Friday 1 March 2013

Helping a Community

Here is another post to get your inspirational juices flowing.
Designer Pepe Heykoop, created a products that will help hundreds in a community in Mumbai, India achieve self-sufficiency and move from poverty into the working middle class. The individuals living in this community are living on sidewalks of Mumbai's red light district. Heykoop has designed products that the people of the community can make and trains them with the additional skills required to produce the products -products that have a market. The development of the products help create steady income for individuals and their families. Heykoop has partnered with his cousin Laurien Meuter who has created this organization, The Tiny Miracles Foundation., which set out to help the those in the community of Pardesh in Mumbai.




Design for Good: Pepe Heykoop and the Tiny Miracles Foundation in news events interior design home furnishings  Category
Image source: http://design-milk.com/design-for-good-pepe-heykoop-and-the-tiny-miracles-foundation/#more-129731

Design for Good: Pepe Heykoop and the Tiny Miracles Foundation in news events interior design home furnishings  Category
Image source: http://design-milk.com/design-for-good-pepe-heykoop-and-the-tiny-miracles-foundation/#more-129731


The product that Heykoop has created is the Leather Lamp shade and Paper Vase cover. These products are created through folding paper techniques. The Paper Vase is a decorative cover for bottles that are typically  thrown away.



Design for Good: Pepe Heykoop and the Tiny Miracles Foundation in news events interior design home furnishings  Category
Image source: http://design-milk.com/design-for-good-pepe-heykoop-and-the-tiny-miracles-foundation/#more-129731


Design for Good: Pepe Heykoop and the Tiny Miracles Foundation in news events interior design home furnishings  Category
Image source: http://design-milk.com/design-for-good-pepe-heykoop-and-the-tiny-miracles-foundation/#more-129731

I think this is great designing that helps others in the process. Hope you enjoyed this post. For more infomation click here.

Monday 29 October 2012

Recycle and Reuse

The Montreal Eaton Centre, owned by Ivanhoe Cambridge, (the company I work for..whoot whoot!) set out a unique, evironmentally themed sculpture made of recycled materials.  The art installation, called Fragile, transformed the shopping centre into an eco-system. The  brains behind this wonderful work, Roadsworth and Brian Armstrong. They wanted to challenge the public to think differently about the life-cycle of products in the urban enviornment. Take a look at the video to see the process work.






Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/64849641@N03/5905410374/


For more infomation about this project visit: http://fragile.projekroom.com/en/medias

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Oprah said it best.

I love the way Oprah is able to articulate her thoughts, feel,s and queries. I was reading an article about the first graduating class of Oprah's South African boarding school on yahoo, she made a statement that I've been trying to put into words for months. In the article they quote her saying:


“There comes a time when you look in your closet and say, "'Enough shoes,'" she said. “Now what can I do that’s going to be of value … to other people?" - Oprah Winfery


When I read this I said Yes!! This is exactly how I feel. There comes a time when you look at the polished and well designed interiors, excessive products and fashion that we have at our finger tips and say enough!. What can I do to help other people? How can I create/design to fulfill a need for those who are disadvantaged in our society?

Now there's something to think about.


Tuesday 16 October 2012

Seeing the Future

Yves Behar noted industrial designer, of Fuse Project, is putting his stamp on innovation in the developing world. Click the video below to see how his innovative designs (laptops and eye glasses) are giving children in the developing worlda brighter future.


Click here and here to read more about Behar's projects.

The Trash Lady

Here's a women, Susanne Heisse, who used a frequently disposed material and found a way to transform it from trash to structure. Using disgarded bottles, wrappers and plastic bags often found lying on the ground in a little Mayan Village of San Marcos la Laguna, Guatemala, Heisse decided to stuff the bottles with the wrapers and plastics bags. By stuffing the materials into the bottles she has created "eco bricks" that are ready for construction. The stuffed bottles are now are structural building materials that canbuild schools and many types dwellings units.
Take a look at the video and be inspired. Amazing people doing amazing things. Design does not have to be rocket science.


To read more about this project click here.

Switching Gears

I want to take the time to regroup and change the face of this blog. When I started blogging I wanted to blog about something I was passionate about. So I thought bloging about my industry (Interior Design) and products would have been the best way to go. I thought design in general would be a good way to blog and keep up with design trends. But that didn't fuel me. Yes , I am fueled by design. But what really drives me is design that reaches out for social change. To better the lives of those who don't have the means to do so themselves. I'm am deeply inspired by the innovation that arises from designing for those in developing countries or poverty stricken areas. Creativity really comes when you work with what you have. This what I want tmy blog to focus on, Social Design (designing for social change). I need a place to journal all my inspirational findings and there is  no better place to do it then here, on this blog.
I hope those reading recieve a sense of inspirational and call to action in the stories that I find.


Donna Karan's Urban Zen - Haiti Artisan Project

 

Image: Karan, Donna. "Haiti."Artisan Hands. Donna Karan 2012. 16 Oct 2012. http://www.donnakaran.com/editorial/detail/cb625e21-1b18-42a5-aae2-9e881f670e14/haiti


In this initiative, Donna Karan and a community of supportors are helping Haitian communites maintain their cultural practices by celebrating their craft/creativity and introducing it to the markets of the western world. They work one-on-one with artisians and manufacturers to produce products with local materials that can be sold abroad. This not only helps the art commuity but creates self-reliance and sustainability amung locals.
Please feel free to scroll through her blog here or and website here to gather a holistic understanding of the great work that is taking place in Haiti. Enjoy!