ALR designletter [5.5]
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Welcome to the last 2005 issue of the Designletter.
Thanks so much to the folks that took the time to respond to our brief survey last issue. In case you were wondering, here’s a brief overview of the results:
There was a 17% percent response rate (most of which was from people who had a direct connection to ALR).
An overwhelming majority felt that we get things right (frequency 74%, tone 90%, content 87%, article length 70%) and 89% gave us a 4 or 5 on the overall scale.
Still about 60% of the audience only reads half or less of the total newsletter.
There was one topic that a slight majority would prefer less of: Shopping (38% less, 36% just right)
and one topic that a clear majority would prefer more of: Design (57% more, 40% just right).
84% would like it to continue as e-mail and 73% said they would read an ALR blog as well.
We will be taking these results and your many individual comments into consideration as we begin our plans for the sixth year of the ALR Designletter in 2006. (And for those of you keeping track Macs beat PCs 2 to 1).
As always we welcome your comments, suggestions, criticism and/or praise. Thanks for reading.
Noah Scalin, president
ALR design
socially conscious graphic design
http://www.ALRdesign.com
[01] ALR NEWS
ALR will be one of four design firms featured in “Good Company” an article about designers making a difference, which will be in the January/February 2006 issue of How Magazine (http://www.howdesign.com/)
[02] ACTIVISM
More than 40,000 people are confirmed dead in the recent earthquake in Pakistan, but U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says that a second wave of deaths due to injury and starvation is avoidable if counties pony up what they promised to donate. However, the BBC reports that serious donation atrophy is setting in after the tsunami, Katrina, and Rita. If you haven’t succumbed to disaster fatigue, a good list of organizations who will be working in the region can be found at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/9/141842/345.
[03] WAR + PEACE
Americans in Iraq aren’t just shooting with guns. According to photographer John Movius, troops in Operation Desert Storm weren’t allowed to have cameras on the ground, but many snuck them through anyway. Movius’ site http://www.regardingwar.org/, which documents his photography exhibition Sight Range, gives Desert Storm vets Asher Abrams, Tyrone Steele, Tracie Stevens and William Coker’s widow a corner of the web to share snapshots and experiences from the war and their lives since.
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“We don’t do body counts.” That’s what retired General Tommy Franks told reporters at Bagram Air Base at the tail-end of Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. The people at Iraq Body Count want to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen in Iraq. IBC is counting every credible media report of civilian death in Iraq due to gunfire, hand grenade, bike bomb or whatever else. So, how are we doing as an occupying authority? Find out at http://www.iraqbodycount.net/.
[04] IDEAS + ACTION
Interrupcion, known as Change Direction to its English-speaking friends, is making its ideals a reality. The Argentina and New York-based group runs a site with “tools” and programs that encourage citizen participation. One such project is the Agora program, where Interrupcion goes into schools and after a presentation and some roll playing, leads students in a lengthy discussion of the national budget. The students then have an opportunity to design a communitarian project for their neighborhood. It’s already been successful in Argentina and is being adapted for the U.S. Find out more at http://www.interrupcion.net/.
[05] DESIGN
$20,000. That’s the annual salary difference between the average designer in Seattle and San Francisco towards the bottom of the pay scale. The AIGA|Aquent Survey of Design Salaries is an annual study to get a better feel for current design salaries. Their site lets you calculate standards based on your position, client base and the size of your organization. Are you getting paid a fair wage for your work? http://www.designsalaries.com/.
[06] ACCESIBILITY
Good design conveys information in a memorable way. But sometimes what gives an image its power makes it harder for people with partial sight to read. Lighthouse International, an organization dedicated to helping blind or partially sighted people, has put up a brochure highlighting good design strategies to make your work pleasing to any eye. See for yourself at http://www.lighthouse.org/print_leg.htm.
(thanks to John Emerson for telling us about this)
[07] TECHNOLOGY
FBI. CIA. BIT? The Bureau of Inverse Technology is open for business. BIT specializes in putting old technology to new uses and harvesting information from technology’s failures. Their playful stunts have serious messages. Check out Fade to Black, a project where BIT points special BIT-cameras at the sky and waits to see how long it takes for soot and pollution to darken the lens, or the BIT spy plane, a radio-operated model plane BIT flew over Silicon Valley and took classified aerial photography. For a complete look at BIT products and projects visit http://www.bureauit.org/.
[08] HEALTH + SAFETY
Lead for lunch? It’s nothing you would want to serve your children, but that’s what happens to kids who carry food in soft vinyl lunch boxes. Lining from lunch bags made by Toys “R” Us, DC Comics and Walgreens are all targeted in a lawsuit filed at the end of the summer by The Center for Environmental Health (CEH). Find out how to get your child’s lunch box tested or follow the CEH’s progress at http://www.cehca.org/lunchboxes.htm.
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There is a storm of criticism over the new wall Israel is building in the West Bank, but the organization Health and Wall is concerned about an aspect most people aren’t paying attention to: how it effects public health. For instance delays from waiting at checkpoints make transporting vaccines, which have to stay refrigerated, much more difficult. Health and Wall has even put together a pamphlet illustrated by Israeli and Palestinian artists that’s free to download. See for yourself at http://www.healthandwall.org/.
[09] NEWS
Sometimes good things do come from globalization. Watching America is a web site that translates foreign news coverage of the U.S to English. Usually it’s analysis of U.S. foreign policy, but often the stories offer insight into American domestic affairs as well. Reading what is common knowledge about international behavior through the eyes of other nations’ journalists (a Mexican paper rolling its eyes about France’s image-conscious posturing in the Middle East, or Dutch analysis of the political message to the U.S. behind the most recent Nobel Peace Prize) is as informative as the stories themselves. Add it to your morning routine at http://www.watchingamerica.com/.
And if you need to see it in person, front pages from 48 countries around the world (as well as across the US) are available to read and download each day at http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/
[10] FOOD
Spending a little extra on local produce makes a big impact. Five times bigger, according to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA). MOFGA conducted a study that showed that a one-percent increase in spending on local food from the general population creates a five-percent profit increase for those farmers. MOFGA encourages you to take the $10 a week challenge (http://www.foodroutes.org/buy-local-challenge.jsp) and spend ten of the dollars you’ll spend on food anyways and try to put it towards local produce each week. Learn more about this and other food related projects at http://www.foodroutes.org/
[11] MEDIA
Charles Eames said “design is a plan for action.” James Victore says “design is a big fucking club with spikes in it,” so when he’s angry about something, he doesn’t mess around. Frustrated by the sugar-coated discussion of the 500th Anniversary of Columbus “discovering” America, Victore designed posters drawing attention to the small-pox infected blankets the settlers gave the Indians to kill them off. You can learn even more about Victore’s attitudes on racism, design and his work habits in this video interview from the folks at Hillman Curtis: http://www.hillmancurtis.com/hc_web/film_video/source/james.php.
(thanks to Marius Valdes for passing this along)
[12] PUBLICATIONS
Wal-Mart and Starbucks and Kraft, oh my! CONSUME®EVOLUTION is not the first publication to take aim at these corporations, but it does so with a fresh approach. It mixes cool design with smart writing to illuminate new parts of the argument about conscientious consumption, plus the magazine is free to read in Flash or download as a PDF. Check it out at http://www.twoseventy.net/pubs.html.
[13] LEXICON
reshelf-v. - The act of moving a book from one section of the bookstore to another to create a provocative message by juxtaposing the book’s content with its new category. Moving, for example, George Orwell’s 1984 from fiction to politics would be an act of reshelving. A reshelved book is best when accompanied by a small explanatory bookmark downloadable at http://www.avantgame.blogspot.com/2005/08/ministry-of-reshelving.html, a blog run by Jane McGonigal a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley and head of The Ministry of Reshelving.
[14] NOSH
The cunning linguist is at it again: Noam Chomsky has a blog. He’s not a terribly regular poster, but his fiery analysis on Israel, India and everything in between hasn’t cooled one bit. Check out the man himself at http://blog.zmag.org/ttt/
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The ALR Designletter is a semi-regular update on the activities at Another Limited Rebellion design, the world of socially conscious design, and beyond. You are on this list because you have worked with, contacted, or have a personal connection to ALR design. The names on this mailing list will never be sold or given away. If you no longer wish to be on this list, just respond with "REMOVE" in the subject section and there will be no hard feelings. Back issues can be found on our web site in the ISSUES section.
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