Just Design

Socially Conscious Design for Critical Causes

Christopher Simmons

• Publisher: HOW Books
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781440323232
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Design General

For many, doing good work that also does good in the world is part of the ethos of design practice. Just Design celebrates and explores this increasingly critical aspect of design by showcasing a diverse collection of inspiring projects, people and causes.

• Look inside to explore more than 140 exceptional design solutions from many of the world's leading designers and discover new work from emerging voices.
• Dig deeper by reading the story behind every included project—including 10 expanded case studies.
• Gain new perspective with thoughtful essays by Alissa Walker, Kate Andrews, Aaris Sherin, Alice Bybee, Cinthia Wen and Brian Collins.
• Energize your creative spirit with inspirational profiles and interviews with designers such as Emily Pilloton, Michael Osborne and Randy J. Hunt, and unique perspectives from Kalle Lasn, Brian Dougherty and Ric Grefe.

What People Are Saying About Just Design

"Just Design is the first book to offer a thoughtful, comprehensive and inspiring look at what happens when designers use their knowledge, resources and ability to create work that is concerned with positive change over cashing a check. The sample projects, interviews and contributing stories provide a contagious energy, motivation, and optimism that is hard to find in any other design book."
—Armin Vit
Co-founder, UnderConsideration

"Christopher Simmons' brilliant new book showcases the worldwide, world-class work designers are doing to convey what is good and important for everyone, everywhere. Just Design is proof positive that design—and designers—can change the world, one design at a time."
—Debbie Millman President, Sterling Brands
Past President, AIGA

"Through deft curation and succinct, exacting project descriptions, Christopher Simmons and his guests provide a compelling set of work that confirms the critical and unique power of social design and its practitioners."
—Allan Chochinov
Partner, Core77
Chair, SVA MFA Products of Design

"Just Design is the kind of book that makes you proud to be a designer. And inspires you to be a better one."
—Valerie Casey
Founder, Designers Accord

"Just Design should be required reading for any designer or communications professional seeking to make a difference."
—Joel Makower
Chairman, GreenBiz Group,
Author, Strategies for the Green Economy

Inside:
Adams Morioka • Adbusters • Albert Einstein • Altitude • Aufuldish & Warinner • Bob Dylan • Charles Darwin • Design Army • Firebelly Design • Frank Chimero • James Victore • Karlsonwilker • Lance Armstrong • Mende Design • MINE™ • Modern Dog • Office • Pentagram • Plato • Stefan • Sagmeister • Turnstyle • Vanderbyl Design • Volume Inc. • Winston Churchill • And more...

SUPPORTING

SEEKING

ORGANIZING

TEACHING

REACTING

CELEBRATING

By far, the most common way to design for the greater good is to work with an organization that has already taken up the cause. For many designers, this model is the most familiar and the most comfortable. The need is identified by the client, and the client initiates the process. The designer responds to the problem with a range of proposed solutions. Feedback is incorporated and iterations are developed. It’s a classic problem-solving approach, but it’s also a model that’s evolving. Designers are becoming more critical participants in the problem-solving process, often uncovering new or more fundamental needs, or devising more proactive methods of support. This chapter presents a range of inventive projects­ — from a no-cost beard workshop (p.18) to a $488 million inter-agency collaboration (p.28). Though the scales vary, each is effective in its own way.

Impact Teen Drivers

Hybrid Design SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

ART DIRECTORS Dora Drimalas, Brian Flynn DESIGNER Ed O’Brien CLIENT Impact Teen Drivers

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE Design wants what people want. (Martin Venezky)

Impact Teen Drivers

On average, every high school in California will lose a student to an auto accident this year, making it the leading cause of death amongteenagers. Fewer than one-third of these are drug or alcohol related; most are the result of reckless or distracted driving. Despite strict and well-publicized laws that prohibit texting and mobile phone use while driving, these distractions continue to rise, and with them teen mortality rates. To confront this challenge, the organization Impact Teen Drivers approached Hybrid Design to help develop an in-class reader to hand out to students. The designers met with several groups of students and quickly realized that the handout approach was destined for the trash.Instead, they developed a modular activity kit, complete with posters, an accident probability wheel, T-shirts and a DVD of three documentaries, filmed by Hybrid. They also created a companion educator’s guide to help get the conversation started. The overall visual presentation is candid and engaging, but the real design achievement here is the designers’ acknowledgment that not every element would resonate with every student. By producing a variety of materials in as wide a range of media and formats as the budget would allow, Hybrid’s smart, user-centric strategy dramatically improved the effectiveness of the project.

California Academy of Sciences

The California Academy of Sciences (p.28) needed to raise $350 million in initial funding to rebuild its aging landmark building in Golden Gate Park. After a three-round, eighteen-month competitive process in which a short list of top firms were paid to design campaign concepts, the Academy ultimately entrusted San Francisco-based Alterpop with the project. Two central yet conflicting issues governed the design of this critical campaign piece: form and content. Because the campaign would be targeted to the institution’s highest-end donors, typically accustomed to interacting with quality materials, the publication required a high level of craft and sophistication. At the same time, it’s difficult to make the case that your organization needs a multimillion dollar donation when your collateral is over-produced. To balance these two concerns, the designers created a highly nuanced piece using CMYK, seven solid spot colors, duotone images and a hand-stitched binding, but they took care to limit the presence of these elements on any given spread—creating an experience of frugality without feeling “cheap.” When it came to content, achieving the optimal balance was even trickier. While some in the organization asserted that the campaign was fundamentally about creating a place to celebrate and facilitate the learning of science, others saw it as a campaign to build a building. Prioritizing one perspective over the other risked alienating those with the opposing view. To mediate this impasse, the designers created a reversible cover that could instantly change the context of the content inside. Both views were given equal weight and campaign officials were given the freedom to present the academy’s case in the context they felt most comfortable with. Allowing this flexibility helped ensure that the high-stakes campaign tool would actually be used.

California Academy Identity, Capital Campaign

Alterpop SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

ART DIRECTOR Dorothy Remington DESIGNER Christopher Simmons CLIENT California Academy of Sciences

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE Sometimes you have to judge a book by its cover(s).

Girl Scouts “Journey” Books

Designing twelve books in three months is no easy feat, even for Alexander Isley, Inc. The series, comprised of six books and six accompanying Leader’s Guides, was created as part of the 99-year-old organization’s refocusing effort (an initiative which culminated in the controversial 2010 refresh of the brand’s identity by Original Champions o...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Beginning
• Supporting
• Seeking
• Organizing
• Teaching
• Reacting
• Celebrating
• Proceeding
• Copyright