Thursday 5 November 2009

5th november, designer's day

in brazil, we celebrate today the designer's day* together with the second edition of the brazil design week - a great event promoted by abedesign to close a difficult year, that hopefully has prepared the ground for a great year to brazilian design in 2010. (it's worth a retrospective at the end of this year)

i thought this was the perfect timing to get back and feed this blog, even if it's promising of more frequent posts from now on...

already established in england, i'm beginning my doctoral studies in design policies at cranfield university's c4d - centre for competitive creative design. and from here i hope to share at least some of what i'm experiencing - as the opening of the observeur du design 10 exhibition - le beau, l'utile, le design - in paris, last 22/10, or the seminar managing as designing: what next? at said business school, in oxford, last week (30/10), or the genuine mining of selected sources, interesting books and documents which is the initial part of the research.

while in shangai, on the other side (of the world), my friend bruno porto celebrates today the move to the icograda congress, in beijing, of the 9th brazilian bienal of graphic design, after the huge success it reached at the shanghai international creative industry week 2009 (which can be viewed at his blog loto azul).

so much to comment, really don't know where to start - but it seems a good idea begin doing my weekly homework for my phd, and then come back to write...

_
*designer's day was created in brazil by a presidential decree in 1998, on the birthday of aloisio magalhães, a pioneer of brazilian design who brought a great contribution to establish, inside the federal government, the principles towards a public policy for the sector.

Wednesday 25 March 2009

that's why i say: rio is much more design...

lately i've been constantly amazed, while noting that we are finaly starting to live an age of design in brasil.

today i took part of a meeting articulated by the secretary of culture from the city of rio de janeiro, headed by the secretary jandira feghali, together with subsecretary claudia zarvos (designer graduated from esdi) and subsecretary washington fajardo, in charge of heritage, urban interventions, architecture and design – a pamphleteer name, according to washington, or consistent with its purpose in the words of jandira.

among more than thirty representatives from the "carioca" design scene, a perfect mix: from sérgio rodrigues to oscar metsavaht, from esdi and puc to coopa-roca and daspu, from andré stolarski (tecnopop) to rafael rodrigues (pvdi) and nobu (oestúdio), from the historian rafael cardoso, to ana luisa escorel, bitiz afflalo, claudia moreira salles, joão de souza leite. were all there, and much more. (*)

first of all, congratulations to the secretary of culture for a meeting that was so professionaly organized. and thanks for being invited – and heard.

the enthusiasm of everyone was so that the meeting ended more than two hours later than scheduled - and almost no one left earlier - and still have gone beyond in a lunch with the secretary jandira and some remainders. everyone was full of ideas and willing to believe once more – and to collaborate too – with the proposition presented for a design reference center, that dealt with present, past and future, helping to get together and plan, with the goal to establish a public agenda for the sector, to define the role of design in rebuilding the city and the self-esteem of the carioca (rio's citizens). creating as rodolfo capeto (esdi's director) said, a design policy of state, more perennial, better than that of a government, which is transitional.

all this in the same moment when the design advisory group from the secretary of development from the state of rio de janeiro plans rio+design 2009 (and also the rio+design milano, next april during the furniture fair), when the forum brasil design debuts with the manifest for a brazilian design, and besides so many other things that still cannot be told here (but which will soon be shown at rio de janeiro design scene)...

it seems too good to be true.
but i swear: it's all true ! 

(*) if anyone wants to know who they are, ask me or google them...

Monday 9 March 2009

manifest for a brazilian design

with a lot of honor and pride i disclose here, according to my promise since last november, the manifest that marks the creation of the forum brazil design. may we all do whatever is required to turn its ideals into reality!

"manifest for a brazilian design

in september 2008, during the first brazil design week at the museum of modern art in rio de janeiro, some very important issues to the actual brazilian design scene were discussed, and a call was made for a meeting of the national and regional design associations, along with other design promotion entities, to discuss a common agenda for a national action that should aim to the recognition and the orderly growth of the activity in the country.

this call resulted on a meeting at the centro design rio, at the headquarters of the brazilian institute of technology, on november 28, 2008, were representatives from abedesign, adp, adg brasil, apdesign-rs, adegraf-df, centro design rio and other guests (firjan, secretary of development of the state of rj and esdi), proposed the creation of a permanent discussion forum for discussion and representation of all the design-related organizations in the country where it would be necessary, in the routing of issues to be addressed with the government and with society.

it was then created the forum brasil design, with the aim to unite and represent all the professional and academic design associations, as well as the design promotion centers throughout the country. this forum has its main goal to defend the interests and growth of the brazilian design, whether regional, national or internationally, acting as the category’s main representative, as a single voice and presentation to rout and advocate the major issues of the category’s agenda.

the forum will keep the identity and independence of each of its components, helping in their organization and stimulating its growth and strengthening among the designer’s community and the brazilian society.on their turn, its components will compromise in following and supporting with all available resources this manifest, the agenda and goals of the forum.

the forum brasil design will fight, among other things, for the recognition of design as a key tool in building a more sustainable society in terms of its economic, social, cultural, and environmental aspects and, therefore, be understood, respected and fomented by governmental and educational agencies, federations, associations and other representative bodies.

the forum brasil design will base its proceedings on the following principles:

for a brazilian design with ethics.

for a brazilian design identified by creativity, quality and professionalism, produced by qualified designers developing objects, systems, services and messages with responsibility and meeting aesthetic, functional and commercial requirements.

for a brazilian design social, economical and environmentally sustainable, acting to enhance life quality and the social and environmental framework, placing itself one step ahead the current demands in benefit of this and the next generations.

for a brazilian design recognized by society as a key element for its development, in the construction of values and the strengthening of national image through the effective use of design in business and in the public sector.

because brazil needs design.


forum brazil design
www.forumbrasildesign.org.br
march 2009"

Thursday 26 February 2009

redesigning america's future



entering the new obama age, the united states design community, acting together with governmental agencies, has recently issued a document proposing actions towards an official national design policy.

the document redesigning america's future is available at the u.s. national design policy initiative website. there are other important documents to be seen at the website: the summit report and the presentations, that may help to get a broader picture of what happened at this meeting held last november (11th and 12th) in washington. besides other references, their initial discussions were based at least in two older documents also quoted in the website: one about the federal design improvement program from 1972 and also an article written by neil kleinman in 1973 for print magazine entitled design and the federal government.

the u.s. national design summit was organized by dr. elizabeth (dori) tunstall, associate professor of design anthropology at the university of illinois at chicago (author of an interesting blog, dori's moblog - take a look at it). 

this is curious, because i remember that the issue "why the u.s. doesn't have a national design policy?" was brought into discussion during the international forum of public design policies which i organized during the brazil design week last september in rio de janeiro. and in the same month of november (when they have their meeting that resulted in the u.s. initiative) we have brought together several associations discussing the creation of the brazilian design forum, an organism that will certainly help to foster the development of national and regional design policies in brazil. it seems that we are running in synchronicity with many other iniciatives around the globe today. good to know.

hope you enjoy all the important links above!

changes in the design patents scenery in china



in this short video (only 3 minutes long), available through the idsa website, lorraine justice, director from the school of design of the hong kong polythecnic university talks about the raise in the number of design patents in the last years, the proposed changes in the patent laws in china, and how this should influence the design business in the next years.