StopDesign

Hallowed Ground, Worldly City: Ground Zero and the Struggle for Lower Manhattan
On Places, James Sanders looks at the current controversy over the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero in a larger context, noting that New York City has for most of its history "abhorred the very idea of memorials." 

Hell Under Wheels
Photo from Teun Voeten's newly reissued book on New York's Tunnel People.

Climate Change Chocolate Update
Update on Climate Change Chocolate and other ideas for offsetting carbon. Originally published August 17, 2009.

James Victore: Straight Up
"Few designers have done more to render typography foundries irrelevant than Victore. The human hand, his hand, is always in evidence." Michael Bierut on James Victore's work.

Death to Design Awards
Essay attacking design awards for stifling innovation

Lunch with the Critics: Park51 & 15 Penn
"Lunch with the Critics," a new feature on Design Observer: Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange travel to midtown to visit the Hotel Pennsylvania, across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.

SELCO: Product Design Philosophy
This video of the SELCO innovation team talking about product development is a part of the SELCO case study, the first in a series of case studies on design and social enterprise funded by the Rockefeller Foundation through a grant to the Winterhouse Institute.

SELCO: Founder Harish Hande on SELCO's Future
This video of Harish Hande is a part of the SELCO case study, the first in a series of case studies on design and social enterprise funded by the Rockefeller Foundation through a grant to the Winterhouse Institute.

Dogs and Their Designers
Design Observer posted an open call for designers to submit photos of themselves with their canine companions. These are the results...

The Insignificance of a Logo (Even When Significant)
On the futility of designing the symbol for a controversial religious organization.

Somali Documentary Project
Report on the Somali Documentary Project.

The Good, the Bad, and the Empty
On Places, watch The Good, the Bad, and the Empty, the latest video from the Brooklyn-based Center for Urban Pedagogy, which explores the community politics of vacant lots.

Case Study Use: Teaching History and Notes for Educators
A record of where case studies in Design and Social Enterprise series from Yale School of Management have been used or taught.

SELCO: Case Study Synopsis & Teaching Objectives
This case study about SELCO, a solar energy company in India, provides an opportunity to examine the strategy of a business with a social purpose and a heavy reliance on innovative design.

Design and Social Enterprise: A New Model for Case Studies
Not many business school case studies have considered the role of design in social innovation or social enterprise management. Yale School of Management, in collaboration with Winterhouse Institute, has created a series focusing on Design and Social Enterprise, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.

What Social Entrepreneurship Can Teach Social Design
Essay on adapting principles of social entrepreneurship to social design.

In the Palm of Your Hand: Dexterity Puzzles
A selection of rare dexterity puzzles from the personal collection of Jessica Helfand.

Today: The End
Today, our weekly smorgasbord of images curated by Eric Baker, concludes with this final post.

The Costs of Ownership: Why Copyright Protection Will Hurt the Fashion Industry
New copyright protection for fashion designs is only going to hurt an already struggling industry.

Mitsubishi i-MiEV Electric Car
Review of Mitsubishi's i-MiEV electric car.

Land, Speed and Bonneville
On Places — coinciding with Speed Week at Bonneville — a gallery created by architect Martin Hogue documents decades of land speed racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats of western Utah.

Hot Mountain
Photo documenting the effects of climate change in Peru, by Susannah Sayler of The Canary Project.

The Town That Corbusier Built
On the conflict between architectural appreciation and security in Chandigarh, India.

When Shopping Was Sociable
Design Research and Apple, a comparison of the two stores that have brought design to the masses.

Pet Projects
Essay on design as an underutilized force for the humane treatment of animals.

Michael Bierut on 86 Notebooks
Michael Bierut video of a talk on the 86 notebooks he's kept over the course of his career and design lessons derived from them.

The East Anglians
On Places, a portfolio by photographer Justin Partyka, documenting a deep-rooted but fragile agrarian community in East Anglia.

Ripple Effect Update
Update on the Ripple Effect initiative launched by IDEO, Gates Foundation and Acumen Fund to distribute fresh water in the developing world. Originally published July 30, 2009.

Chance Encounter on the Tiber
Chance Encounter on the Tiber was an unexpected urban experiment: 100 movable red chairs and a musical performance on the Tiber River in Rome.

Tinkers, Hackers, Farmers, Crafters
Interview with Emeka Okafor, founder of Maker Faire Africa.

The Bakers Table
Those tables taught me something. I realized that by designing them I had turned impoverishment into enterprise. I had transcended my own inhibiting academic world and briefly explored the material presences of daily life.

Today, 08.07.10
Here are Today’s images.

nbAUDIO 2011
The North Brooklyn Public Art Coalition (NbPac) is pleased to announce an open call for Brooklyn–based artists to propose projects for an upcoming sound installation to be displayed for the greater North Brooklyn community in Spring 2011.

Nubians Then and Now
Image of Nubian homes in the Kibera area of Nairobi by Greg Constantine.

Frontiers: On the Edge in Merced and Malibu
On Places, a portfolio of photographs by Luther Thie and Kathrine Worel, documenting houses and homes on the frontiers of the contemporary economic and environmental crises.

Bellagio Museum Symposium: Abstract
In April 2010, 22 participants met at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy to discuss the museum’s potential role in relation to design for social change. This is an abstract summary of the final report of their discussions.

Reasons Not to Be Pretty: Symposium on Design, Social Change and the “Museum”
In April 2010, 22 designers, historians, curators, educators and journalists met at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy to discuss the museum’s potential role in relation to design for social change. This is a report on their conversation.

Publishing in the Age of the Internet
Design/Research, published by Unit Editions, are collectable "papers" which, focus on design and visual communication, from the past, by placing it in a future context.

Next: Innovation Tools & Trends Rockefeller Foundation's Push Toward Design and Innovation
This report following the Aspen Design Summit interviews Antony Bugg-Levine, managing director of the Rockefeller Foundation. "Success for us is not a few interesting projects done by Rockefeller and its grantees, but insights that will inform how the philanthropic sector takes advantage of these processes."

Inside the Design Thinking Process
The Aspen Design Summit brought together 60 top executives to apply design thinking to large social problems. This report is reprinted on Change Observer courtesy of the author and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Cup of Heroes
Thoughts on design, sports, and the author's return to a South African township during the World Cup.

Two Rupees Worth
Now that the dust has settled on India's launch of their rupee symbol we are starting to see its application beyond the initial fanfare.

Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories and Collected Thoughts
Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts, and Other Artists’ Enumerations from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art celebrates a form of documentation that is familiar to everyone — the list.

China Portfolio: From the Linked Hybrid to the Bug Dome
On Places, Architizer curates a portfolio of recent architecture in the People's Republic of China, from Beijing to Shanghai, Shenzhen to Chongqing.

The Language of Design Imperialism
Essay on the flawed language used to describe humanitarian design efforts and what it indicates.

Camel Mobile Clinic Update
Update on Art Center's Design Matters program, which prototypes a system for transporting medicine on camel back to remote communities in Kenya. Originally published July 18, 2009.

Permanent Error
Photo by Pieter Hugo of Ghana's Agbogbloshie slum.

Do You Copy? The Visuals of Ham Radio
The QSL card offered proof, among ham radio operators, that contact had been made. The design of these cards was not an indication of good or bad, of sophisticated or naïve thinking, but was crafted from what was available at the time. Today, they provide physical evidence of early social networking – still at work.

Spatial Intelligence: New Futures for Architecture
Can buildings makes us happy? On Places, William L. Fox explores this possibility in his review of Spatial Intelligence: New Futures for Architecture, by Leon van Schaik.

Map Kibera
Report on the Map Kibera project to provide navigation and information on Nairobi's massive informal settlement.