But, where are the jobs? How do you identify and market yourself as a “social designer” and identify potential opportunities?

From social innovation and entrepreneurship to in-house and client based service design, a panel of professionals working in the field will identify areas in which they have had success. This event will explore how designers can create opportunities for themselves to expand into this emerging field.

Moderator

Mark Randall
Chair,  Impact! Design for Social Change
Principal, Worldstudio

Four speakers, four main areas

Lara Galinsky - Senior Vice President, Echoing Green
Social entrepreneurship and social enterprise

David Gibson -  Founder, 212 Associates
Civic design

Martin Kace – Founder, Empax
Non-profits and NGOs

Jason Rzepka – VP Public Affairs, MTV
Corporate Social Responsibility

Free to the general public.

Thursday, March 1, 2012
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

School of Visual Arts Amphitheater
209 East 23rd Street
Room 311
New York, NY 10010

Click here to register.

Space is limited so register early!

Presented by Worldstudio’s:
Impact! Design for Social Change
Design Ignites Change

On Thursday, September 22nd, over 1,200 foodies attended the 16th annual Harvest in the Square. Featuring more than 50 restaurants and 40 wineries, Union Square Partnership raised $326,000 to benefit Union Square Park.

This was the second year Worldstudio developed the theme and did the event graphics for Harvest in the Square. The approach for 2011 drew inspiration from vintage fruit crate labels. The illustrator, Jon Lund, was hired to help realize our vision of the park pavillion as an iconic monument with apples representing New York, and the local food and grapes, representing the wine. With these elements in hand we designed everything from lightpole banners, postcards, invitations and email campaigns to promote the event and tshirts, signage in the event tent and actual crate labels for the day of festivities.

We were flattered to receive several beaming emails from our clients after the event, “Thanks for coming up with such a great concept, I wanted to make use of the Pavilion in a meaningful way and your concept was beyond what I had hoped for.” / “I hope your ears were ringing because guests were raving to me about the graphic design work this year.”

It was a great event and we were happy to help make Harvest in the Square such a success for the second year in a row!

Summer in the Square is the Union Square’s nine-week free entertainment program. The series, attended by thousands of families, area employees, shoppers, students and tourists, includes dynamic music and dance performances, exciting children’s programming and outdoor fitness classes.

left: Summer in the Square postcard. right: Event photo by James Worrell.

On Tuesday, September 21st, over 1,200 attendees converged on Union Square Park for the 15th annual Harvest in the Square. This year’s celebration of community and cuisine sold out in advance for the first time in event history! Featuring 60 restaurants, and 24 wineries and breweries, Union Square Partnership raised $290,000 to benefit Union Square Park.

top left: Harvest in the Square postcard. top right: Harvest in the Square credential badges. bottom left: The food and wine tasting fundraiser in Union Square Park. bottom right: Harvest in the Square anniversary logotype. Event photos by Kate Eisemann and James Worrell.

Worldstudio’s Nina Mettler and Andréa Pellegrino, Johnson & Johnson Chief Design Officer Chris Hacker and Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge were on hand to celebrate Ms. Rowley at a luncheon on September 11th at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum.

The stylish Band-Aids can be bought at www.cynthiarowley.com for $10 with a dollar of each sale going to Design Ignites Change.

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.

The winning billboard designs will be unveiled on Spectacolor HD during a launch event at the corner of Broadway and 47th Street on July 6th starting at 10:15 am. The mentors, project coordinators and representatives from Worldstudio and Clear Channel Spectacolor, along with the general public, are invited to celebrate with the students and their families. Additionally, all twenty-two designs will be displayed in an exhibition at the AIGA National Design Center Gallery (164 Fifth Avenue, between 21st and 22nd Streets) through July 22nd.

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).

Sidewalk Catwalk includes an educational component featuring mannequins dressed by fashion design students from FIT and Parsons. And, to support the next generation of artists and designers, the mannequins will be auctioned to raise money for Materials for the Arts, the largest supplier of free arts materials to New York City public schools.

Sidewalk Catwalk has already garnered media attention from The New York Times, New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, NBC, ABC, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Crain’s New York Business, Huffington Post, NY Daily News, AM New York and Women’s Wear Daily.

Sidewalk Catwalk brochure cover & t-shirt

During the opening event in Herald Square, Kenneth Cole is seen amidst the media frenzy and Tommy Hifliger's dramatic mannequin is unveiled to the public

Sidewalk Catwalk banner & plaque

from left to right Jerry Scupp and Barbara Randall from the Fashion Center BID pose with Norma Kamali's mannequin and Fern Mallis, who chaired Sidewalk Catwalk / Nanette Lepore's mannequin wears flowers that glow in the dark / The mannequins are popular with tourists as well as fashionistas

With the first in a series of planned executions of The Urban Forest Project recently launching in Albuquerque, Fast Company explores the history, genesis and future of the initiative. Focusing on Worldstudio’s expertise in creating and implementing socially-responsible projects and programs for corporations and non-profits, the article uses The Urban Forest Project as a case study to follow Worldstudio’s process in helping their clients connect to key constituencies in lasting and meaningful ways. The article, written by Alissa Walker, was published as part of The Designers Accord case study series.

To learn more about how Worldstudio can engage with your organization to concept and execute grassroots programs unique to your CSR platform, and/or upcoming opportunities to sponsor The Urban Forest Project in Toledo, OH, San Francisco, CA and Washington, DC, contact Andréa Pellegrino or Mark Randall.

Mark Randall and Andréa Pellegrino were two of the eleven speakers at this year’s Y Conference produced by AIGA San Diego. Mark and Andréa presented their partnering strategies and recent collaborations on the Urban Forest Project and Design Ignites Change.

Mark and Andréa were also interviewed by Debbie Millman for her weekly live broadcast of the online radio show Design Matters on Voice America Business. Listen to the archived show with Shel Perkins, Liz Danzico and Lorraine Wilde here. Mark and Andréa’s segment begins at the 30 minute mark.