currently on what i'm calling "day two" of my sabbatical. not knowing when the starting line was (last day of spring term? end of fiscal year? first day of fall term?), i decided it would be when lori and murphy started back to school – aug 15.
the 816
i walk past a large, old, 2-story, typical kansas city style house into the alley at 3116 forest avenue. further, past a huge pile of decaying junk, is evidence of grassroots bike culture – a kid's frame here, a few old tires there, and small groups of bikes in various states of disrepair. i come upon a busier scene than i expect, with a couple of boys fixing a flat and several other people doing basic bike repairs, guided by collective members.
free idea #2
a collectively-run vegan or vegetarian "fast casual" or fast-food restaurant
there is a growing national wave of restaurant and service workers rising up to protest low wages and a host of other workplace ills (no sick days, no healthcare or benefits, etc). why not offer an alternative model for how this industry could run, giving these workers a real option, rather than fighting huge corporations that will fight to the death to keep their wads of cash?
worker-owned organizations are based on collective decision-making and empower people in non-hierarchical relationships that honor their unique skillsets and team contributions.
vegan and vegetarian diets do the least harm to the environment and if things are locally sourced, all the better. "fast food" or "fast casual" (a bit upscale looking and more conducive to dinner than fast food) because it would be convenient for lunch and quick visits as well as being at a more accessible price point than sit-down restaurants. plus the fast food market definitely needs to be shaken up.
there could even be a pricing structure that honors walkers (lowest prices), bikers and transit users (mid-level prices) over car-based visitors (highest prices). sorry – no drive through.
native foods is pretty close to what i'm talking about, and it's pretty stinkin' good, but i'm thinking more local.
this idea is free to use, co-opt, or otherwise exploit. let me know if you want to discuss further or contact me if you use it.
free idea #1
weight- or volume-based trash collection
users pay a per-pound fee for landfill use and receive per-pound refunds for recyclable materials. deffenbaugh industries (local trash hauler) already has mechanical arms that pick up containers. these could be outfitted with a weight sensor of some sort that electronically updates your account each week, resulting in a dynamic balance for each pay period. per-pound fees could be calculated based on research of average amount of trash disposed of by an average household. this would ensure the company would not lose money, and in fact may even make money.
this idea is free to use, co-opt, or otherwise exploit. let me know if you want to discuss further or contact me if you use it.
measuring sticks
as a creative person dealing with inherently messy problems of socially-oriented communication, i'm a bit frustrated with the notion of "measuring success" or "effectiveness" of projects. related is the ultimately subjective notion of measuring student learning outcomes for my graphic design students. western society, if not our world in general, (but yes, probably just western society) seems to defer to science and math as the hard evidence or the last word on the existence of a thing.
i'm not opposed to this way of measuring things but would argue that there are things like belief and faith and feeling and motivation that are just as existant in this world. those things are worthy of consideration in terms of how they affect people and clearly much harder to measure. i acknowledge that i'm being reactive here, and largely ignorant, of other ways to measure these "soft effects" we'll call them. but even as i try to think of alternative measuring systems, things like the 1–10 pain scale at hospitals fall back to numeric quantification.
perhaps that's an okay place to start and will lead to new, valuable, accurate ways to measure the effectiveness of social change projects, but part of me is just concerned with the the disproportionate amount of power math and science have over belief, faith, feeling, and motivation, which are largely lumped into notions of pre-enlightenment superstition.
to my original intent in recording these thoughts – jotting down a preliminary list of possible ways to measure outcomes/impacts of social design work. what are ways to measure success, even if they do circle back to quantification? it's a start i suppose, but i'm definitely open to other methods. are there methods from the social sciences that are useful here of which i'm unaware?
okay, here we go:
- number of artifacts distributed (flyers, booklets, etc)
- website hits / pageviews / other web metrics
- social media shares / retweets / etc
- press coverage (number of articles written, photos published, etc)
- number of conversations engaged in
- event attendance
- number of people involved in the process
- soliciting audience feedback via surveys
- number of people engaged in "the next step"
okay, i'm outta gas for now. whadaya got, people? any other ideas for measuring success?
steve lambert is hot
recently discovered this guy, steve lambert, who flows effortlessly in that gray area between art, design, and politics and he makes me jealous. very smart and beautiful work.
bike-in movie sneak peek
a quick peek at posters in the works for the annual bike-in movie happening in rosedale this spring. my student collaborator, michael jumper, and i hand built the sign as a parody of the boulevard drive-in sign. another collaborator and kcai alumnus, ben hlavacek, did most of the photography. the idea was to produce a series of images showcasing the wide range of cycling culture in kansas city and hopefully attract those particular types of cyclists to the event.
crimethinc posters
the crimethinc ex-workers collective consistently provides incisive political commentary with a solid design sense. this is one example of many they offer for free download. check out the others here.
seeking collaborators for spring 2013
the new programme is undergoing exciting growth and change to re-focus exclusively on social change projects and incorporate student collaborators as active participants in that process.
the new programme’s freshly revised mission is to utilize the power of visual communication and design thinking to create positive social change for underserved voices that seek to increase health, education, sustainability, and civic participation in their kansas city communities.
the new programme is intended to function as a kind of laboratory space to explore:
- how visual communication can affect or create positive behaviors
- how graphic design processes and artifacts can best be leveraged in a non-commercial capacity
- how graphic design processes can be more collaborative and inclusive
- how using graphic design for social change could become a sustainable career path
projects for the spring 2013 semester will include additional work with the midwest center for equality and democracy on their multiple ongoing initiatives, as well as website re-structuring for the new programme. other projects are in the works and will be introduced as relationships are secured with clients.
this position can be taken as a 3-credit studio elective or not taken for credit, as you wish. it is unpaid but my sparkling personality and the occasional free cup o’ joe may compensate a bit.
DUTIES TO BE PERFORMED BY COLLABORATORS
collaborators will be expected to work six hours a week, preferably meeting on tuesdays or thursdays for work sessions, critiques, client meetings, and so on.
design projects for local clients (primary duties)
- attend and participate in client meetings
- design research
- brainstorming, ideation, and iterations
- production work
- project documentation for internal and client use
contributing to the refinement of the new programme’s agenda (secondary duties)
- promotional work for the new programme including website updates, blog posts, identity refinement, etc
to apply, send a resume and pdf of five work samples to tyler [at] thenewprogramme [dot] net by
friday, january 11, 5pm.
typeface sighting [sorta]
after several years of low-level sales of my syndicate typeface, i finally spotted it in use — sort of. it is on the 2011 model rockshox mountain bike forks “reba” model.