All Day Buffet

I recently saw this while surfing around Behance. alldaybuffet - a social action brand for the creative community. alldaybuffet has nothing to do with food but it has everything to do with filling our hunger to do good. Our purpose is to connect the things we like with the things that matter most. Our concept is open participation. Our network is a family of likeminded people around the world working towards the same ideals. Whether it’s drinking for a cause, curating an art project, or stripping for charity; we want to get you Full on Good.

It’s a simple idea: Inspire Action. Change the world. Have Fun. Because doing good shouldn’t feel like a chore.

I found this really cool, different and innovative. In my opinion this type of initiative could really get a lot of individuals to join, especially the young ones and people from the creative field. :D More info after the jump.

Conceptual Design: Building a Social Conscience.

Is there a relationship between the conceptual thinking behind Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 urinal and contemporary design practice? Design writer and Design Observer contributer Nick Currie believe’s there is. In an AIGA feature of 1995, Currie presented some interesting thoughts on the evolution of Conceptual Art and its impact on designing for social impact. Currie’s feature, Conceptual Design: Building a Social Conscience begins by exploring if there has ever been “Conceptual Design?”’ and moves on to discuss how the conceptual arts of the early 1900s has led young designers to think more about social issues than consumer goods.

“There’s a generation of young designers who, almost a century after Duchamp, seem to share something of his spirit… Rather than products, these people are designing situations, intervening in existing arrangements, framing everyday activities in ways that make us think of them, unexpectedly, as “design.” And although they’re often satirical in tone, these designers share a concern with ethics and responsibility; one of the reasons the design they make is so often immaterial is their sense that the last thing the world needs is more objects, more consumer goods. The widening ripples of Duchamp’s gesture blend, in their work, with the repercussions of a gathering concern around issues like sustainability, community and responsibility: to be conceptual is, after all, to be thoughtful. ”

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Design to Change, Design to Make a Difference, Design to Improve Life

There has been a growing trend of designers trying to do something for social change; a lot of social design agencies and conferences are a result of this. The AIGA Center for Sustainability started the Green Salon program that was designed to bring together small groups of members for informal discussions around a selected topic, filling a gap between large, general membership events and casual happy hours. The Washington, DC chapter has been holding Salons on various topics on a roughly monthly basis since 2005. In general, Salons have been limited to 12 participants plus the hosts,and are free and open only to members. AIGA DC has held “Green” Salons on a quarterly basis focusing on sustainable design, and has also had successful Salons based on business issues, art direction, design for government clients and other topics.

In the Philippines, groups made their own unconferences like the “Why Not Forum” and “Design to Make a Difference” to promote social communications and design. I think this is in response to the growing trends of unconferences like Pecha Kucha in Japan and BarCamp of California. Thailand has Fuse Showcase and Hakuna Matata Night.

And it’s cool to know that there are organizations that gives awards to social design efforts like Index:-- a catalyst which spurs public and professional awareness of the human and commercial potential in Design to Improve Life. INDEX: pursues this goal by awarding the biggest design award in the world, presenting international design exhibitions, hosting summits for world leaders on design and innovation and by publishing and distributing knowledge about Design to Improve Life.

Small things can also make a better world

Osocio is a website about visual communication. But so now and then we will publish background articles about social advertising related subjects.
Sacha Declomesnil from the Canadian fundraising blog La fontaine de pierres asked several worldwide social marketing specialists to explain what will be the three major 2008 trends in the social marketing area. I’m not a specialist at all but I have ideas how 2008 will look like.
Below my submission, the original version in French together with those from Paolo Ferrara, Antoine Vaccarro, Kivi Leroux Miller, Kevin Lee and Frédéric Bardeau can be read here.

The major trend in social marketing and advertising for this year will be small things and initiatives. The internet makes our world bigger but, maybe as a response on globalisation, we are searching for look-a-likes in ‘doing’ and ‘thinking’. That is one of the reasons why social networks became so big last two years. Now that we all found our spot on the net it is time to work. (Read on)