“Osocio has successfully created a platform free of a hidden agenda, which encourage exploring the successes and failures of social advertising and non-profit campaigns.”
What can I say more? I just discovered this great six page article, which makes me blush, in the digital DESIGN> magazine (edition 15, 2009). It is not only about ourself, mainly the article analyse the world we blog about.
Click on the digital magazine for full screen mode and flip the pages. And there are more great articles like ‘Design Professionals and Social Activism’ on page 16.
The Osocio bloggers choose the best campaign every month. At the end of the year we will have twelve great campaigns from which we will choose the Campaign of the Year.
The Campaign of the Month of February is without any doubt the Zero Rupee Notes campaign from 5thpillar. Almost every blogger voted this campaign as favourite.
See the post here.
“One such story was our earlier case about the old lady and her troubles with the Revenue Department official over a land title. Fed up with requests for bribes and equipped with a zero rupee note, the old lady handed the note to the official. He was stunned. Remarkably, the official stood up from his seat, offered her a chair, offered her tea and gave her the title she had been seeking for the last year and a half to obtain without success.”
While it’s not a traditional advertising campaign, I thought the Osocio readers would appreciate this design-centric fundraiser: Font Aid IV: Coming Together is a collaborative typeface to benefit the victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti put together by The Society of Typographic Aficionados. It features ampersands from nearly 400 international designers (myself included). The font is already for sale at Veer & Ascender Fonts, and will also be available at FontShop & MyFonts soon. All proceeds from the sale of the “Coming Together” font will go to Doctors Without Borders, to help with their relief efforts in Haiti. More details and a full list of contributors can be found HERE.
Indian NGO Fifth Pillar have come up with a new weapon in the fight against corruption – a zero rupee note that can be handed to those demanding a bribe. Genius idea. (NB the organisation’s website is temporarily suspended, perhaps because of all the traffic this idea is generating. But you can search to find lots of inspiring stories about the note.)
Nice trailer for The Rethink Scholarship, an $18,000 scholarship for aspiring art directors and designers to Langara College’s Communication and Ideation Design program. The winner will also receive a 3-month internship with Rethink.
Judging the winner is based on one thing: a sketchbook. The sketchbook can be any size in terms of width and height, but it must have a hard black cover.
Great new project from Milan, Italy: World Of Mouth against HIV.
Aim to make people aware of the need to use condoms in order to limit the spread of HIV.
The project has 3 different phases in which everyone can take part:
1. Website launch, start up on social networks official pages, VIP photo shooting.
2. Users generated photo gallery (20 of them will be selected for the offline exposition)
3. An exhibit of 30 photos in Milan (10 VIP photos + 20 users photos).
“Looking at the world and looking at ourselves through the camera lens.”
The Italian Fotografi Senza Frontiere (Photographers Without Borders) embodies the idea that the “other” always has a story to tell, and by listening to their story, they become less “other” than we thought.
Feelings and emotions frozen in a photograph are able to immortalize a moment, and to explain our differences, which are also our uniqueness.
Through photography, those who do not have a voice – and who, in the collective imagination exist only in the news – can find their own place, and in this way, can come to know themselves and relate to others.
These are our own convictions. Our projects begin from here.
In short: Fotografi Senza Frontiere is working to raise a new generation of photographers.
Once a year I teach Design Rebels, a course on socially conscious design that I created for Virginia Commonwealth University’s Graphic Design department. As part of the class the students are required to create a real world group project, based on the themes of the class, that reaches into the community beyond the school. This year the class decided to focus on the issue of local, in-season food. They’ve created an art event called Project Winterfood that will give people in the area a fun way to learn more about what grows in the area in the winter and why it’s important to eat locally grown food. This free event is this Wednesday, December 2nd, from 7-10 in Richmond, Virginia. If you’re in the area I hope you’ll consider stopping by.
Overview of 37 innovation principles and inspiring examples for a better world. Made by Marc Heleven from New shoes today, a ídea factory based in Belgium.
New shoes today is a growing number of soulmates in business who give support to people and organisations on their road to creation, innovation and change. Together with clients they take on 21st century challenges. Their values: open - drive - unity - fun - care - today.
The transcript of the slideshare presentation with all links can be found here.
Great augmented reality project in the streets of Liverpool en Cardiff UK made by Chris O’Shea.
Unsuspecting pedestrians will be tickled, stretched, flicked or removed entirely in real-time by a giant deity [wikipedia].
“Hand From Above encourages us to question our normal routine when we often find ourselves rushing from one destination to another. Inspired by Land of the Giants and Goliath, we are reminded of mythical stories by mischievously unleashing a giant hand from the BBC Big Screen. Passers by will be playfully transformed.”
Last Monday graffiti artist Darrin Umboh kicked off the new Terre des Hommes campaign ‘I sign for Terre des Hommes’ by creating an artwork on platforms 4/5 of Leiden central train station (NL). Umboh is one of the founders of sneaker collective LEYP.
The Terre des Hommes campaign aims to get young adults more involved with the issue of child abuse. Umboh got his inspiration from one of the projects in Tangail, Bangladesh where the NGO supports children who otherwise would have to work in one of the many brothels.
Besides Umboh, illustrators MAKI and DEDass have also created work. By donating you not only support Terre des Hommes, but you also receive a signed piece of one of the three illustrations (42 x 59,5 cm).
SocialDesignZine published a gallery early August entitled Posters for Green Iran. A great collection of social design about the current situation in Iran.
See all 132 posters here.
To highlight the effects of climate change, Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo made a installation of 1,000 ice sculptures of sitting men on the steps of Berlin’s concert hall. The sculptures began melting in 30 minutes.
The Berlin installation was sponsored by the WWF. The action coincided with the release of a major report on Arctic warming by WWF entitled Artic Feedbacks: The Impact on Global Climate Change, highlighting that the consequences of the rapid retreat of ice will not only affect the Artic region but the planet as a whole.
Since 2005, Azevedo has been setting up her Melting Men in various countries around the world. Although originally intended as a critic of the role of monuments in cities, environmentalists around the world are adopting her work as climate change art.
New Zealand’s Student Job Search invested in an effective spot of crowdsourcing via a recent competition that captured the talents of tertiary students nationwide.
The competition was conceptualised with Tardis Design & Advertising & Ikon Communications and handed over the creative direction of the upcoming campaign (appealing to employers to list student jobs) to the students themselves. Prizes included $1000 cash and an Acer notebook for the winning entry plus the kudos of having the campaign put into circulation across the country.
Twelve finalists were chosen from an initial response to each spend a week working on creating their campaign – for which they were compensated by the not-for profit Student Job Search recruiting service. Sebastian Boyle’s “Employ a Student, Employ the Future” campaign emerged as the clear winner with its well crafted copy that offered dynamic possibilities in how it could be used to appeal to various categories of employers.
More surprising was the fact that Boyle is not studying Advertising or Design but rather is in his final year of Law. Helen Milner from Tardis Design noted that “one can see how both advertising and legal professionals require a strong sense of persuasiveness – a characteristic highly evident in Sebastian’s entry.” Her team were responsible for refining the concept and design ready for wider media dispatch.
Boyle expands – “I’ve always had an interest in design and advertising and this seemed like a great way of getting some experience. I realised that my legal training has provided me with good communication and analytic skills with which to approach the competition. And its brilliant to get a taste for how creative concepts get enhanced by the design team at a real agency.”
By helping students help themselves and celebrating those who do it best, Student Job Search have embraced a collaborative approach that reflects an organisation that values its key asset – people.
How can better design ensure that food grown by local farmers is delivered and distributed to urban residents?
Good Magazine’s latest project, Redesign Your Farmers’ Market, asked for design solutions that would help food grown by local farmers to be more effectively delivered and distributed to urban residents. Read More
Employing a clear spot-varnish, New York-based designer Reiner Tiangco has devised a poster that requires interaction to disclose its pertinent message.
With the proliferation of lip-service being given to the world’s increasingly complex challenges – we feel he makes a highly valid point.
Posted by Marc | 20-08-2009 22:47 | Category:
Design
Occasionally we publish some student or portfolio work from designers all over the world. In this post some work from John Cooper from England.
John recently graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University with a First Class (BA) Honours Degree in Graphic Arts & Design.
A lot of the ideas as shown here and in his online portfolio were executed whilst at university but is also a showcase with ongoing work. Mostly it is geared mainly around ethical campaigns against child abuse, bullying, smoking, drink driving, homelessness, people that park in disabled bays and more.
As john explained: “I am motivated by the idea of using my ideas and graphic skills to have some kind of positive effect.”
Recently, the people from the great blog Visual Culture had the pleasure of dialoguing with Good 50X70 co-founders Tommaso Minnetti and Pasquale Volpe on how it all began, the evolution, and the knowledge gained within the journey.
VC: Congrats on your third year of Good 50X70. Could you share a few highlights with us?
TM: I’d say that one of the most interesting things we did this year was to organize 3 workshops with 3 of our jury members here in Milan. It has been truly great to see how much people we gathered for the event and I’m really proud we managed to do something that might be an important and meaningful experience in the future career of the students who participated.
Oxfam International has been given a bold, typocentric makeover by Barcelona’s Hey Studio which is expected to resonate with a young Spanish audience. Oxfam pursues education, disaster management and health initiatives alongside advocacy and policy research to ensure sustainable development in combating poverty and injustice. The new look highlights issues through confronting icon-typographic mash-ups applied to a vividly coloured range of products from posters to pencils.
If there’s one thing you’ve learned about how you can make the world a better place, what is it? Republic of Everyone asked that question of some of Australia’s best known designers and sustainability people.
Billed as “the first poster that responds to people looking at it,” Amnesty International’s one-off domestic violence awareness poster includes an eye-tracking camera that changes the poster’s display when a viewer looks at the image.
The poster, titled “It Happens When Nobody Is Watching,” has been criticized for its being one of a kind (as opposed to a full campaign) and accused of pandering for an award (which it won). Berliners, be on the watch, this poster is displayed at a bus stop in your city. Have you seen it? What do others think of its efficacy?
Scooping up a D&AD Yellow Pencil in this months awards is the brilliant Newspaper to New Paper project from Dentsu, Tokyo. We applaud D&AD acknowledging the great worth of this humble project. Although it was responding to a brief from a commercial client project we think it qualifies as social advertising. Read the entry rationale to see why >>
cause/affect is a biennial graphic design competition which celebrates the work of designers and organizations who set out to positively impact our society. Produced by AIGA San Francisco, this is a competition for do-gooders who do good work. Send in your entries before June 19, 2009.
The details of the competition are simple: all work entered must promote or support social good. All we ask is that it doesn’t contribute directly to the profit of a commercial organization. And to qualify, work must have been produced between November 1, 2007 and June 19, 2009.
Hi! We are Judith and Gertjan, a Dutch couple with an open heart and mind for the people of South Asia. In 2010 we will move with our two kids towards South Asia to work as volunteers. Judith is a nurse with a medical management qualification and will be involved in a medical training program. Gertjan is an entrepeneur and will start an education program and an IT business. Our Christian faith is an important motive for us in doing this kind of work.
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Osocio is dedicated to social advertising and non-profit campaigns. It’s the place where marketing and activism collide. Formerly known as the Houtlust Blog, Osocio is the central online hub for advertisers, ad agencies, grassroots, activists, social entrepreneurs, and good Samaritans from around the globe.
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Hi! We are Judith and Gertjan, a Dutch couple with an open heart and mind for the people of South Asia. In 2010 we will move with our two kids towards South Asia to work as volunteers. Judith is a nurse with a medical management qualification and will be involved in a medical training program. Gertjan is an entrepeneur and will start an education program and an IT business. Our Christian faith is an important motive for us in doing this kind of work.
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