Welcome!

Welcome to the official blog for RISD's advanced studio, Design for Social Entrepreneurship, Fall 2008. This course aims to cultivate social entrepreneurial designers by investigating the power of products, systems and services to create positive social and environmental change both internationally and domestically.

Showing posts with label DeSE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DeSE. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Final Crit and Goodbyes!

Well, the first ever RISD Design for Social Entrepreneurship advanced studio has officially come to a close. We finished off with great presentations and a party at Krisa's place! During the critique, we got to see the latest developments in everyone's projects with numerous guest critics. You can check out the project on our project page here.  After the presentations, we had a great group discussion on the role of industrial design in today's society. 

Stay tuned for videos! And see below for pictures.













Thank you to our Guest Critics and Visitors! 

Guest Critics: 
Jenny Kinnard- Procter & Gamble, Designer
Alex Tee- Altitude Inc, Engineer and Strategist
Peter Hawking- Office of Public Engagement, RISD, Director
Claudia Ford- International Affairs, RISD Director
Yuriko Saito- HPSS Professor- Ecological Responsibility for Artists and Designers
Damian White- HPSS Prossor- The Sociology of Ecology
Alan Harlem- Brown Swearer Center, Director

Visitors: 
Deborah Kanston- Multicultural Affairs Office
Becky Bermont- Media + Partners
Danielle Mancuso- Media + Partners



Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Human Centered Design

Human Centered Design
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: design ideo)


The HCD Toolkit abridged for DeSE

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Videos Now Available!

For those of you who could not attend Thursday's lectures, they are now available on DeSE's YouTube Channel! Below is the first clip of Tanya Fields' profound lecture on the power of community activism for social change and what we as designers can do to make a difference. 



Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Elevator Pitch

In Class Activity-Morning

As an entrepreneur, it is important to be able to convey your idea quickly and concisely. Whether at a networking event, making a pitch to potential investors, or running into someone who you admire--you must capture the attention of your audience within the amount of time of an elevator ride, because you never know who you are going to run into and when. An elevator pitch, if successful, will often get you in the door for a more lengthy presentation or conversation.

You are going to practice this by looking at some existing organizations. Choose one of the organizations from below and take a look at their website, or some have videos as well.

See how they describe themselves, what their projects are and come up with a 30 second elevator pitch as to what this organization is and does.

Do not simply read off their existing mission statement for your pitch. You must tell us the story in your own words.
A successful pitch includes:
What problem do you solve?
How do you solve it?
What do you sell?
How do you sustain yourself?
Why are you the best person for the job?

You will have 30 minutes to read over the materials and prepare, and 30 seconds to give your pitch to the class (I have a timer!). Manage your time so you read what you need to in order to collect your thoughts- write out the pitch or make bullet points for your presentation. Practice first. 

Choose from the following Organizations:

Sustainable South Bronx
Save the Bay

In the afternoon, we are going to have an engaging interactive workshop with Tony Johnson from the Office of Multicultural Affairs. We will meet in studio and walk to the Ewing house together.

After the workshop, we will return to studio.
Come prepared to pin up your two-page layout and give an elevator pitch of your design for development project. 

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

What Makes a Good Powerpoint

Death by PowerPoint
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: tips powerpoint)

A new BoP Social Network


BoP Source has recently come out with a social network which aims to directly connect consumers at the base of the pyramid with the companies that want to do business with them. Sign up today and join in on the conversation!

Jocelyn Wyatt- Design in the Developing World

A great recent post from IDEO's Jocelyn Wyatt discusses the approaches to designing for development, including systemic thinking and business approaches. Great to see in what ways our projects here at DeSE are resonating with the greater field!

Jocelyn Wyatt leads the Design for Social Impact initiative at IDEO . Prior to IDEO, Jocelyn worked as an Acumen Fund fellow in Kenya and served as Interim Country Director for VisionSpring in India. Jocelyn has an MBA from Thunderbird and a BA in Anthropology from Grinnell College. She blogs (periodically) on www.jocelynwyatt.com.

"Fully admitting my bias here, I did think the Design in the Developing World panel was an especially interesting conversation between a top-notch set of designers and practitioners. Caroline Balerin launched the panel with the question "What would it look like to design for the other 90%?" I fully expected the panelists, who have traditionally designed products, to respond with something about appropriately designed technologies. I was pleasantly surprised to hear each of them respond with the need to design not only the products, but the systems around them."

Monday, October 13, 2008

D4D- FINAL Deliverables

Tuesday, October 21st = final presentation for the Design for Development exercises. 

Each student will have 20-30 minutes for their critique including a 10-15 minute Power Point presentation and 10-15 minutes of feedback. 

In your Power Point Presentation, it is suggested you  include the following information, not in this particular order: 
-Brief introduction to your chosen country and region
-Who your target market is (story board)
-What specific design opportunity you are targeting- clearly stating your "Problem Statement."
- Research and references to back up the context of your project.  
-Mission Statement
-Your Process:
Inspirational Art Piece (if applicable)
Theme board (if applicable)
Mind Map (if applicable)
Design Sketches/Prototypes/Sketch Models
-Final Design 
If it's a product- how does it fit into a larger system and map this out with a system overview.
If it's a system- represent the entirety while also focusing in on a particular component with more refined detail. 
-What the project might look like in the future, who are your potential partners and etc. 
--

You determine the order of these deliverable. The important thing is to tell the story of your project, and include only relevant information that conveys your point- from the larger system to the micro scale, lead us through your thinking, your research to backup your claims, and your final conclusions. 

You region- what the problem is- how you plan to address the problem - and what your proposed solution is. 

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

D4D-Sketches

Due Thursday October 9th.

After you have chosen your specific design opportunity, bring in sketches of product/service iterations to share with the class on Thursday morning. It's important at this phase to iterate rapidly. You do not yet need refined sketches, but rather a variety of concepts which you will then tailor down.  Feel free to make some sketch models as well if this helps you with your process. 

Come prepared to ask questions to our guest speakers in the afternoon: Timothy Prestoro and Emily Pilloton. The more you get done, the better questions you can ask, and the more you will get out of the experience. All are welcome to join us in the gallery for the presentations. 

Have fun!

Friday, October 3, 2008

Upcoming Events


If anyone is interested in going to any of these, let's try to coordinate!

*Oct 23-26th
Bioneers by the Bay
Keynotes: Majora Carter, Van Jones, Simran Sethi
New Bedford, MA
Registration
$225 for 3 days
$175- two days
$100- one day

Oct 28th 6-8:30pm
Boston, MA
Activating Sustainability: Is Corporate Greening for Real and Can it Stop Global Warming? A Trans-Atlantic Dialogue
Cost: Free to students but RSVP to lc@bc.edu.

October 29th
New York
Sustainable Business Success
Cost: $995

November 7-9th
Brown/RISD

November 8th
Boston
Cost: $10

*November 13-15th
Philadelphia
Net Impact- The Sustainable Advantage : Creating Social and Environmental Value
Cost:
Students: $350
Professionals: $440

*These conferences look especially interesting and are relatively affordable compared to other conferences.


Links to Event Resources:
Net Impact
CSRWire

Thursday, October 2, 2008

D4D Deliverables- 1

Due Tuesday Oct 7: 
 
Regional Art Piece Inspiration
Arts and crafts are a window into a culture and community. It is important that your design be as culturally appropriate as possible. Research arts and crafts from your region and choose one piece in particular that will serve as your aesthetic inspiration for your product and/or service to start developing a design language. Post your art object on your blog.

Mind map

This mind map is a tool for you to think about and brainstorm the system of your design opportunity. Much of the larger context has already been discussed in your UN MDG system mapping, however, this is your chance to become more specific with the issue you have chosen.

On a large piece of paper or with stickies, map out the product and/or service at different scales. For example if it is one baby bottle, brainstorm- how will this bottle be distributed to a community, where would it potentially be manufactured, what does the end of the product's life cycle look like, how is it transported, how could it affect a family, a community, a country, and etc? This type of brainstorming is the foundation of systems design and is essential in order to holistically implement any design idea.  Photograph or scan your mind map and post it to your blog.

While brainstorming, you can start thinking about your design solutions! You will share your design concepts in the following assignment. 

Theme board 
How do you want the product and or/service to "feel"? Create a 8.5" x 14" Portrait page size layout that conveys the emotional side of your product and/or service. This can be drawn, collaged, photoshopped, illustrated or a combination there of. Post your theme board to your blog.

Design Exercise!

Design for Development

Due Date: October 21

Objective:

It's time to take all that research we've been doing and start designing a product and/or service!

Now that we understand that to touch one UN Millennium Development Goal, we must consider all, choose a specific design opportunity you found during the Systems Mapping project, a region within your studied country and a target market and develop a systemic approach to address the opportunity through a product and/or service.

Keep in mind how your product and/or service could be made as affordable as possible and potentially marketed to a high end user for subsidizing costs.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

9/25/08 Homework A: Systems Mapping


Due Thursday October 2.

The UN Millennium Goals all pertain to a different area of focus, yet, they are indubitably interconnected. To address one problem, one must consider all. Because of this, it is important that we understand the system in which these are in and how they all affect each other. 

The difference between a designer and a design entrepreneur is having the ability to look between the cracks and uncover overlooked problems. It is the aim of this brainstorm to dig into these cracks and discover your design opportunity. 

As a group, and based off of our brainstorm in class, diagram how the different systems of the UN MDGs relate to one another and different scales of issues, from political structure to baby bottles, in one large visually represented poster that will be used as a centerfold for the book.

9/25/08 Homework B: Story Boards- A day in the Life

Due Tuesday Sept 30

Depict a day in the life of an individual living in a particular region.

Type of people: rural poor farmer, a little girl, a little boy, a town's political figure, a pregnant mother, an HIV+ market vendor, a rural doctor, a rural teacher. (You will choose one of these in class.)

Location: Your story board will be using the same region you did your research on for the UN MDGs.

Do your best to convey what this person's day looks like from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep in 1 spread of legal size paper (i.e. two facing pages totalling 17" x 14"). . Post your spread to your blog.

Your story board can be drawn or collaged- then scanned in, photoshopped, done in illustrator, or a combination there of. Have fun! 

Claudia Ford on the History of Development

Claudia Ford, Director of RISD's International Affairs, speaks to RISD's Design for Social Entrepreneurship class to share her knowledge on the history of development and some of the criticisms of the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Below is her slideshow and stay tuned for the live video series!

Claudia Ford Presentation
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: ford claudia)

Thank you Claudia for sharing your wealth of knowledge, experience, and grace with our class! 


Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Homework A: International Precedents

Due Thursday: September 25.

There are numerous organizations, products and services that are currently attempting to address the MDGs either directly or indirectly. It is important to be aware of existing precedents to build upon other’s experiences as to improve and not duplicate  what has already been done. We will look at several of these precedents as they  relate to the MDGs and consider what works and what doesn’t work with their  project or particular approach. 

Thanks to our friend Emily Pilloton at Project H, as well as Design for the Other 90%, we have an easy way of searching through the various products for Humanitarian Design. Below are just some examples of products out there, but be sure to check out all the products as listed on Project H and Cooper Hewitt's Design for the Other 90% exhibits. Stay tuned as the class will get to hear from Emily herself, along with Timothy Prestero of Design that Matters on October 9th, with a chance for students to discuss their own project ideas. 

Deliverable: Choose one of the products from the list below or another product you would like to investigate and create an 8.5" x 14" page layout depicting the product while considering the following questions: 

What problem statement does the product address?
Is the product affordable?
Is it culturally appropriate?
Does it use locally available materials and resources? 
Is it donated or bought?
If it is currently in the field, what type of impact is it having?
What are some of the criticisms of the product? (if none are published, think of some on your own)
Is this product subsidized by selling to a developed market at higher cost?
How does the product address the UN Millennium Development Goal(s)?
How does the product empower its user(s)?
Does the product fit into a larger systemized implementation strategy?

Come into class on Thursday prepared to present your research. 

KickStart
Hippo Water Roller
PlayPumps
DtM Infant Incubator
Kinkajou Microfilm Projector
OLPC
Life Straw
Freeplay Energy- wind up energy for access (choose one of the products listed)
Project-Impact-Hearing Aids
VisionSpring- eyewear business in a bag

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Day 2: Pyramids and Countries

Today in class we discussed the concept, "Bottom of the Pyramid," which refers to the 4 billion people in the world living off of $2/day or less, typically in developing countries. However, the pyramid concepts actually implies a hierarchy, which is a mentality we want to avoid. Another pyramid is Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. In this class we will be looking at products and or services that address the bottom of this pyramid, to move people up the latter to self-actualization. This is not to imply however, that this should lead to how people in the US and "developed" countries lead their lives with their rate of consumption, as I discuss here


Least Developed Countries (LDCs) were chosen from around the globe for students to research. Stay tuned to read their findings on their blogs. 



Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Homework Assignment A: Inspiration and Information

This week's homework assignment is meant to give us a greater understanding of what some people and organizations are currently doing today to address global concerns throughout the globe, and to give us greater understanding of the context of these situations. As well as inspire us to see some of the progressive thinkers of our day. 

The speakers we will watch vary from native peoples, social entrepreneurs, politicians, comedians, and beyond, all finding a way to use their skills for the greater good. Additionally, the approaches to development vary from speaker to speaker from government aid, to investing in education, to products to increase income and etc. Let us think about different forms of partnership, empowerment, and mutually beneficial investments. 

As you watch consider these questions: 
What global concern does the person discuss?
What is the main thesis and other important points and facts of their talk?
What country or region are they talking about?
What is the context?
Are there any specific numbers or statistics they discuss to convey their argument?
How does this person's talk or work relate to a UN MDG?
What type of emotion does the talk convey?

Develop one page 8 1/2" x 14" visually representing the talk and information discussed-as well as the emotional landscape. And be prepared to present your page and your thoughts on Tuesday. 

If there is a different speaker not listed here that you would like to research and present on, please contact me. Feel free to browse other TED talk and PopTech! speakers and explore as there are so many amazing ones to watch!

The suggested speakers below are more or less related to the following themes:  

Poverty:
Andrew Mwenda- Rethinking African Aid
Iqbal Quadir- How Cell-Phones are going to End Poverty. 

Education: 
Sugata MitraCan kids teach themselves?

Gender Equality: 
Eve Ensler- Finding happiness in body and soul

Child Mortality: 
Amy Smith- The Number one Cause of Infant Death

Maternal Health: 
UNICEF- Child and Maternal Mortality

HIV/AIDS + Diseases: 
Emily Oster-  The Economics of AIDS in Africa
Zinny- Fighting HIV/AIDS in South Africa 
Bill Clinton- Clinton Global Initiative- Building Healthcare

Environmental Sustainability: 
The Story of Stuff- Annie Leonard
Al Gore- Averting Climate Crisis

Global Partnership: 
Patrick Awuah- training new leaders
Ray Avery- a social entrepreneur

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Day 2: Layout Parameter

Choosing a page layout for format consistency so we can put our research together for a collective book!

And the winner is: 
Page Size: 8.5" x 14"
Font: Arial
Margin: .5"

Day 2: DeSE Logo Brainstorm