San Diego AIGA Y-13 Conference: Sustainability

The AIGA San Diego Y-Conference this year was about the role designer and design can and should play in contributing solutions to environmental issues. I've been attending the Y-Conference for the past decade. The 08 conference, while less stimulating visually and creatively, was a more meaningful and relevant dialog than in recent past. The abilities of a designer to understand a complex problem and then create communications in compelling and memorable ways that promote people take notice and change behavior- was a valuable and immediate contribution designers could be making. Jonah Sachs and Louis Fox from Free Range Studios were a prime example. The way these guys are using storytelling and the web to communicate on environmental issues is impressive. Particularly their simple and effective delivery of Annie Leonard's STORY of STUFF : http://www.storyofstuff.com/



Janet Kulber of the Biomimicry Guild spoke about the natural environment and it's ability to provide answers and clues to the situations we've gotten ourselves into. I thought of all the wisdoms I see from the farmers in small town Italy- and how must wisdom and logic has been lost in the name of convenience and consumption.



The Conference has started to move beyond designers talking to designers and on to helping designers fulfill their more important and critical role as idea creators and communicators of new wisdoms. See the Y-13 profile at www.y-conference.com Ron