Millionaire Squatters

For much of the 90's I was an active member of an amazing squatted art/music/activist space in New York City's Lower East Side called ABC NO RIO (I even designed the logo that's still in use!). During the time I was there, the building (which has been in continuous use since 1980) was threatened with closure, but thanks to the efforts of dedicated volunteers the building was officially given to the collective that ran it and the process was started to raise the funds to rehabilitate the dilapidated structure. Money trickled in over the years, but it was never enough for the growing costs (phase one is now budgeted at 2.4 Million) and it seemed like a full rehabilitation would only happen in the distant future. Fast forward to earlier this year when ABC was awarded 1.6 Million in city funding, leaving a much more manageable budget gap to be filled. Not bad, but then this past November Steven Englander, the space's executive director,  received an anonymous donation of an additional 1 Million dollars! Needless to say phase one plans are now full steam ahead and the space will live on for generations to come.

Thanks to The Groundswell Blog for sharing this news!

Designer Tip: Work For Food

Yesterday I wrote about asking nonprofits to pay something rather than nothing when it comes to design work. However there are times when folks are truly unable to offer a cent, but that doesn't mean they can't pay you.

The age old practice of bartering is still a viable way of doing business (and not just for the folks at Burning Man). Often a company has just never thought of this as an option and if they have an obvious product or service you can use why not trade for the real (not discounted) value of your services.

I've bartered design for advertising, karate classes, massage therapy, and even produce from local farmers. Of course not every business will have something that is so obvious to offer you, however some creative thinking may find a way to put unconventional things to good use. The key is putting the suggestion on the table. You may be surprised by what people offer you.

If you do barter for design work, share your story with me, I'm interested to know how you make it work.

P.S. And even when you are working for cheap or bartering always use a contract.

Micro-Grants for Artists

The newly launched Society6 project is designed to help artists finance work through "micro-patronage" via the site:

Society6 makes the grant-making process easy and accessible to all individuals, non-profit organizations and corporations who want to support the future of the arts. ’ÄúWhen we started to look at the existing support infrastructure for artists and other creative people, we realized that it was particularly bureaucratic, exclusive and wasn’Äôt designed for scale. We’Äôve re-imagined the entire process in the form of a meritocracy, where a greater number of artists can receive unrestricted grant assistance based solely on the merit of their work as determined by their peers’Äù, said co-founder, Lucas Tirigall-Caste.

Society6 micro-grants are currently available in two forms, money or opportunities. Opportunity grants provide a nice recession-friendly alternative for cash-constrained supporters to offer assistance through free products (e.g. supplies), free services (e.g. studio time) and other distinctive opportunities that money just can’Äôt buy (e.g. feature in a magazine) .

Society6 inverts traditional art curating methods by allowing the community to promote the most provocative work as visualized on the 'The Charts'. Rooted in collaboration, its 'Studios' are the core of Society6. Individuals (e.g. artists or curators) and groups (e.g. design collectives or bands) can have one or many Studios. Studios let artists showcase their original work, or broaden their creative discipline by finding someone from across the globe to collaborate with. Society6 pushes the physical limitations of creativity inviting everyone who is inspired by the artistic process, as much as the end-result, to contribute to the cultural commentary. ’ÄúWe thought we’Äôd enable the narrative behind the work, so that the otherwise passive relationship between the artist and supporter is participatory and active. We wanted people to feel like they were sitting in the studio next to their favorite artist’Äù, said Wills.

The first $100 grant is already up for grabs. Find out more HERE.

Has it come to this? Make your own money...

The always entertaining Atypyk has a new product appropriate for the current economy: Color-It-Yourself Money. Hopefully there are some people left who can actually afford to buy these.

Socially Responsible Credit Cards?

Say what you want about the evils of credit cards, many people can't avoid them. So if you can't afford to live without them why not do some good (or at least less bad) when you "charge it"? Co-op America's Real Money article "Responsible Credit Cards" lists the banks to avoid getting credit cards from for a variety of environmental/social reasons as well as cards from groups that are trying to do some good with the fees they collect.

Get the details HERE.

News Roundup

Some more recent articles worth reading in the Christian Science Monitor:

New Alternative Fuel: Chocolate!

Is Bioplastic a Viable Alternative to "Paper or Plastic"?

Person-To-Person Lending: Internet Based Microloans Helping Internationally.

How Much Advertisers Pay For Your Attention

Good Magazine has put together this nice little video showing the actual costs of some of the myriad ads you can encounter in NYC everyday. Of course their own magazine is filled with ads, so perhaps this isn't meant to be a critique after all...




Thanks Mica! Via 5min

Pennies and Dimes

This is a video I created for the band Gaskets for their recently released Loose Change album/DVD, it's created entirely with public domain footage from the Prelinger Archive. and made under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. Here's Teddy Blanks, one half of the duo, with the story behind the song/video:

’ÄúPennies and Dimes’Äù is a song that was written when I was close to graduating college and entering what people call the ’Äòreal world’Äô. It deals with my own anxieties about the prospect of making a living as well as some of the frustrations I had with corporate consumer culture, informed by many of the ideas discussed in the ’ÄúDesign Rebels’Äù class I took with Noah. It seemed fitting that Noah direct the video. He expertly cut together a hilarious selection of economic cartoons and food packaging assembly-line footage into an ironically optimistic visual accompaniment to an overtly cynical song.

Socially Conscious Design Grants

Sappi is once again accepting applications for its Ideas That Matter program.
Winning designers get a piece of a million dollars to create social/environmental related projects (the only catch is that you can't use the money to pay yourself). Entry deadline is May 21st. More information and applications can be found here.