Jacqui: Cradle to Grave - Cradle to Cradle

The Cradle to Grave Legacy
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION OF THE LAST TWO CENTURIES CHANGED THE WORLD IN DRAMATIC WAYS. For all the good that came with the this, its unintended negative consequences are becoming more obvious all the time.
•Pollution of air, water, and soil from billions of pounds of waste
•Tons of valuable materials lost each year to incineration or landfills
•Production of highly dangerous and persistent materials
•Reduction of nature's capacity to maintain healthy, fertile ecosystems.
The Industrial Revolution is built on a linear, take-make-waste model of material flows. Its productive output is in a cradle-to-grave system. The endpoint for the vast majority of materials used by industry is our
material graveyards: landfills and incinerators.

Cradle to Cradle Design
Is an industrial system that:
•Purifies air, water, and soil
•Retains valuable materials for continuous, productive re-use
•Requires no regulation
•Enhances nature's capacity to thrive
•Grows health, wealth, and useful resources
Such a system, modeled on the natural world's abundance, can solve rather than just manage the problems industry currently creates, allowing both business and nature to thrive and grow.

Material Flows
Just as in natural systems one organism's 'waste' becomes nutrients for another, the cradle-to-cradle model utilizes effective nutrient cycles in the realm of human industry. The cradle-to-cradle model recognizes two metabolisms within which materials flow as healthy nutrients.

Biological Metabolism
Example: Upholstery Fabric
Upholstery fabrics, which wear out with use, can be comprised of biological nutrients that can be returned to ecosystems after use.

Technical Metabolism
Example: Batteries
Old batteries are sent to secondary lead smelters where the material value of the lead, plastic and the acid is recovered for use in new batteries. Over 95% of all lead and plastic from recovered car batteries is recycled, making them the most recycled consumer product in the U.S.

References: www.greenblue.org www.worldchanging.com

Paula I like Street Art with a message...

I must be old... When I see some of those pieces of scrawled up writing on the train tunnels in sydney or wherever else, i think the people who put them there need to go home and practice before forcing their boring whatevers on the whole world........

On the other hand when I see meaningful art on the same walls with any sort of social message or artistic ability or design, I actually like it and it gives me a sense of freedom.

I think street Art or graffiti is the same as any other genre of art, where the beauty is in the eye of the beholder and even though no art is ever WRONG, we all have differing tastes and sensibilities.

When I was researching I came accross a site with Social street art slogans and images and it interested me alot.

Check it out...www.movimentgraffiti.org. The images up top relate to these social issues below...

Stopoverty/Neqirdu l-Faqar
is the local campaign of the Global Action Against Poverty. Graffitti is a commette member of the local action against poverty.

Human Rights: Asylum Seekers
Graffitti defends a range of human rights. This section focuses on refugee issues.

All Different All Equal
Our campaign to combat racism. A series of educational activities targeting youths to teach them about migration issues and asylum seekers in Malta

Animal Liberation
Opposition to fur, animal testing and animal theater.

This is street art I can relate to...

Feona. DON’T READ THIS you won’t be able to handle the truth.

Life is complex and complicated. Unlike the days of early colonisation of our fair land. If each one of us were doing our bit in society to turn back time and slow the process of global warming we would be:
• Growing our own vegetables and fruits instead of paying farmers to deplete and destroy massive areas of land.
• Using our grey water from our sinks and showers to water our gardens.
• Using simple clivus maelstrom systems for our toilets
• Using rainwater collection tanks and dam water would be for secondary use only.
• Every household would be using solar water systems and solar power instead of electrical hot water and power or using renewable energy instead of green house gas emitting energy from burnt coal.
These are just a few examples of how we as human beings can be a little more responsible for our planet. All of the above is reasonably simple and quite achievable for the average house owner.
Unfortunately politics hasn’t quite caught up yet. In the not so distant past it was illegal to have household rainwater tanks. Does it have to take for us to be in the longest drought in living memory for things to change? I guess the answer is yes.

Why should we use a composting toilet?
Simple: to save water and to make natural fertilizer. Human waste when properly composted is a valuable, nutrient rich plant food! On average we flush 50,000 liters of water down the toilet every year. Every time we flush a toilet, we not only contaminate 19 litres of perfectly good drinking water, we also turn what could be valuable fertilizer into a toxic pollutant. To add insult to injury, a lot of us then turn around and pay for garden fertilizer and bottled water!
Using a composting toilet is a little different than using a flush toilet.
1. Do your business as you normally would. No foreign objects please. Toilet paper is fine.
2. Throw in a handful of carbonaceous material (for example, straw or sawdust)
3. Close the lid (it has a special seal, so it's really closed!)
4. Look around, perplexed, until you remember there is nothing to flush (you will naturally skip this step after a while.
Optimally, you created the compost by eating what came out of your garden... which means you've created a closed loop. That's the way it should be. CRADLE to CRADLE

www.deandi.com/adveanture/toilet www.weblife.org/humanure/chapter2_2.hmlt

chris: urban decor

street art in all its forms has become a phenomenon that is moving very quickly and gaining widespread acceptance as a legitimate form of art. thats always a matter of perception and will vary from person to person but theres no doubt that street art is or is becoming accepted as a more than legitimate art process. street art encompasses many forms including graffiti, stencil, wheat paste poster art, sticker bombing among others and lets the artist convey a message which can be anything from social to political to personal.

In New York City, street art has become an issue that is creating as much controversy within its own ranks as it is outside and this points to the growing legitimizing of street art. street art is becoming more and more popular in New York City and has now crossed the boundaries of guerrilla art and become a mainstream art commodity, available for huge prices in gallery's across the city. It is believed that many of the increasingly well known street artists in New York are trained artists, working artists that adopt their own guerrilla approach to street art and are shitscared of a genuine street artist, in its original form. its these artists such as Swoon, Bast, Obey, Mamo that are prolific around the city in different forms of art and will command high prices for their work off the streets. this has attracted the attention of the Splasher, an individual or group that defaces their art work throughout the city using normal, paint, splashed over the works. The Splasher has made his ideology clear in several manifestos posted throughout the city and believes essentially that street art as it should be has been compromised by the branded artists such as Swoon who are deliberately using street art as a marketing process in many ways.

given such a situation has arised, street artists branding themselves, galleries paying and recieving top dollar for works and a street artist attacking their work, not to mention the arrest and prosecution of many artists by the New York Vandal Task Force, the rise and dissapearance and rise again underground status of artists such as Rev and Cost, its obvious that street art involves passion in all corners and has become a legitimate art form. the list of websites that are available for street artists would also indicate that street art has crossed over in the world of art from what it once was and maybe what it was supposed to be. in its essence street art is a message and a form of expression but its just not presented in a conventional fashion. the rise of street art is an interesting phenomenon and one that should be embraced as it could be reflective of wider society in that rarely do people get to express themselves anymore. Street artists have the skill, talent and courage to promote a message for all to see and despite any debate over whats genuine, whats vandalism, whats corporate art on a sidewalk, i think street art should and will continue to be embraced.

www.airmassive.com

www.globalgraphica.com

www.gothamist.com

www.nytimes.com

JACQUI: UC OF B CAMPAIGNS

Pumbu, Tatango, Jackson, James and dozens of other orphans, all share similar experiences of violence and pain. They are the primates -gorillas, chimpanzees, orang-utans and bonobos- who feature in United Colors of Benetton’s communication project from 2004, by James Mollison for Fabrica. It is a very close “face to face” with the living beings who share our planet and over 96 percent of our DNA.
James Mollison had taken close-up pictures of the orphans, who were confiscated from illegal traders and form the population of at least seven sanctuaries in Africa and Asia. Many of them saw their mother killed before their eyes. Together, and each captioned with his or her name and biography, they testify to the importance of saving the various species of great apes.
With this initiative Benetton had chosen to extend its reflection on diversity as a wealth of our planet, from the human races to our nearest cousins. With anthropological rigor, the portraits by James Mollison invite us to reflect on the fundamental issues of humankind, mirrored in the enigmatic gaze of the species closest to us in the evolutionary chain.

James Mollison

In the year 2000 James Mollison took on the photography for Benetton’s advertising campaigns and became a regular contributor to COLORS Magazine.

His work in 2001 for Benetton’s campaign in support of the United Nations’ Year of the Volunteer challenged the stereotypical ideas of volunteers.

In 2002 he shot his second campaign for Benetton, this time in association with the WFP (World Food Programme) The United Nations Frontline Agency in the Battle Against Global Hunger.

Reference: www.benettongroup.com/apes/pressinfo/benetton/index.html

Jacqui: ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSIP & SUSTAINABILITY

The item most frequently encountered in landfills is plain old paper- on average, it accounts for more than 40% of a landfill’s content. This proportion has held steady for decades and in some landfills has actually risen.

NEW LEAF PAPER
New Leaf Paper has a vision for a sustainable paper industry, inspired by natural systems. Natural systems are cyclical: waste from one process is food to another. Natural systems are sustainable: They create beauty, abundance, biodiversity, and are life supporting. They do not pollute the water we drink and the air we breathe.
In pursuit of this vision, New Leaf Paper works with paper mills in North America and across the globe that incorporate sustainable design principles.

What Makes a Paper Environmentally Responsible?
Fiber source is the primary factor in determining a paper’s environmental impact. New Leaf Paper maximizes post-consumer recycled content in all of its product lines. The vast majority of fiber for New Leaf Paper products comes from the following sources:
• Post-consumer recycled
• De-inked recycled (unsold publications and printer waste)
• FSC certified virgin fiber (sustainable forestry)
As demand for New Leaf Paper grows, the message is clear: paper consumers want to minimize the impact of their paper usage and help preserve the environment for future generations.
*Find out about Sustainable Mill Design Today at www.newleafpaper.com

Brandon- Post 4 scratch it and it spreads

Graffiti art originated in the late 1960's, and it has been developing ever since. However, it is not readily accepted as being art like those works that are found in a gallery or a museum. It is not strictly denied the status of genuine art because of a lack of form or other base visual elements. Most of the opposition to graffiti art is due to its location and bold, unexpected, and unconventional presentation, but its presentation and often illegal location does not necessarily disqualify it as art

The nature of graifitti art, does depends alot upon, ideas and skill in creating a view or social or political statement, also I would say in a lot of cases, speed.

People can easily enough walk up to a wall a deface it with writing and imagery.
As a personal opinion I believe that the creation of street art needs time and planning, which brings up the topic of stencil art aswell too, the placing of the image doesn’t time consume, but it’s the idea and the subject or statement that defines it, which I would believe takes the majority of the creation of it, that and readying the image to be sprayed

I think people see a giant painted stenciled artwork on the wall, and think how they could create work like that without getting caught, as graffitti is looked down upon in most places, getting something so detailed or gallery worthy adds a certain character or atmosphere to it.
Other places seem to thrive of it.

http://www.graffiti.org/faq/stowers.html

Jess - Post 4 Scratch it & it Spreads

A graffiti artist uses the pages of The Guardian, of all places. to decry Melbourne City Council's "zero tolerance" graffiti policy and the painting-over of the graffiti between Flinders Street and Richmond Station for the games. It's reinforced with many claims about the supposedly wonderful Melbourne street art scene; Melbourne is a particular home of stencilling, and isn't apparently dominated by the usual flouro lettering copied from New York.
And you'd get the impression if you looked at the photos that the council and the government were out to destroy some really clever artwork that the public should be proud to have displayed around the city.

Solomon Ilios is from the new school of thought on graffiti: councils are wasting money on graffiti removal and would spend it better on commissioning "artists" to decorate residential and business walls.
"You'll never stop graffiti as long as there are authorities saying we are going to stop graffiti," he says. "That just ignites more people to do it."
According to Mr Ilios, who works with young people in one of the council's graffiti programs, there needs to be a distinction between graffiti art and graffiti tags, with the former being of cultural value and the latter being vandalism. He says Melbourne is internationally respected for its graffiti art and by having more of it around, there will be less tagging.

"Most of the experienced artists are not going around tagging trains," he says. "If the taggers see graffiti art, they don't destroy it because they respect it."


http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/03/1088488198917.html
http://benambra.org/benambra/?q=node/555

POST 4: scratch it and it spreads

CHALI 2na (USA), Dominic Allen, HAHA, James Dodd, KAB 101, KANO, KASINO, LISTER, MEEK, TOWER (Berlin) CIVIL, DEST, FERS, FLIQ (BURN Crew), MILES, Miles Allinson, PRISM, PSALM, REKA, SYNC, SIXTEN (Sweden), SNOG, Tai Snaith, VEXTA........

social commentators, propaganda artists or vandals?
http://www.area101.com.au/area101.html

EMILY: DESIGN FOR THE REAL WORLD

Designer and educator Victor Papanek (1927-1999) was a strong advocate of the socially and ecologically responsible design of products, tools, and community infrastructures. He disapproved of manufactured products that were unsafe, showy, maladapted, or essentially useless. His products, writings, and lectures were collectively considered an example and spur by many designers. Papanek was a philosopher of design and as such he was an untiring, eloquent promoter of design aims and approaches that would be sensitive to social and ecological considerations. He wrote that "design has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tools and environments.


There are professions more harmful than industrial design, but only a very few of them , argued Victor Papanek at the start of his ecological critique of design. In creating products that are often unnecessary, highly packaged, disposable and energy intensive in their production and use, industrial designers have better served the interests of corporate profitability than they have the planet. This is, of course, understandable: the profits pay their salaries. Defined by an economic system that requires unconstrained growth and continually regenerated desire, consumer-led design is no longer about meeting needs, rather it seeks to create and constantly to stimulate human desires.

Papanek created product designs for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Volvo of Sweden contracted him to design a taxi for the disabled.
With his interest in all aspects of design and how they affected people and the environment, Papanek felt that much of what was manufactured in the U.S. was inconvenient, often frivolous and even unsafe.

He worked with a design team that prototyped an educational television set that could be utilized in the developing countries of Africa and produced in Japan for $9.00 per set (cost in 1970 dollars). His designed products also included a remarkable transistor radio, made from ordinary metal food cans and powered by a burning candle, that was designed to actually be produced cheaply in developing countries. His design skills also took him into projects like an innovative method for dispersing seeds and fertilizer for reforestation in difficult-to-access land, as well as working with a design team on a human-powered vehicle capable of conveying a half-ton load, and another team to design a very early three-wheeled, wide-tired all-terrain vehicle.

EMILY:CRADLE TO CRADLE VS CRADLE TO GRAVE

The moment you open and use a can of solvent you are a waste generator. Conservation laboratories might only produce 10–15 gallons of waste each year and private conservators only one quart, but the improper disposal of even small quantities may cause health, safety, and legal problems.
Although conservators are well aware of the dangers involved in working with chemicals on a daily basis and articles have been written suggesting methods for proper storage, most conservators do not know how to go about safely disposing of these chemicals after having used them. Some of these materials are highly toxic and many are incompatible when mixed together.
Proper disposal requires knowledge of federal and state regulations applying to the disposal of hazardous materials. It is incumbent upon conservators to contact their state and local officials to determine exactly what regulations apply in their instance, because the conservator, as a waste stream generator, bears the responsibility for ensuring that their waste is dealt with in a safe and environmentally sound manner. The regulations can be quite complicated; thus, this article is just a brief introduction into the issues of handling hazardous waste, and serves as a brief guide for the conservator.


William McDonough’s book is a manifesto calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent design. Through historical sketches on the roots of the industrial revolution commentary on science, nature and society; descriptions of key design principles; and compelling examples of innovative products and business strategies already reshaping the marketplace, McDonough and Braungart make the case that an industrial system that "takes, makes and wastes" can become a creator of goods and services that generate ecological, social and economic value.

McDonough and Braungart argue that the conflict between industry and the environment is not an indictment of commerce but an outgrowth of purely opportunistic design. The design of products and manufacturing systems growing out of the Industrial Revolution reflected the spirit of the day-and yielded a host of unintended yet tragic consequences.
Today, with our growing knowledge of the living earth, design can reflect a new spirit. In fact, the authors write, when designers employ the intelligence of natural systems—the effectiveness of nutrient cycling, the abundance of the sun's energy—they can create products, industrial systems, buildings, even regional plans that allow nature and commerce to fruitfully co-exist.

Cradle to Cradle maps the lineaments of McDonough and Braungart's new design paradigm, offering practical steps on how to innovate within today's economic environment. Part social history, part green business primer, part design manual, the book makes plain that the re-invention of human industry is not only within our grasp, it is our best hope for a future of sustaining prosperity.

In addition to describing the hopeful, nature-inspired design principles that are making industry both prosperous and sustainable, the book itself is a physical symbol of the changes to come. It is printed on a synthetic 'paper,' made from plastic resins and inorganic fillers, designed to look and feel like top quality paper while also being waterproof and rugged. And the book can be easily recycled in localities with systems to collect polypropylene, like that in yogurt containers. This 'treeless' book points the way toward the day when synthetic books, like many other products, can be used, recycled, and used again without losing any material quality—in cradle to cradle cycles.

JAYMI: Lifecycle

We live in a throw away society. And often we don’t even think twice when we throw out a piece of rubbish. Especially with reference to packaging which is driven by convenience. Disposable products may save our time but are ultimately having a detrimental impact on the environment.

Does that make sense that something that is only used once lasts for so long, have we created such millions of tones of refuse just for convenience? So designers and people alike have to consider the function and lifecycle of a product to see whether it is worth the eco impact.

Both Cradle-to-Grave and cradle-to-cradle refer to the lifecycle of a product. Cradle-to-grave considers the impacts at each stage of a product's life-cycle, from the time natural resources are extracted from the ground and processed through each subsequent stage of manufacturing, transportation, product use, and ultimately, disposal.

Cradle-to-cradle is completely cyclic. It is a concept whereby humans try to mimic the process of nature where everything is reused there is no wastage it is a continuous cycle. Cradle to cradle will have a big impact on future materials that are being developed where materials will be used over and over in a continuous cycle, with materials such as bio-plastics a book then can be melted down formed into other items such as a cereal box, etc it is limitless.

Cradle-to-cradle: the next packaging paradigm? - http://www.packworld.com/view-16013

CHRIS: cradle to cradle

The concept of cradle to cradle responsibility developed by William McDonough and Michael Braungart is a massive leap forward in the way we can approach sustainability, recycling and design. The notion of being able to return a product to the earth and the change in decision making processes for manufacturing are groundbreaking and are ideas that help realise sustainability in the future. McDonough and Braungart have taken a hands approach and shown that the process can work.

For many years, intelligent, articulate, educated, charismatic and influential people have been warning us of the dangers of our approach and treatment of the environment and the consequences that we will face. We have also been given the opportunities to address these issues as well. Cradle to Cradle is another, possibly presented in an era of greater awareness, but what worries me is that, like so many other opportunities to realise sustainability and reverse our impact on the environment, Cradle to Cradle will get swept up in the process of politics and economics. The fact that many of the issues that surround the environment havent changed and are in many ways worse than ten or twenty years ago is compelling.

The environment has and will always be it seems, a poor cousin to politics and economics. Those two factors seem to always stand in the way of meaningful change on the environment. Cradle to Cradle requires a radical rethinking across the board of the way many parts of society function but it is possible. To achieve ambitions and goals like the ones that can be achieved by a cradle to cradle design ethic needs strong awareness and leadership from many people. As individuals we can all take responsibility for our own impacts on the environment but the bigger global picture is the one that, until leaders in business and politics take responsibility and stewardship for the environment and give the incentive for meaningful change and steps towards sustainability. Indeed for these people as well that takes a radical overhaul of the way they think but it would be better than the garbage they currently give us.

www.designboom.com

JO:Cradle to cradle

Cradle-to-Cradle design concept is the challenge for the 21st century designer. This sets the course for a circular economy creating the attitude of waste=food.

On an emotional level we need to ask ourselves how do we design for the love of us and our world. Designing less bad doesn’t protect the environment. As designers we must look at the different aspects. Using fewer chemicals to make designs more environmentally friendly. Using materials that can be reused over and over again; not only cuts costs, it also saves waste. ‘Disassembly’ design makes the product easy to capture for recycling. Sustainability should also be considered.

Great designers are using ‘cradle to cradle’ and ‘disassembly’ concepts. One example is the good old sports shoe. The giant company ‘Nike’, has taken up the challenge and given incentive to their clients to return their old shoes for recycling. The shoe is then cut away from the sole and the sole remoulded for new soles.

‘Nike’ is going a further step with the ‘disassembly’ concept of their new ‘Nike Consider’ shoe. The upper part of the shoe is made of natural hemp fabric and fibres without glue or synthetic padding or lining. The upper part is stitched to a rubber net style frame. Into this from the inside of the shoe pops the recycled sole. When it is time to replace the shoe it can be sent back to ‘Nike’ for disassembly. Soles get reused and the hemp is then used for animal fodder or fertiliser.

China has adopted “Cradle-to-cradle” as their national policy. As their population grows, new measures have been taken for the construction to recyclable housing comprising of low energy use building material like sand and straw. To keep the country people on the land sustainable enterprises such as fuel crops are being instigated as well as renewable crops.

Cradle to cradle design also calls for redesign and reinvent and rethink.

genevieve: Cradle to Cradle

The term ‘Cradle to cradle’ was developed by two German men, a chemist and an architect by the names of Michael Braungart and William McDonough who wrote a book titled ‘Cradle to Cradle: Remaking The Way We Make Things,’ that discusses the importance of and strategies to creating sustainable items in developed industrial consumer driven societies based on methods of ‘lifecycle development’.
The concept of completely renewable items has been taken on by many companies and designer’s world wide from clothing that when disposed of can be used as feed for animals, to synthetic products such as tree free paper that can be recycled endlessly without losing any quality in polypropylene recycling centers.
It is important that these changes occur in the production of all material items as the ‘Cradle to grave’ lifecycle of materials is becoming obsolete. Mass abundance of consumer society has lead to over-use of the earths natural resources, creating ecological problems that can be diverted into more sustainable societies if companies, designers and all people become aware and take on the methods being put forth, produced and used by those concerned for the future of our planet and the human race.
"We hope for a delightful,
Safe and healthy world,
With clean water and renewable power,
Economically, equitably, ecologically
And elegantly enjoyed."
-William McDonough

Links: www.myhero.com/hero.asp?hero=McDonough_Update_04
www.alternative-energy-news.info/cradle-to-cradle/
www.worldchanging.com/archives/1002967.html

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_to_Cradle:_Remaking_the_Way_We_Make_Things

CHRIS: Cradle to Cradle

Ellice: Waste is a Failure of Design

"Cradle to Grave" means from the time something is made to the time it is disposed of. This is the point where we generally start trying to solve the problem; nuclear waste, garbage, landfills, exhaust fumes, and so on.
"Cradle to Cradle" design starts much earlier and imitates a process parallel to plant growth and composting: the vegetation that we do not eat breaks down and fertilizes the next round of growth.

Cradle to Cradle Design is a system of thinking based on the belief that human design can approach the effectiveness and elegance of natural systems. By learning from nature and incorporating its patterns into our own lifestyles we can all contribute to reducing waste. We can create a safe, regenerative productivity of nature that eventually eliminates the concept of waste.
Products are environmental poisons themselves in every stage of their life cycle: from manufacture to product shelf and disposal. The proposition is for eco-efficiency, where products are created with the foresight of how they will disintegrate in the environment.
One particular aspect of this ‘rethinking’ in the Cradle to cradle design principle, starts with the basis that waste product is a failure of design. Imitating our natural, cyclical processes is now one of the most critical aspects to a successful design.

http://www.larynandjanel.com/blog/waste_is_a_failure_of_design.html

Ellice: The New Art

French for ‘The New Art,’ was an international art movement style of decoration and architecture that peaked in popularity at the beginning of the 20th Century.(1880-1914)
The movement was characterised by intricate patterns, flowing, curvilinear designs that incorporated floral and other natural and plant inspired motifs. 2D pieces were painted drawn and printed in popular forms such as advertising, posters, labels and magazines. 3D pieces included ceramics, jewellery, and architecture.

Alphonse Mucha was a well known artist of this era. He produced a flurry of paintings, posters, advertisements, and book illustrations, as well as designs for jewellery, carpets, wallpaper, and theatre sets. His posters are probably the best-known works of the Art Nouveau movement. He used a combination of a beautiful female figure, rich decoration and extravagant lettering that seems to clearly define the particular style of the era. They radiate luxury and pleasure.
Mucha's posters took advertising to the level of art. Yet this was art that was out in the street, visible by everyone regardless of wealth or education. Art brought to the People through advertising.

Mucha's way was based on a strong composition, sensuous curves derived from nature, refined decorative elements and natural colors. Mucha's posters were emphasised with rich gold borders and heavy black lines around each figure. These lines or borders allow each figure to show up clearly against the detailed background he created.

Alphonse Mucha attempted to distance himself from the fame his art brought. He insisted always that, rather than adhering to any fashionable stylistic form, his paintings came purely from within. He declared that art existed only to communicate a spiritual message, and nothing more.

CHRIS:green design

Green Design

Any form of design is a process that takes into account a range of variables and has a range of responsibilities.
Any form of design is also an extension of personal beliefs and how they impact on the work that you as a designer produce.
Whats important to you ?
How does that affect the work you produce ?
How does it impact on your clients wants ?
What is the balance between your beliefs, your clients wants and needs from a project and simple economics and practicalitys within the design brief ?
Graphic Designers, as with any designer, have a range of environmental and social variables that they should consider in the way they design and produce their work.

Paper ….ink …………source….origin….impacts…..processes…
alternatives.
Carcinogens………mutagens……organochlorines….
.bleaching…….old growth forests….pulping ………recycling…….waste water……….greenhouse gas………..poisons….hemp…bagasse

Ultimately green design and how you choose to approach design is a personal decision. It will be impacted upon by what your beliefs are first and foremost and the practicalities of taking this approach. Is there a compromise with green design in quality and finish, is there a compromise with costs involved, material costs and sourcing, production costs.
Designers are socially and morally aware people. Their decisions and work impact upon people and communities. They can make a difference.

We live in a world populated by billions of people, all impacting on their environment in many ways and all involved in a multitude of processes that impact on the environment.
So, how do you make a difference ? Make a difference on your own patch, make a start and follow your beliefs and educate through and with design….maybe ?

http://www.evc.com.au/ earth graphic design

www.greenpagesaustralia.com.au

www.green.net.au/srd/ Society for Responsible Design

paula: Recycle your clothes...

Photo of cards made form eco reusable/recycycled materials
CRADLE TO GRAVE – occurring or persisting from beginning to END... CRADLE to CRADLE has NO END with products being continuously recycled...

As an example of Cradle to grave I go and buy a new dress, I wear it a few times and then I throw it away. There are many other things I could do with this dress:

1.redesign it and continue to wear it.
2. sell it 2nd hand
3. give it to someone else to wear
4. give it to a charity to resell and fund the helping of other people.
5. In the extreme cut it into long strips and mix with other pieces of fabrics that I have saved to re weave into a floor mat, blanket or some other useful manifestation.

CRADLE TO CRADLE - Imagine a world without waste; a world where manufacturing acts more like nature; where every product either returns safely to the soil or becomes a new product….designing products so that the materials can be used again and again. Speaking of dresses as I did in the cradle to grave example: Eco intelligent Polyester is the first textile designed as a technical nutrient. A material designed on a cellular level to be totally recycled and non toxic in its manufacturing. After use it can be recycled again and again into new garments or products.

cathy: cradle to cradle philosophy in practice

This growing awareness and new perspective on sustainability has impacted not only consumers via media but environmentally responsible companies are leading the way by addressing and implementing these principles in a way that truly utilises good design at its best. The integrity of good design is essentially that…innovative design in all ways…not just the end result but from the very foundations of how a design is produced.

Hermann Miller, pre-eminent furniture designer (and represented in collections of such museums as MOMA in NY) has not only won acclaim for his design but for how his company has restructed the environment it inhabits. From the early 80’s Miller has been engaged in exploring indoor air quality in manufacture and sustainable forestry for resources. The company’s signature “Eames” chair became a symbol of his commitment to conscious choices when the rare rosewood tree was not used for the chair’s production.

In 1992 Miller’s company organised a team of over 300 employees to restructure their work environment to address environmentally responsible performance. This lead to the construction of “The Green House”, a 295,000 square foot factory and office that featured copious fresh air and sunlight, natural features such as wetlands and swales that purified storm water run-off and even provided a habitat for local birds with plants and flowers. As well as winning a “Good Design is Good Business” award the measured increase in productivity the positive social and ecological impacts have been profound.

References:

http://www.mcdonough.com/writings/anatomy_transformation.htm
http://www.mcdonough.com/writings_c2c_case_studies.htm
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/eames/images/vc9671.jpg

David: Wash Your Soap

I am happy to help on clean up Australia day, and I like to use the right bin for recycling, but there is this ever present feeling that my efforts amount to less than zero on a global scale.

The Environment, better yet the lack of, here are some examples of what I mean…

Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. Many of them still get thrown away, even though they are recyclable.



The average American uses seven trees a year in paper, wood and other products. That’s more than 1.5 billion trees used each year, just for the U.S.




The “Ecological Footprint” calculates the total flow of materials and energy necessary to support an economy or individual, in terms of acres of land. For all the world to live as an American or Canadian, we would need two more earths to support their needs!
Source: www.globalinheritance.org/store/recyclingINFO.html.webloc

In 2002/3 Industrial and Commercial waste in England totaled 68 million tonnes.
Source: www.defra.gov.uk/



These are facts are fairly broad but they paint a picture, that time is rapidly running out for our existence on this planet, the waste alone could see us with condos built on landfill, wearing $50,000 Mercedes gas masks.

It is essential that we start reusing, our waste, most items are recyclable, and in this age of the environmentally fashionable, when is a better time? Industry needs to be governed, recycling must be enforced.

Waste is not the grave of a product, it is merely the cradle of another, this philosophy could see a change… I hope!

genevieve:Benettons Campaigns

Being a $1.9 billion euro predominantly clothing company it is a social responsibility for ‘United colours of Benetton’ to put their profits towards campaigning for social and ethical issues. Some of the recent issues covered by this company are the treatment of apes in Africa and Asia raising awareness of the importance of saving this species, a volunteer campaign educating people to be aware of and to give their time to the fight against such issues as aids and violence, and a food aid campaign called “Food for life” that was run for the World Food Summit in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
also one that was run for the International Year of Volunteers 2001 which was conducted to raise awareness of the number of opportunities and of volunteers worldwide that don’t get much public attention, and to understand the, “social and economic value of volunteer work,” and it can be beneficial to ones self also as Benetton’s Communication Research Centre found that, “volunteer effort constitutes a real opportunity to give a deeper meaning to our life.” United colours of Benetton worked in conjunction with the United Nations Volunteers program for this campaign. Graphic designers and photographers who create high impact pictures that are visually unique are hired to produce the images for these campaigns to ensure eye catching designs, as the fact these companies are multi million allows them to be able to have their campaigns advertised in magazines, newspapers and on billboards worldwide.

EMILY - COLOURS UNITED

The "United Colors" publicity campaign originated when photographer Oliviero Toscani was given carte blanche by the Benetton management. Under Toscani's direction ads were created that contained striking images unrelated to any actual products being sold by the company; a deathbed scene of a man (AIDS activist David Kirby) dying from AIDS, a bloodied, unwashed newborn baby with umbilical cord still attached, two horses mating, close-up pictures of tattoos reading "HIV Positive" on the bodies of men and women, a collage consisting of genitals of persons of various races, a priest and nun about to engage in a romantic kiss, and pictures of inmates on death row. The company's logo served as the only text accompanying the images in most of these advertisements.



The Maastricht exhibition showed the thematic links and juxtapositions within what may now well be called the body of work that the posters amount to. Toscani juxtaposes his billboard with the newborn baby to the poster with a Bosnian war victim's blooddrenched clothes... Life and death, beginning and end, consacration and sacriledge – this is immense symbolism, not just an advertising rebel's appropriation of topical images. Seen in this light, Oliviero Toscani's and Luciano Benetton's project goes well beyond pampering the media prone Colors generation with images they can comfortably worry about. It symbolically addresses existential moral problems in much the same way religious art has endeavoured to do since the Middle Ages.

The United Colors campaign is programmatic in that it embraces all of human endeavour - positive and negative.The often criticised contrast in the 'Colors' campaigns between the rosy images of healthy kids from all races and the gruesome pictures of crime victims and boat refugees underlines it is religious in that it needs both Paradise and Hell to tell its complete story of an irresolute humankind that needs to be reminded of their potential for both good and bad.



Toscani succeeded in provoking a debate about the pervasiveness and effectiveness of images through mass media of a scope that went well beyond academic discussion. The importance of this lies not in the development of new styles or forms - formally, Toscani's images and designs are rather conservative than revolutionary. What is new is that Benetton and Toscani have sought to open up a medium considered to be shallow and definitively 'low-culture' to content that is traditionally reserved for the highest regions of art and intellectual discourse. What is frustrating to quite a few high priests of the discourse is that the effectiveness of Benetton's campaigns in raising the general population's awareness about for instance AIDS may well be far greater than any government or charity funded artistic awareness programme.

BranDON: Cradle To Cradle

Instead of designing cradle-to-grave products, which is blaintenly chucking out a specific product after its use or life.

Cradle to Cradle Design is being embraced as a powerful new framework for thinking about how we can create various other products, while having a fully beneficial impact on the world and its environment.

We need to think the way we live and build design and recycle, cradle to cradle is acively looking and considering sustainability through products.

Architect William McDonough and Chemist Michael Braungart have published a revolutionary new book in which they propose a cradle-to-cradle way of manufacturing that is as effective as nature itself in maintaining sustainability. The focus of their vision is for us to use nature itself as a model for manufacturing designs and products.

Today, nearly all packaging is designed only through the point of use by the end consumer. Benefits of cradle-to-cradle packaging include lower costs, a wider choice of materials, and packaging that adds value for consumers. But packagers who’ve been exposed to the principles of cradle-to-cradle design acknowledge there are many hurdles to overcome before cradle-to-cradle packaging actually becomes a reality.

lucy: benetton response

Benneton is a world wide clothing companies providing garments for 120 countries through out the world.
Established in 1965, Benetions group has been committed to meeting the highest international standards of corporate governance.
Their campaign aimed at human rights was created in conjunction with the United Nations, is the result of a UN proposal to launch a world communications exercise to make the 50th anniversary of declaration of human rights.
They aim to remind world public opinion of peoples social groups, and protection of these rights is said to be a prime duty of each one of the UN’s members
Benetton aims to shock and draw people in by there interesting graphical designed campaigns providing people with images that cause people to question and think about the messages they are trying to convey so they will get behind them and try to understand so they can also help out, even if it is just by buying there cloths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benetton_Group
http://press.benettongroup.com/ben_en/image_gallery/campaigns/? branch_id=1186

MichelleUnited Colours of Benetton

'United Colours of Benetton' has had a long history of attention to ethical values and involvement in social and cultural initiatives.
Oliviero Toscani, was the creative mind behind the controversial ad campaigns that turned the Italian clothing label into a household name.

Toscani worked as Benetton's creative director for 18 years from 1982 through to 2000
Though he will probably be best remembered for last year's controversial campaign based on photos and information about some 26 death row inmates from six different U.S. state prisons. Toscani and Benetton say the international "We On Death Row" campaign was aimed at drawing attention to the controversy surrounding the use of capital punishment in the U.S.

The cover of the controversial catalogue:












Jerome Mallett, a 41-year-old Missouri native who has been on death row since 1986, is just one of 26 death row inmates profiled in the Italian clothing manufacturer's new catalog. Though there is no sign of the company's trademark sweaters, just stories about the convicted killers.










This project aimed at showing to the public the reality of capital punishment. Althgouh the death row campaign was widely condemmed by the public, the press, Victims' rights advocates and the families of both the prisoners and their victims.
The catalogue was seen to be glamorizing murderes and promoting crime.
Although Toscani is no stranger to controversy. Previous Benetton ad campaigns have focused on AIDS, war and interracial relationships.


Sources:
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/STYLE/fashion/01/18/benetton.ads/

David Responsibility of the designer, hmmmmmmmm

In this day and age, where companies fight for power and consumer interest, there is a very blurred moral line; many companies while portraying a very wholesome image are much the opposite while conducting business or manufacturing and distributing their products.

A Graphic Designer is employed to portray an image to the public, a representation of a company, as this is the Designers main objective, moral responsibility to the public becomes, in part, irrelevant.

In researching this topic I found that the idea of personal moral responsibility was very loosely documented, leaving me with the feeling that as far as this subject is concerned the designer is exempt.

“There is certainly nothing wrong with protecting our professional interests and the interests of our clients, and you'll find content to that effect in most statements of ethical practices created by designer organizations around the world. However, I would argue that our single, most significant contribution to society would be to make sure that the communications we create are actually useful to those for whom they're intended—and that this concern must be elevated to the same level of importance as those previously discussed.” Paul Nini, Associate Professor in the Department of Design at Ohio State University - http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/in-search-of-ethics-in-graphic-design


I would have to agree strongly with the above statement, my responsibility as a designer to employer and society is to use my experience in this field to create the meeting point for both entities, and in doing this I would hope to begin a productive relationship between supplier and consumer.


The only way that I as a designer would suffer was if I designed against my prior knowledge of company’s underhanded and unhealthy practices, portraying anything different to my knowledge would leave me morally responsible. The question is! Would I take on the job?