Notes Design

A gathering of graphic design professionals committed to serving the social good, this year's Designism, Version 3.0, had the misfortune of being scheduled opposite Thursday's Biden-Palin debate. Given that the venue was the ADC Theater in New York, that the constituency was designers and artists, and the topic was social activism, the crowd seemed to have a predictably blue hue. In this case, then, political activism and social activism intersected, and to promote attendance, we were promised from the beginning that the succession of speakers would conclude in time for the nine o' clock debate.

Core77s own Allan Chochinov kicked off the event, presenting a manifesto of design imperatives for ethical design, using examples of modern design, conceptual art and even photography from his travels to get his message across. While the European advertisement he showed using images of polar bears to convey the message "get there before it's too late" proved too awkward a combination of hypocrisy and pathos (since airlines are a major contributor to carbon footprint) to make a cogent point, other images like cell phone graveyards amply demonstrated that even a seemingly trivial field like design had serious repercussions. The subsequent speakers underscored the point with real-world projects and successes that could make any graphic designer feel like they should be doing more.