cline and Ed Ruscha

“Dirty Baby,” a music project joining guitarist and composer Nels Cline (of Wilco fame) and poet David Breskin, “recontextualizes” American artist Ed Ruscha’s “censor strips” (artworks that depict the black marks used to censor documents). The resulting album and art book represents an aural and visual conversation between the three men and a load of talented musicians.

Dirty Baby the album drops 12 October 2010, but people in L.A. will be treated to a spectacular release party on 7 October 2010 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) as part of the Angel City Jazz Festival. Cline will perform, Breskin will recite poems Ruscha will project images, and after the concert all three will sign the beautifully-packaged “Dirty Baby” CD and
art book of the same name (published by Prestel).

The book, the size and shape of an LP, pairs gorgeous reproductions of Ruscha’s images with Breskin’s ghazals (a tightly-structured, ancient Arabic form) and includes the four-CD set, two of which are the slow, twangy Jazz improvisations by Cline. (You can order the book from
Amazon or Prestel.)

The L.A. show will be held at LACMA’s Bing Theater, and while admission to the event is free it’s highly recommended to RSVP to info [at] angelcityjazz [dot] com.

Images copyright Ed Ruscha 2010