Sunday, May 8, 2011

Design Makes Change


Design Makes Change is a volunteer group of designers, artists, and educators living and working in Chicago. Their mission is to partner with organizations, community leaders, businesses, and education bodies to organize and support a series of annual design competitions to address environmental, social, and infrastructural issues in Chicago. This organization is great example of what design is good for. the company realizes that the industries around the city support us, but also hurt our air, water, and land. Design Makes Change encourages local designers to grasp these challenges within their city and invest through design. Through the design competitions held each year, they are trying to focus on local neighborhoods. “Through a multi-disciplinary focus on the fields of industrial design, graphic design, environmental/space design, interior architecture, and architecture they want to help build cleaner, safer, better neighborhoods in Chicago”. This year they are working on a competition called, The Air We Breathe; The Chicago Clean Air Design Challenge is a regional design competition focusing on two of Chicago’s most affected neighborhoods- Pilsen and Little Village. Design does make change and in this case designers are coming together to make a positive change on our community and land.

14 comments:

  1. It's great to see (creative) groups like this trying to make a difference in our community! It inspires me to think about what I could be doing!

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  2. Great post! I would love to be able to participate in something like this. A great way to get work shown and it all goes for a good cause!

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  3. I love the graphic you posted! This is a fantastic example of designs potential in the world.

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  4. This design competition is very interesting. It is great that we can use design to raise awareness and mobilize individuals to take action.

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  5. Wonderful! I am always interested in knowing about things such as this. Its a great way to get involved and create new relationships with people in the field.

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  6. This is very cool, I love that designers are coming together for a good cause and they are taking their design experience and educating Chicago about an issue that is very important which is clean air in our city.

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  7. I'm glad to see that design is acting as a bond while bringing people with the same interests together to make a difference. Great example!

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  8. It's nice to see designers taking action to help our environment.

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  9. This reminds me of the website Zack always tells us about, Design Ignites Change.

    http://designigniteschange.org/

    It lets people contribute, so it is a bit different, but it is another way to show that design really can make a difference!

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  10. design is a great bridge to saving the environment. especially withthis "going green" concept,great design really can help inspire people.

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  11. I love their logo! Sometimes seeing the smoke in action can cause a community to react. I feel that they are doing something great.

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  12. I saw this competition about a week before the deadline was due and I was so bummed I didn't have time to submit anything! It's a really great resource.

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  13. Seconding the admiration for the logo, and for the work that this group is doing. It really makes design more visceral and immediate.

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