Design is in

Billboard made out of Zimbabwe currency

Zimbabwe currency as flyers

We know that there is a crisis in Zimbabwe because of one man's stubbornness. That man is Robert Mugabe. The Zimbabwean, a national daily, commissioned the the Trillion Dollar campaign which communicates Mugabe's effect on Zimbabwe's economy. Recently, Zimbabwe launched a 50 billion dollar note, which bought its bearer two loaves of bread. By March 2009, the price for two loaves of bread had jumped to 7.5 trillion Zimbabwe dollars.

This is a major economic catastrophe of insane proportions in the history of any nation in this world. 1 Zimbabwe dollar = 0.00000003 US dollars. An inflated ego (Mugabe's) at work. More than 25% of Zimbabwe's population live outside Zimbabwe because of the economic instability. The Zimbabwean, an exile London-based daily, offers alternative news coverage of the crisis in the country. The Zimbabwean doesn't reach many ordinary Zimbabweans because it is subject to 55% luxury import duty. You know when something is wrong in a country, when newspapers become luxury items for its citizens.

To spread awareness about the crisis, the South African advertising agency TBWAHuntLascaris created an award-winning Trillion Dollars campaign for The Zimbabwean. In an attempt to increase the readership of The Zimbabwean, the agency devised a campaign that uses Zimbabwe's currency based on Marshall McLuhan's theory. The Zimbabwean has turned the money into their advertising, hoping to raise awareness of the country, which is in dire straits. The money becomes both the medium and the message. 

The outdoor advertising campaign used a tangible symbol of country's collapse, the currency notes itself, as flyers. As part of the campaign, bundles of cash were mailed to media personalities. After the campaign was launched, the Zimbabwean's website logged more than two million hits.

The campaign won numerous Cannes Lions: so far three Gold, one Silver and one Grand Prix.

By Sanjay Basavaraju

Richard Smith's dollar redesign project

The design of currency notes have always fascinated me. Richard Smith, a creative strategy consultant has taken upon himself to redesign the US dollar. He believes that designers have a prominent role to play when it comes to rebranding the economy.

The intentions of Richard may seem ambitious at first, but when you look at the work that he has done with the Dollar Redesign Project, it seems it can be reality. If you are interested in seeing scans of currencies, you can snoop around this exhaustive database.

The American Dollar has not truly been redesigned since the 1930s. Switzerland is known for redesigning their bank notes on a regular basis. Not every bank note deviates from the convention. There seems to be a herd mentality when it comes to designing currency. There is one project that I remember that must be featured in this post, the Netherland banknotes that were designed by Ootje Oxenaar. This is the most beautiful money in the world.

In an interview with the Creative Review, Ootje confesses that he hid his fingerprint in a 1000 guilder note and to make it worse for the authorities he hid names of his grand-daughter, his girlfriend at that time and a secret friend in a 250 guilder note. His act of mystery created quite an uproar which he is proud of. In fact, he jokes saying that those names act as symbols make the banknotes more secure.

Banknotes and postal stamps are a brilliant opportunity for a country or an economy to brand itself. To actually miss that opportunity by adhering to convention is quite disappointing. Designing banknotes is an art that only a few have mastered. I am yet to see Indian banknotes move away from colonial sensibilities.

By Sanjay Basavaraju

Ootje Oxenaar's design of Netherlands' banknotes

Most people remember Saul Bass for his title sequences in many great films such as The Man with the Golden Arm, North by North West, Psycho, West Side Storyand Vertigo, among many others. Saul Bass was an American graphic designer, especially known for the AT&T ‘globe’ logo, and he was also an Academy Award-winning film-maker. 

Most of us don’t know, however, of his short film on solar power. The film was produced by Saul Bass, and was commissioned by Robert Redford in 1980. Eames Demetrios, grandson of Charles and Ray Eames, introduces the film. It’s a film that was definitely ahead of its time, for in 1980 they had realized the need to switch to more sustainable sources of energy. A wonderful way to introduce people to the power of solar energy. 

By Armeen Kapadia

magno-design.com

Products are extensions of the human body in some way, and not just inanimate objects to use and throw without a thought. A product that lives this philosophy better than any other is the Magno, a beautiful handcrafted wooden radio born in Indonesia.

Magno is the brainchild of product designer Singgih S. Kartono. He was concerned about the slowing down and deterioration of his hometown — Kandangan's village life, and after graduating set up his own business in the village. Agriculture, the backbone of the village, had been badly hit, forcing people to take up other professions or migrate to cities. Kartono felt that craft is an alternative activity that can help improve village economy and sustain the community. As explained on the site, “These characteristics [of craft] are that it is labor intensive, requires low technology and investment and abundance of local material input.”

Kartono also talks about the beautiful quality of wood as a material, “I consider wood as a balance material. In wood I can find strength, but yet weakness, advantages but also limits, and roughness as well as softness. Compare to synthetic material, I can feel that wood is a material with soul inside. Wood is a kind of material that its beauty comes from its history. How it grows is amazing process, it recorded to be age lines. It record good & bad time. The beautiful texture and grain actually a story of its life. Wood is a kind of perfect material, perfect cause of its imperfectness. Its characters teach us about  life, balance, limits.”

Kartono believes in the New Craft Method, “New Craft is a manufacturing process that uses traditional craftsmanship as its main means of production and uses modern management techniques in organizing its activities. The basic system of the New Craft is to ensure that every step of the production process contains standard procedures of manufacture, quality standards as well as output and material usage standards.” The New Craft ideology is almost the opposite of mass production and assembly line, as importance is given to each piece, and each worker. “In craft, the most important factor is the human resources behind the craft activities. It uses human skills as its main production resources - it is important to have correctly managed worker attitudes towards crafts.” In this way craft can become the alternative, sustainable source of income.

He designs to minimize the features on the products, and uses dark and light wood to create a warm contrast. The products require maintenance, which Kartono feels, “give a chance to its owner to feel the wood and also to care for the wood, as the care of its owner is the only real protection of the products.” He doesn’t believe in maintenance-free products. We have an obligation to look after the products we have.

Besides three varieties of wooden radios here, here, and here, Magno also has stationery, toys, and some small functional items. The radios can be connected to ipods, and are made only of wood, and in some cases fabric.
 
With his concern for the environment, Kartano ensures that every tree used is re-planted as he feels morally responsible for the environment. He also believes that we share a special relationship with products we use, “Products are living beings that send us messages and spiritual meanings in a passive way. Our society has begun to loose these meanings and products are becoming our robot servants. I strongly believe that the relationship between a user and a product is not merely a relationship between a subject and an object. It is a relationship where a product is an integral part of our life.”

He believes that the imperfect-ness of products is what makes them more human, and sustainable. "Design for us is more than just creating a well designed product that is produced and consumed in colossal amount. Design must be a way to solve and minimize problems."

By Armeen Kapadia

www.beyondgoodintentions.com

Often, a large amount of international aid is available, but yet does not benefit communities that need it the most. Beyond Good Intentions is a movement focusing on discovering more innovative and effective approaches to international aid.

The movement includes a series of ten short films, which cover the travels of Tori Hogan as she travels around the world, investigating how international aid can be made more effective. Tori herself spent several years working in international aid projects worldwide. She realized that sometimes, even initiatives with the best intentions were not creating the difference they ideally should. This is a first of its kind film series, which focuses on positive change in the aid industry. It also asks some questions that haven’t been raised till now, but definitely need to be answered.

You can read about Beyond Good Intentions on their blog Tall Orders. You can join the dialogue where many interesting issues are being discussed such as can international volunteers make a positive difference abroad?

You can share your own story of volunteering or providing aid, and read about others’ experiences as well. The site is also a resource base to learn more about international aid. And most significantly, there are five simple steps to be the change. 

As discussed in the first film, foreign aid workers cannot have the kind of insights that the local workers in the community will. Communities themselves know what they really need, and may need technical assistance, or legal advice, but not an entire transplant of western methodologies. Episode 5, shot in India, discusses how aid is not just about dumping money, but also about seeing it through proper implementation.

Ultimately, international aid is the catalyst for bigger change; change that cannot be ‘imported’ blindly into communities, but change that has to come from within communities. The best way to help people is to empower them to help themselves.

By Armeen Kapadia and Sanjay Basavaraju

Super MoneyMaker in action

The poor are not victims. It is on this, and other similar beliefs, that KickStart was founded. KickStart is a company that promotes sustainable economic growth as a way to lift millions of people in the developing world out of poverty. They develop and promote technologies that can be used to run small-scale enterprise.

It’s founders Martin Fisher and Nick Moon, met in Kenya, where they were frustrated by the lack of long-term impact on poverty, even the work of development agencies soon fell apart after the workers pulled out of the area. They felt there was a huge need to make the people self-reliant. In sub-Saharan Africa, 80% of the population is rural farmers.

Some of the products from KickStart include the Super MoneyMaker, a water pump that can push water uphill, and simply pump it from its source. It is useful in sloping land, where the water source may be at the bottom. It is low-cost, light weight, and durable. Till date 97,000 pumps have been sold, and have changed many lives for the better. They also have the MoneyMaker Hip Pump, which is a lighter, cheaper one. There is a Stabilized Soil Block Press, which can be used to create 500 building bricks a day. You can see other products in development, and the Cooking Oil Press as well.

More interesting than their products are the Lessons Learnt. These are basic facts, but are crucial points to consider if developing countries are to really improve the lives of their citizens. The poor are not victims; the number one need of the poor is a way to make money, individuals, and not communities make the difference, the majority of the poor are rural, sell, don’t give, and the importance of the middle class are some very interesting points of view.  

Do see their 5-step process, a great guide for any entrepreneur, designer, or people working in development. First, identify the opportunities in the area. This involves spotting the problem areas, and identifying the best means to deal with the problem, which involves the people. The next step is to design products, and the mistake often made here when designing for the world’s poor is a focus on developing things that "we" think "they" need. The next step is to build a supply chain that will ensure the products reach the people, and the people are also profitably involved along the supply chain. Develop the market: in developing countries, the market may consist of villagers in remote locations, totally cut off from one another and the world. The very name of their product ‘MoneyMaker’ speaks directly to the customer, and their needs. And finally, measure and move along, look at the long-term solutions, see how the company is growing, and focus on the permanent solution.

By Armeen Kapadia

Have you ever wondered where all the stuff you use comes from? And where does it go after you have finished with it? Well, so did Annie Leonard. Annie has made a 20-minute video, The Story of Stuff, that explains how consumption and production patterns are affecting the world economy, natural resources, social structure and poverty. This video is simple and lucid enough to be understood by a young child, and is in fact being used by teachers worldwide to teach children about the impact of every single purchase in their lives.

The site has had over 5.5 million views, and deservedly so. This video is a must watch for not just school children, but people everywhere. The Story of Stuff first introduces us to the global crisis, and impact of human activity, then it goes on to tell us about the extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of our products. Annie herself narrates the story, and though she is dealing with a serious topic, she remains focused on positive change, and how our actions can make a big difference, which is the most important message at the end of the day. It is essential, educational, entertaining and enlightening.

Though she talks primarily of the hyper-consumption in the first world, people in any country can relate to this video, as the shopping mania, though founded in the first world, has unfortunately infiltrated most nations of the third world, even if to a lesser degree. We need to learn from their mistakes, and not blindly go down their path. She also explains the role of the government, and the private corporations, and how they (especially the latter), are major stakeholders in this whole process.

The Story of Stuff can be seen in a number of languages here, and you can even donate here. If you are a teacher, this is a wonderful video to show your class, as such topics, though crucially important, are not included in conventional children's textbooks, or curriculum, though it is the need of the hour. As Annie explains in the video, if we keep going at the current rate of consumption and wastage, we need around five more planet earths, and as far as we know, we only have one.

By Armeen Kapadia