Mark Randall has joined the advisory board of desigNYC, whose mission is to improve the lives of New Yorkers by connecting nonprofits and civic groups serving the public good with passionate, professional pro bono design services.

desigNYC projects focus on a range of social and environmental issues impacting the city, including: affordable housing, sustainable development, social justice, human health, green space, urban farming, local food systems, youth leadership and more. desigNYC is currently holding it’s second call for project ideas from non-profits, along with a request for designers interested in volunteering their services. The deadline for entry is November 5th, 2010. Those interested can visit the website to learn more: www.designyc.org

Andréa was eager to work with Akin Afolayan, Executive Director of Hope Floats, after he participated in a recent Worldstudio Funding Social Change Workshop. The workshop also brought together a team of communication designers, led by Frank Rauss and Jenn Graham, who are now working with Hope Floats to execute a brand strategy. To learn more, visit the HFI interim site: www.hopefloatsinitiative.org

Jason McDaniel is used to printing killer letterpress invitations and cards. And it’s not that he doesn’t love his work at Dallas’ trendy Miss Q Press, but when McDaniel was invited to participate in The Feedback Loop project, he thought it would be fun to challenge himself to do something outside of his normal routine.

So he letterpress-printed a journal, something he’d never before tried, the sales of which will benefit kids all over the country.

Mohawk Fine Papers and Design Ignites Change teamed up recently to create The Feedback Loop, a project using the new Mohawk Loop grade as a catalyst for change. In exchange for free Loop paper from Mohawk, twenty-five leading letterpress printers, including Missing Q, were asked to create fifty unique notebooks. These limited editions books are now being sold in a special storefront on the Felt & Wire Shop. 100% of the proceeds will go to Design Ignites Change to support the youth mentorship program School: By Design.

McDaniel says the printing part of the project was easy (he printed the covers by hand on his Vandercook #4). It was the bindery that was new for him. His journal was inspired by a vintage french botanical fieldbook he stumbled upon at an antique shop this summer. “I was really inspired by the fact that someone carried this little journal around studying plants, and so the fieldbook became the inspiration for my notebooks.” Plus, the word “letterpress” looks really awesome in French (Impression Typographique!).  ”I have never done any bookbinding professionally, so I wasn’t sure how to go about this in terms of a finished notebook,” he says. But you’d never know it from the finished result.

Project leader Laura Shore is impressed by the work of all of the participants, now on sale at Felt & Wire Shop. “Some of the best letterpress printers in the country are involved in the project, so I knew they’d be good. But I didn’t know they’d be this good. It all started with the simple idea that Mohawk wanted to be a positive catalyst for social change, and, we wanted to get printers to try our new paper, Loop.”

She says she thinks they’ll sell out quickly. “We set a low fixed price on all the notebooks: $15.00, which includes shipping and handling. Our goal was to raise money quickly and test this as a model for future social ventures.”

That would make Design Ignites Change founders and Worldstudio partners, Mark Randall and Andréa Pellegrino, happy. All proceeds for The Feedback Loop go directly to School: by Design – a Design Ignites Change and Designers Accord youth mentoring initiative.  ”We’re challenging high school students – in collaboration with their college or professional design mentors – to ‘redesign their school.’ A $10,000 award will be granted to the high school with the most innovative project to implement their idea,” says Pellegrino.

McDaniel adds, “I hope every single notebook sells so there is a generous donation made.”

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.

The program was co-founded by Steven Heller, design historian, author and critic and Mark Randall, Principal of Worldstudio. Randall serves as the program chair, noted faculty includes: Chad Boettcher, Weber Shandwick Worldwide, Martin Kace, Empax; Bob McKinnon, YellowBrickRoad; Michelle Mullineaux, ESI Design; and Andréa Pellegrino, Worldstudio.

Over the course of the six weeks students will participate in a series of lectures and field trips with eighteen leaders in the areas of design and social change.

Through a partnership with desigNYC the participants will be collaborating with a variety of New York City non-profit organizations: Healthy Bodegas, IOBY, Democracy Now!, The Blk Projek and Enterprise.

To learn more about Impact! visit: www.sva.edu/impact

The Impact! students begin their first day at SVA

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.

To remain competitive, corporations are looking for innovation and impact in the area of social change as it relates to their business. The non-profit world is seeking new ways to support their constituencies through design strategy. This six-week summer intensive will introduce participants to the growing field of design for social advocacy.

The program – co-founded by Steven Heller, Co-chair, SVA MFA Design and Mark Randall, Worldstudio – 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. For the second track students will participate in the development and full execution of a team project that addresses a pressing need within a predetermined community. The team projects for the program are being selected in partnership with desigNYC – a group of leading designers and design advocates with a mission of improving life in New York City by helping connect the nonprofit and professional design communities.

The faculty – in formation – is composed of leaders in the area of design for social change:
Chad Boettcher, Senior Vice President, Social Innovation, Weber Shandwick
Martin Kace, founder, Empax
Bob McKinnon founder, Yellow Brick Road
Mark Randall and Andréa Pellegrino, partners, Worldstudio

A series of ten lectures featuring leaders in the areas of design and social change will be presented. The speaker list to date includes:
Scott Harrison, founder, charity: water
David Gibson, partner, Two Twelve Associates
Milton Glaser, principal, Milton Glaser, Inc.
Jason Rzepka, Vice President, Public Affairs, MTV
Edwin Schlossberg, founder, ESI Design

To learn more about this program visit:  http://www.sva.edu/impact

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.

Worldstudio is delighted to announce that the 2010 Design Ignites Change mentoring initiative will be developed and implemented in partnership with The Designers Accord, a global coalition of designers, educators and business leaders working together to create positive environmental and social impact.

The brief or challenge will be created to address the project theme of sustainability and be multidisciplinary and multicultural, engaging a wide variety of design disciplines from around the world. This initiative is the first of its kind, unique in scope and scale around the issue of sustainability.

The project will tap into an army of creatives ready to actively focus on the complex environmental and social issues facing our world today while mentoring undeserved high school students through the design process.

To learn more about involving your school or students in Design Ignites Change, contact Mark Randall. For more information on program sponsorship, contact Andréa Pellegrino.

The article presents several case studies of projects implemented by designers that set precedent for creating a sustainable market for socially responsible design including John Bielenberg’s Project M, INDEX and AIGA’s Designing Water’s Future and Worldstudio’s Design Ignites Change and Create! Don’t Hate.

The article also gives tips on what you can do right now. Here is a summary of Mark’s steps to launching your own project to ignite change:

1. Find your passion

2. Start local

3. Go beyond the obvious

4. Find partners, build a coalition

5. Be realistic

6. Raise some cash

7. Execute

8. Measure success

9. Spread the word

Reprinted with permission by Communication Arts, ©2009 Coyne & Blanchard, Inc. All rights reserved. www.commarts.com

Current pride flag and new flag designs by Nina Mettler (middle) and Tom Koken (right).

The rainbow flag was designed in 1978 for a gay parade in San Francisco and over the last 30 years it has become the global symbol for gay pride. If the flag were designed in 2009, how would it look? Kurt Andersen of Studio 360 invited Worldstudio (as well as listeners) to come up with a 21st-century pride flag.

Studio 360 recorded the entire design process from a brainstorming session to interviewing people on the street to the final design presentation for their weekly radio show. Click below to listen to Kurt Andersen interview Mark Randall as they discuss the project and new flag designs, from modifications on the existing rainbow to DIY concepts.

See a slideshow of Worldstudio’s flag concepts or download the full PDF presentation. Over 3,000 people voted online for their favorite new pride flag design. The white flag with gradient rainbow ring was the clear winner. Isaac Mizrahi chose the winning listener submission, an American flag with only six stars representing the states that currently allow gay marriage.

The flag redesign project was written about on The Daily Heller, Core77 and in Design Week magazine. While there has been some criticism about trying to replace a historic symbol of the gay community, almost all recognize the exercise as valuable and relevant to reflect on culture and the progress of the gay movement.

For more information on this project and Worldstudio, contact Andréa Pellegrino.