The Power of Theater

Epic Theatre Ensemble, one of my clients, created this moving video to talk about their recent productions & honors and shows how theater can be a powerful tool for changing lives...

ALR on Tour: Skulls at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

I was recently asked to present a talk and workshop as part of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts' annual Teen Symposium. The program features several guest artists who present to 100+ students and art teachers from across Virginia. I talked about my Skull-A-Day project and then led the participants in a mini-project in which they picked an image and then made as many versions of it they could in a short period of time using a variety of materials. The results were really terrific, especially when people realized they could move beyond fixed, traditional forms. More images can be seen on my Flickr stream HERE.

Design Rebels: Project Winterfood

Project Winterfood, the final project of my Design Rebels students this year, had a hugely successful opening event this past Wednesday night. Despite the miserably rainy weather scores of people came out to learn more about local food, sample delicious items from local businesses, enjoy live music, and buy art to support two area non-profit organizations. The art has now traveled over to Gallery 5 for an extended exhibition through the end of December. If you're in the area I hope you'll stop by and check it out.

The exhibition focused on three foods that are available in Virginia in the winter: apples, spinach, and sweet potatoes...

Free brochures with recipes and details on the benefits of eating local...

Fee apples and information on local food options...

Dozens of works on display from students area artists...

Event partners talk with visitors about various local food options, including farmers' markets and CSAs...

A map of the region highlighted local grocery stores, restaurants, CSAs, and farmers' markets...

Free food samples dished out by two of the Design Rebels...

Work by 3-5 year olds inspired by the project!...

The Farm To Family Bus parked outside...

Live music keeping the mood festive...


Kids especially enjoyed the free apples...


Apple Cardigan by Design Rebel Kira Lantz...

Spotted in Boston: Bigfoot Research Institute

In my ongoing quest to visit all of the 826 Stores I managed to stop by the Greater Boston Research Institute on the one day I had to explore Boston on a recent trip up there. Sadly it was a Sunday and the Institute was closed, but even from the outside it was very entertaining. For those of you that aren't familiar with the 826 project it was created, in part by author Dave Eggars, to facilitate creative writing programs for kids. The first location was 826Valencia and its adjoining Pirate Store in San Francisco.
Like the other stores the space is not in the center of town and none of my friends in the area had even heard of it! Needless to say my friends that brought me there, plan to go back when it's open to get some official GBRI tin cups and specimen jars!

Seriously, if anyone wants to start an 826 program in Richmond, VA or nearby I'm officially volunteering to do the design work!

Project Winterfood - December 2 - Richmond, VA

Just a reminder that my Design Rebels students are presenting Project Winterfood, an event promoting local in-season food in Richmond, Virginia. The initial event on December 2nd will feature art, free food samples, live music, a raffle, and more to educate about and promote local, in-season food. The art will continue to be on display from December 4-31st and all profits from the sales will go to support the Central Virginia Foodbank as well as the community space Gallery 5. If you're in the area please come out and show your support...

Project Winterfood is a local food event and art exhibition organized by a group of VCU Graphic Design students. The theme of the event is spinach, apples, and sweet potatoes: all seasonal foods available in Virginia during the Winter.

Event + Art Exhibition
December 2nd, 2009
7-10 PM
1509 West Main Street

Continued Art Exhibition
December 4-31st, 2009
Gallery 5, 200 W. Marshall St.

What is it?
Project Winterfood is a local food resource, art exhibition, and benefit event. Project Winterfood was created by a group of VCU Graphic Design students to help share and preserve the culture of food in our Richmond community. The students who organized the event know how easy, practical, and beneficial it is to utilize local food options. With the help of some community partners, we are excited to share this knowledge with the public.

Project Winterfood will house an art exhibition made up of work that celebrates three winter foods: apples, spinach and sweet potatoes. The artwork has been donated by local artists and will be on sale during the exhibition. All proceeds from the artwork will go to benefit The Central Virginia Food Bank and Gallery 5, a non-profit gallery that supports using the arts to promote positive social action.

At the event, there will be a gathering of partners involved in the Richmond area food community to answer questions and share information about local food options, resources, and benefits. Visitors will be able learn more about how they can easily enjoy food from local farms as well as restaurants that use locally sourced ingredients. The community partners include such local businesses as the Farm to Family Veggie Bus, Dominion Harvest, Savor Cafe, Ipanema Cafe, Rostov’Äôs Coffee & Tea, Ukrop’Äôs, The Byrd House Market, and more to come which will be listed on the website as the project continues.

During the event there will be live fiddle music, sample & tasting booths, and delicious coffee provided by Rostov’Äôs Coffee & Tea. Each visitor will leave with a complimentary take-home brochure designed by Project Winterfood. The brochure will contain information & resources as well as recipes that include the three featured winter foods.

After the event, the artwork will be on display in Gallery 5 throughout the month of December. It can be purchased during that time as well.

Why is it important?
The team at Project Winterfood is passionate about sharing and preserving food culture. It is our mission to share with others in the community how easy, accessible, practical, beneficial, inexpensive, and fun it is to utilize local food options. Project Winterfood is reaching out to everyone’Äî those who already enjoy farm fresh foods and those who have heard the phrase ’Äúeating locally’Äù without getting a chance to learn what it’Äôs really all about.

The Project Winterfood event will present seasonal winter produce in a unique way that creates a memorable, informative, and fun experience.

Who are we?
Project Winterfood is combined of a group of VCU Graphic Design students who are interested in promoting positive change through community service learning. They are part of Noah Scalin’Äôs Design Rebels course striving to make a positive difference as Graphic Designers in the Richmond Community.

For more info visit: ProjectWinterfood.org

Autonomous Public Art Workshop

Once again the work of the Autonomous Public Art Workshop makes me wish I could find a way to spend some time in Madrid, Spain with Javier Abarca, who teaches the course at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Ces Felipe II. Shown are images from the projects "Little pieces of paper in walls", "District 85", and "Garbage".

Linkage: From Green Guitars to Green Weddings

Students help Break The Jam and encourage people to Give Way in DC. (images shown)

Jobs for Change wants to help you work for nonprofits.

Patching cracks with Legos. (image shown) via

The greening of guitars.

The greening of weddings.

Free books for London commuters.

Mapping the NYC advertising takeover. via

Starbucks Twitter campaign hijacked by documentary of their anti-union practices. via

Project M now accepting applications

The Project M summer 2009 program is now accepting applications. Since 2003 the Project has taken design students on a month long journey to discover ways to use their skills for social good. In 2007 they produced the project Buy-A-Meter project to help area residents buy electric meters. This year the project, which only accepts 8 students, will be in Greensboro, Alabama. For more details download the application PDF HERE.

Tales of a 4th Grade Something...

There are teachers that you never forget, teachers that change your life for the better and make the world a better place one student at a time. For people going to public school in Richmond, Virginia in the 80's (like my sister and myself) John Hunter was one of those teachers. So it isn't surprising (but completely delightful) to discover that he's still at it all these years later in Charlottesville, Virginia. He and a cooperative game he developed are now the subject of a new documentary by Rosalia Films called "World Peace: and other 4th-grade achievements". World Peace requires young students to grapple and resolve real-world problems in a way that ends not with a bang but with a cheer. The trailer, which is quite moving (though not embeddable), can be seen HERE.

Here John talks briefly about the game:



For more about the game and John read this recent Christian Science Monitor article HERE.

Learning Life Skills from Baseball

My friend Chris Mercer has started the fantastic Life Skills Baseball program for urban kids here in Richmond, Virginia...

Capucine Saves The World

What do you do when your adorable French child becomes an internet video sensation? Use your new found power to help a good cause AND make another cute video!...




Thanks Mica!

Branding for Nonprofits

I just finished reading DK Holland's excellent Branding for Nonprofits. Published in 2006, this slim volume is a must read for any nonprofit interesting in harnessing the power of branding (which should really be all of them) or even just considering working with professional graphic designers for the first time. Indeed, any designer already working with nonprofits might want to consider handing this out to new clients as a means of introduction.
The book, based on articles and lectures DK created for The Foundation Center, is filled with plenty of real world examples and resources and suggests a system of working that is easy to understand and follow. Holland does an excellent job spelling out the role of design and designers, while detailing most of the issues that come up as part of the branding process. While I wish more time was spent explaining why paying for design from folks that focus on nonprofits is better than asking for pro-bono work from large agencies (who make their money pushing cars, cigarettes, acohol, etc.), Ms. Holland does acknowledge that you often do get what you pay for.


Ask for it at your local independent bookstore.

Did you eat your Raisin Brhams today?

Love this commercial parody promoting arts education from Americans for the Arts...



via Osocio

Design Power Defined

Julie Thompson created the Design Power site as part of her graduate thesis project at Ohio University. It gives a working definition of socially responsible design and uses three case studies (including one on ALR!) to discuss the key components of working from an ethical perspective: client choice, environmental practices, and community education. Read her entire report HERE.

Creative for A Cause

Creative for A Cause is an incredible new online resource for socially minded design folks created by Heidi Cies. Made as part of her graduate thesis in advertising/design at Syracuse University, Heidi has put together two dozen detailed case studies of how socially conscious design is being taught in schools across the US. The site also has comprehensive lists of publications, websites, sources of funding, schools, and "role models" all pertaining to working in the fields of marketing, advertising, and design from an ethical stand point. The searchable site is a fantastic work in progress that should prove invaluable to anyone interested in working/teaching differently. Check it out HERE.

Design Rebels 2007: RISE-NOW

Students in my Fall 2007 Design Rebels class on socially conscious design created two terrific community based projects as their final assignments.

The first is RISE-NOW a poster/web campaign to educate on the issues of sexual assault and domestic violence. Read more about it in my article on Osocio HERE.

I'll post about the 2nd project CHOMP, a healthy living program for middle school students, when the finished version is online.

Parsons Opens Socially Conscious Game Lab

Parsons The New School for Design in New York City has just launched a new research lab focused on creating video games centered around educating on social issues. The New School of Design PETlab is a partnership with the non-profit Games for Change. From their press release:

The initiative was made possible by a $450,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, as part of the foundation’Äôs digital media and learning initiative established in 2006 to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.

In its first year, PETLab will work with Microsoft’Äôs Xbox development platform and MTV’Äôs Think.MTV.com youth-focused online activist community on the development of both learning tools and digital games that explore social issues.

Read more in the AP article.

Flying Spaghetti Monster Billboard in Maryland

While I'm generally not a fan of billboards there are a few I admire, including this one on the side of a house in Baltimore, Maryland featuring the infamous response to creationists in Kansas: the Flying Spaghetti Monster! Get the story behind the billboard at the Baltimore Sun.

Thanks Mica!

Service-Learning: Design Rebels

The course I teach on socially conscious design at Virginia Commonwealth University, Design Rebels, is designated as a Service-Learning class, which means the students are required to have a level of direct community engagement as part of their education. Last year the class was featured in a presentation at the annual Service-Learning conference. A short video from that presentation (which includes an interview with me about Design Rebels) can now be seen online HERE.

Read A !#&% Book!

This is the controversial parody PSA rap video "Read A Book" which has been running on BET recently... NOTE: This is really, really not work safe (language-wise).

Stay Free: Baby Vids Make You Dumber

A recent Stay Free article discusses a new study(PDF) that shows that the educational merits of videos like Baby Einstein are dubious at best and possibly bad for mental development at worst. Also interesting is the debate that continues in the comments section between the author and a supporter(representative?) of the chidren's media industry. Read the entire post with comments here.

Urban Art Workshop

The Urban Art Workshop, a 4 month course taught by artist Javier Abarca at the Complutense University of Madrid, gave art students an opportunity to create spontaneous public art. The results (some of which are shown left) are quite lovely. More details and pictures here.

Forget Clown College

With the rise in popularity of the graphic novel and the annual sales quadrupling in the past 6 years, a degree in comics is no joke.

The Center For Cartoon Studies offers a two year intensive program focused entirely on the creation and distribution of illustrated narratives. The roster of faculty and visiting artists and writers is sure to impress any aspiring comic artist. Their mission statement also impressed me with an acknowledgement of their commitment to socially responsible practices:

"CCS, recognizing the central role that socially responsible businesses can play in a community, will initiate and be responsive to innovative ways to improve the local cultural and economic quality of life."

After watching a video clip from a documentary in the works, about the school I was sold on their earnest approach and intent to train students to have their own voice.

"As for CCS students, whose aspirations tend to lean more toward literary comics, they seem pragmatic about their prospects (the day jobs), but also optimistic...'All the editors on the graphic-novel beat, they're aware of the Center for Cartoon Studies and are keeping an eye on it.' " from recent CS Monitor story about the first graduating class at Center for Cartoon Studies, read the rest of the article here.

ALR on tour: Youth Peace Summit, Richmond, VA

One of my former students and I ran a workshop on media awareness this weekend for the Richmond Peace Education Center's annual Youth Peace Summit. We had a terrific group of kids who were not only familiar with what we were talking about (the power of media/corporations to influence their lives and their communities), but eager to work on a project deconstructing magazine ads. Thanks to RPEC for asking us to participate.

ALR on tour: Richmond, VA

OK it's not far from my office to the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University (where I also teach my own Design Rebels class), but it's still an honor to be asked to come speak there periodically about living & working ethically. Thanks to Dr. Mark Wood and his International Social Justice students for having me on the last day of class.

Islamic Superheroes

The 99 is a new comic book which aims to give Islamic children positive cultural role models in the style of American superheroes (even using the talents of former Marvel and DC writers and artists). The 99 was created by Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, whose work as a clinical psychologist has focused on building cross-cultural tolerance and understanding. Find out more about The 99 here.

Abstinence Programs Have Zero Effect

A recent study from the non-partisan Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. concludes that "abstinence only" sex-education classes, which have been a darling of the current administration, have absolutely NO effect on young people. The multi-year study found:

...that youth in the four evaluated programs were no more likely than youth not in the programs to have abstained from sex in the four to six years after they began participating in the study. Youth in both groups who reported having had sex also had similar numbers of sexual partners and had initiated sex at the same average age.

Read more from the report here.

Copyrighted Homework

Virginia students have sued an anti-plagiarism software company for copyright infringement. From a recent Christian Science Monitor article:

The saga began last year when McLean High School in Virginia adopted a widely used antiplagiarism service called Turnitin. Under the system, students electronically submit essays to be stored and compared against millions of others in a massive database. Teachers can see if students are lifting work ’Äì a valuable tool given that research has found that 40 percent of undergraduate students admit to copying and pasting passages from websites.

But the setup rankled some students, who argued they shouldn't have to surrender their personal writing and persuasive essays ’Äì along with their names and e-mail addresses ’Äì to a computer bank in California.

"The suit is not about plagiarism; it's about the school forcing the students to turn their work over to a for-profit company," says Kevin Wade Sr., the father of a plaintiff.

Read the entire story here.

ALR on Tour: NYC

I just returned from a business trip in NYC (thus the lack of posts recently) where I also gave a talk at NYU's Tisch School of The Arts to students [shown left] in the Tech Track program (which was the program I was in, 15 odd years ago!).

Thanks so much to Wendy Luedtke for bringing me in to talk about my company and socially conscious design.