brazilian design forum created yesterday

yesterday, november 28th, 2008, was founded at the "centro design rio" (located at the national institute of technology premises in rio de janeiro), the brazilian design forum, which aims to congregate professional and academic design associations and design promotion centers in brazil. for the first time ever it is established a common line of purpose and actions for the entire community of brazilian design.

the brazilian design forum was born from the claim of local and national associations gathered in rio de janeiro at the brazil design week last september, to promote the alignement of actions and demands, creating critical mass and representativeness to dialog with the government in the planning and execution of public policies for design and in the implementation of coordinated actions to promote brazilian design. in this regard, the forum will be a supra-institutional body, representative of all the associations and design promotion centers, whenever this is necessary. the forum is not intended to be, in any event, a new entity among the others, but a space where all entities shall find identity to lead the common ideals and fights of the brazilian design community.

one of it's first activities will be to support the work that already has been done by the plural committee constituted earlier to promote the advance of the project of professional regulation at the congress. this project, with the support of the forum, will gain much more political consistence and formal representativeness.

at the meeting where the forum was founded, the three major design associations in brazil were represented: abedesign (design companies), adp (product designers) and adg (graphic designers), as well as other important local associations from brasilia (adegraf), rio grande do sul (apdesign) and santa catarina (sc design), the federation of industries of rio (firjan), the state government's design program (rio é design) and the design advisory council (and the centro design rio, host of the meeting). which is undoubtedly a very significant constellation of design entities from brazil. 

as next steps, a manifesto is being drafted and will be available soon, opening space to other associations and promotion centers to be a part of the initial formation of the brazilian design forum. it's structure and operation, as well as it's targets, are expected to be released in early 2009.

although recognizing there are still ways to be paved in the effort to unite the broadest initial group possible, we believe that, before anything else, to seek for consensus we need to be united by common sense. 

...and we never seemed to be so close to it before!

design carioca: 5 views

this video was produced by the design program from the secretary of development of the state of rio de janeiro for the first brazil design week, held at the modern art museum of rio from 9th to 14th of september of 2008.

five designers living and working in rio talk about their views and show an example of their work and how they are influenced by the beautiful landscape and environment as well as the typical "carioca" behaviour. the designers are guto indio da costa, ana couto, fred gelli, ricardo leite and andré stolarski, owners of five of the biggest design studios in rio. in the final part of it, governor sérgio cabral testimonies about the "creative trademark" of the city.

(audio: portuguese / subtitles: english)

brazilian design shows its face in rio

the governor of the state of rio de janeiro, sérgio cabral, made the inaugural speech of the brazil design week, at the modern art museum of rio de janeiro. the event, with lectures, workshops, exhibition, trade show and business meetings is already a success from its very begining, and it is expected to shake the design scene in the country in a way never seen before.

take a look here at some pictures of the official events and also of rio+design, promoted by the secretary of development from the state of rio de janeiro.

rio is (more) design!

the party has begun! rio de janeiro, from now and at least for the next week, is officially the brazilian capital of design. the first events of rio+design happened today, focused initially in the "charm tetragon" of ipanema (a region of a few blocks where are located many design, jewelry, fashion shops, good restaurants and many other trendy commerce). view photos here.

in the first day of design inaugurations, cocktails and open houses received the prestigious visits of rio de janeiro state secretary of development, julio bueno, and the subsecretary of commerce, dulce ângela procópio, both of which have done a lot as political articulators recognizing the importance of design. along this week will be posted more information and pictures about the brazil design week (that officially begins tomorrow morning) as well as rio+design.

at the photo above, elisa ruiz (ddi spain), vera riemer (abedesign), tae-wan kim (kidp korea) and gilson martins, host at the cocktail party at the exhibition at his shop during rio+design.

brazil design week - almost there

just to remember that the time is coming... (from 9 to 14 of september - click on the image above to open the invitation that is being sent by email)

the registration for the lectures and workshops and more information about the event is available at the website of the brazil design week.

i will be taking part of it coordinating the governmental policies forum, which will bring from korea the representative from kidp, tae-wan kim, from spain, eliza sáinz ruiz, ceo from ddi, and, from the united kingdom, michael thomson, president from beda.

soon i will be posting also something about rio+design, an event promoted by the state secretary of development, which will be held at the same time and will involve design schools, commerce and several institutions in the city of rio de janeiro.

the last leave of the notebook

in most articles and websites mentioned here you will notice that when talking about development, economical and industrial growth, innovation, and in design as a tool to help forster all of that, usually the word used is not design alone, but good design. and good design seems to be lacking in the indiscriminate proliferation of design courses in Brazil, as pointed in the documentary shown above, "a folha que sobrou do caderno" (the last leave of the notebook), produced with great competence by young designers recently emerged from university (- which probably means that there is still hope?).

I might not even agree with some generalization of problems and idealization of solutions shown on some of the testimonies over the 30 minutes of this documentary, but it is, without doubt, a great contribution to the discussion on the proper teaching of design, which is a crucial tool for the achievement of our goal of an extensive and widespread quality.

the movie has it's script and direction shared by alexander czajkowski, mauro alex rego and gabriel costa rodrigues, and was produced by boana estudio. congratulations to a new generation that is born seeing with their own eyes and thinking a lot!

"for a new thinking we do need people that work with their own hands" (bertold brecht, quoted in the movie)

it is in portuguese, but for those of you interested in the challenge, the film has subtitles - also in portuguese!

see design

seedesign - sharing experience on design support for sme's - is a network for the dissemination of good practice relating to design support for small companies (smes). it is made up of seven european partners who are cooperating in order to capture and build upon the knowledge accumulated within the various design support programmes. it aims to improve the effectiveness of the support provided for local smes relating to design issues in europe.

seedesign operated from march 2005 to december 2007, but it's website and reports are available online, and a good experience to be shared.

design shaping europe's future

talking about beda (the bureau of european design associations), it's website hosts a pdf document entitled "how could design shape europe's future?" which is worth being consulted.

the research project was conducted between 2002-2003 in partnership with the design council, the university of art & design helsinki (taik), the interaction design institute at ivrea in italy (idii), the conservatoire national des arts et metiers (cnam) and the agence pour la promotion de la création industrielle (apci) in paris.

shaping the global design agenda

torino, world design capital in 2008 – under the icsid-led "world design capital" program – will receive on november 6 and 7 an international public design policies conference, "shaping the global design agenda".

the three basic themes of the conference will be:

1. design and economy - the link to innovation
2. design and society - catalysing sustainable change
3. design and complexity - confronting systemic global challenges

the conference is being organized by michael thomson, current president of beda, the bureau of european design associations, and one of the guests for the brazil design week.

brazil design week

from 9 to 14 of september, at the modern art museum of rio de janeiro, there will be the brazil design week, a brazilian design trade and promotion fair. the program is outstanding.

natural knowledge economy

the paper "brazil: the natural knowledge economy", comissioned by cgee - center for managing and strategic studies, was released this month in london. the study was developed by kirsten bound, researcher from demos ("the thinktank for everyday democracy"), and it shows a situation extremely conducive to innovative thinking in brazil, with increasing number of research projects and resources allocated for innovation programs.

the paper can be downloaded, in pdf format, from the website of demos (at the above link). and if you want to know how much it is already reverberating, check the post of the online design magazine core77 here.

redirecting...

this is the english version of my blog "políticas de design | design policies"

by now, it is only in portuguese, but i will find a way soon to post in both languages. and there i have also posted a few presentations i did in the last year, besides the portuguese versions of the same posts found here.

welcome!