ALR on Tour: Gel 2010 - Generating Creative Energy

I'm excited to announce that I will be once again be participating in the Gel Conference in NYC on April 29 & 30. This year I will be leading a Day 1 workshop called "Generating Creative Energy". Participants will meet at the Etsy headquarters and will take part in a hands-on exercise to experience the benefits I found in creating yearlong daily art project Skull-A-Day. For more information and to sign-up for the nearly sold-out conference go HERE.

And if you haven't seen it, here's my talk from the 2009 Gel Conference...


Noah Scalin at Gel 2009 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

Greening Your Nonprofit's IT - Virtual Conference

On February 10th I'll be speaking as part of the panel on Sustainable Design & Printing that's included in the online conference "Greening Your Nonprofit's IT ’Äì How to Save Environment and Money. presented by NTEN & the Green IT Consortium. Here's the full schedule:

Keynote Address (10:00 am Pacific / 1:00 pm Eastern) 
Joseph Khunaysir, Founder, CIO & CTO of Jolera Inc., will talk about how non-profit organizations are going green and the role that IT plays in that transition to sustainable operations.  Joseph authored a chapter on Green IT in the recently-released book, Nonprofit Guide to Going Green.

Breakout Track I (11:10 am Pacific / 2:10 pm Eastern)

Introduction to Green IT: What is it, what your organization needs to know
Presented by: Hank Dearden, Virsant

Creating a Green IT Strategy: What is the right strategy for your organization, how to start, what to plan for
Presented by: Jennifer Woofter, Strategic Sustainability Consulting and Jim Lynch, TechSoup

Overview of Green IT Software and Hardware: Types of software and hardware you’Äôll want to know about to green your IT
Presented by: Anna Jaeger, TechSoup 

Breakout Track II (12:20 pm Pacific / 3:30 pm Eastern)

Virtualization: What is it, what it can do for your organization, green benefits
Presented by: Peter Campbell, Earth Justice and Matt Eshleman, CITI DC

Case Studies: How Non-Profits and Foundations are Greening Their IT
Presented by: Michael Sola, National Wildlife Federation and Bill Schaefer, Care2.com

Sustainable Design & Printing: What is sustainable design, what you should know about printing
Presented by: Noah Scalin, Another Limited Rebellion, Amy Hartzler, Free Range Studios and Dave Michaels, Ecoprint

For more information and to sign-up go HERE. If you select 'GreenIT' in the "How did you hear?" field after registering you'll receive the member rate of $60!

ALR in Austin

Just a reminder that I will be speaking at this year's How Design Conference in Austin, Texas. The event runs June 24-27 and features over 60 sessions on everything from improving software skills to finding creative inspiration. Tickets are still available for the entire conference, though you can also pay for just individual days and/or sessions.

My session is called "Making A Living As A Socially Conscious Designer" and is on Thursday the 25th at 2pm. Hope to see you there!

Get more info on the conference HERE.

Gel Conference 2009 Recap

I had a terrific time speaking about my Skull-A-Day project at this year's Gel Conference in NYC. The best part of the event for me was getting to hear all of the other fantastic speakers and also meeting the attendees between sessions. Here are some highlights from the speaker's talks:

Scott Heiferman creator of MeetUp.com (which he described as a community organizing tool) talked about the future shifting from D.I.Y (Do It Yourself) to D.I.O. (Do It Ourselves). He said we need to turn more to each other and "make the hand that feeds us"!

Joan Sullivan, principal/founder of Bronx Academy of Letters, brought two of her students who were able to escape from their difficult lives in the South Bronx and get into good college thanks to her school.

Artist Zina Saunders said that metaphorical potholes in your road were a good thing since they forced you to take detours and give you a new perspective. I was particularly enamoured with her Overlooked New York portrait project.

Fred Kent, founder of Project for Public Spaces talked about the need for "authentic destinations" and creating community based on a "placemaking approach" rather than a top down design approach. Having public seating is often the key!

Graham Hill, founder of TreeHugger, showed a picture of a giant tomato with green lightning on it crushing an airplane as a mnemonic for his talk about reducing carbon footprints by tons (rather than pounds). The key: eat less meat, fly more efficiently, use green power.

Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics, spoke just before me, so I don't have notes on her talk, but I do remember it being very informative and interesting!

Magician Jamy Ian Swiss talked about the importance of empathy in magic, explaining that it's actually the key to connecting with an audience, regardless of your profession.

Robin Nagle, the anthropologist-in-residence for the New York City sanitation department, gave an eye-opning talk about waste (NYC is always only 3 days away from a serious trash breakdown) and left us with the admonishon to say "thank you" the next time we see a sanitation person.

Filmmaker Risa Morimoto, shared a snippet of her incredible documentary Wings of Defeat, telling the true story of the WWII Kamikaze pilots (who were not actually volunteers as most people assume).

Design Author Steven Heller said, "Adolf Hitler was a logo" as part of his talk about fascist branding.

Musician Bruce Molsky, played several lovely & catchy folk tunes on his fiddles.

Author Bill Gurstelle talked about the importance of the "art of living dangerously." He said, "the only way to get better at risk-taking is to take risks" and left us with an image of a sea creature that lacking danger ends up eating its own brain as it grows up!

Barry Scheck, co-founder of The Innocence Project, said that eyewitness misidentification was the greatest cause of wrongful convictions. His organization helped exonerate Jerry Miller, who also spoke, after he spent 24 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.

And professor Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, talked about the need for "virtue" in business. He defined this "practical wisdom" as "moral will" combined with "practical skill". And he decried rules, saying that we won't become skilled by following them. He also said there shoud be no more courses on ethics, that the only way to learn them was by living them.

I'll post a video of my own talk as soon as it's available.

How Conference: Extended Early Bird Deadline!

Hey folks, just another reminder that I will be speaking about making a living as a socially conscious designer at this year's How Design Conference in Austin, Texas. They've kindly extended the Early Bird application deadline to May 1st, so you can still get $100 off your entry fees if you register before then. Details are HERE (and don't forget to mention me on the form if you do sign-up!)

Designs on Democracy

Members of Tumis Design and Design Action Collective will be holding a workshop on socially conscious design at the U.S. Social Forum on June 30th in Atlanta Georgia:

What is the history of graphic communication in the social justice movement? What is our role now?

How can we effectively use graphic communication to get our messages out in a way that reaches the hearts and minds of our communities and society at large?

What choices do we make in representation in our designs? What images and language do we use? How do we help in creating a message of diversity and positivity?


Join Favianna Rodriguez of Tumis Design, and Nadia Khastagir and Sabiha Basrai of Design Action Collective in a colorful presentation and discussion of the pressing topics facing progressive visual communicators.

This workshop is for emerging and experienced graphic designers, communications specialists, students and artists who work with social justice organizing efforts.

The U.S. Social Forum, a conference for social justice activists, runs June 27th through July 1st. For more info go HERE.