Worldstudio is an innovative marketing and design firm that believes corporations hold the power to make lasting social and environmental change.
Our unique area of expertise is in creating and implementing grassroots programs that allow our clients to engage with their key constituencies in lasting and meaningful ways.
In addition to working on socially minded projects, Worldstudio executes traditional design work such as this whimsical identity for a new chain of Mexican restaurants opening in Munich, Germany in the fall of 2010. The Milagros brand captures the spirit of fresh and authentic Mexican cuisine. Worldstudio consulted on all aspects of the restaurant; from naming, logo development, business cards and packaging to concepts for the interior and furnishings. Read the rest of this entry »
Sixteen students from around the world are converging on New York City to explore how to apply design thinking – the combination of unleashed creativity and executable actions – to pressing social problems. The participants, from as far away as Brazil, Australia and Portugal represent a variety of disciplines and range in experience from graduate level students to seasoned professionals.
The sold out, six week program at the School of Visual Arts will run on two parallel tracks: the first will educate students on how to conceive and execute their own projects for social change with a focus on funding projects that are not client-based. Along with a personal project, students will participate in the development of a team project that addresses a pressing need for a local non-profit organization. On this track, participants will roll up their sleeves to take the program out of the realm of theoretical thinking and extend it into the real world.
Six students from New York City’s High School of Art and Design are being given an opportunity that many designers only dream of – their designs will be featured on Clear Channel’s “Spectacolor HD” digital billboard in Times Square. The billboards were created as part of Create! Don’t Hate., a Design Ignites Change mentoring initiative. Professional designers from the mentoring program of the New York chapter of AIGA worked with students from the High School of Art and Design to create billboard designs addressing the theme of tolerance.
The final student designs address a wide variety of issues such as gay rights, racism and body image. Over the course of two months, the mentors led students through the design process – from brainstorming and sketching to producing the final designs on the computer. Twenty-two students participated, with six of the designs ultimately chosen for display in Times Square on prime advertising space made available through a partnership with Clear Channel Spectacolor.
Worldstudio’s multifaceted capabilities are on display in a project with our longstanding client, the Fashion Center Business Improvement District. In addition to branding, collateral and environmental graphics, Worldstudio was instrumental in soliciting sponsors and funding for the Fashion Center’s new public art initiative, Sidewalk Catwalk.
This outdoor exhibition features over thirty mannequins creatively “dressed” by some of New York City’s top fashion designers, such as, Tommy Hilfiger, Betsey Johnson, Donna Karan, Isabel Toledo and Diane von Furstenberg. The mannequins are currently on display up and down Broadway from Times Square to Herald Square (through September 3, 2010).
Made possible through the Design Ignites ChangeImplementation Award, the first delicious products from PieLab’s Pecans! business are now for sale online. The goal of Pecans! is to teach local youth in rural Greensboro, Alabama to create a profitable business using a plentiful local resource. Read the rest of this entry »
Worldstudio recently rolled out the first in a series of workshops for creative professionals that teach funding strategies for socially responsible projects. The initial beginner’s level workshop – which has now taken place in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco – provides an overview of various funding models and addresses how to include corporate sponsorship in social change initiatives. By creating a project budget and marketing plan, attendees get the opportunity to apply new skills to an actual project during the one-day workshop.
BAND-AID® Brand, Clear Channel Outdoor and Sappi Fine Paper North America recently joined forces with Worldstudio and Adobe Youth Voices to support Design Ignites Change in a common and collaborative mission to engage high school and college students in creating solutions to pressing social issues in their own communities.
Design Ignites Change, a collaboration between Adobe Youth Voices and Worldstudio, is excited to announce the inaugural 2009 Implementation Award winners: PieLab’s Pecans! and Kansas City Art Institute’s A Book by its Cover: Reading Stereotypes and Freewall: Making Space for Diversity. The biannual award program recognizes exceptional proposals for design intended to make the world a better place, and grants their creators the financial support to realize those visions.
Banner designs left to right by Haik Avanian, Garret Bodette, Hart Associates, Matt Rowland, Josh Slatinsky and Kara Smarsh
In mid-April, The Urban Forest Project Toledo, a collaboration between AIGA Toledo (the Toledo chapter of AIGA, the professional association of design), SWEAT and the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo, will plant 50 street banners by artists and designers in downtown Toledo. Each banner will use the form of or metaphor for the tree to make a powerful visual statement about the environment. The banners will launch in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day.
Worldstudio and the School of Visual Arts in New York City are launching an exciting six week summer intensive called Impact! Design for Social Change.
