BFA Students Inspired to be Social Designers through Compostmodern Video Project
What are the chances of an undergraduate design student getting the opportunity to sit in a room with a top designer and listen to he or she talk about the hottest topic in the industry? Now multiply that by ten in one day.
When students enrolled in the Web Design + New Media Video 1 class in the Spring 2009 semester, they had no idea that they would get a chance of a lifetime.
Phil Hamlett, graduate director of the School of Graphic Design at AAU, is co-founder of Compostmodern, an “interdisciplinary conference that explores the range of design thinking necessary to create a socially and ecologically responsible society.” He tapped WNM undergraduate director, Bob Rigel, to see if one of his classes would be interested in filming the speakers at the event in San Francisco.
Bob loved the idea, and thought the Video 1 class led by associate director, Gino Nave, would be the perfect fit. Neither of them would guess what would happen as a result.
Compostmodern brings together designers, manufacturers and business leaders to find inspiration, share knowledge and explore real world opportunities for transforming products, industries and lives. The day was filled with interviews with the amazing speakers:
- John Bielenberg, Founder of Project M
- Michel Gelobter, Climate Strategist and Founder of Cooler
- Saul Griffith, Inventor of Makani Power
- Nathan Shedroff, Design MBA Chair, California College of the Arts
- Dawn Danby, Sustainable Design Program Manager at Autodesk
- Joel Makower, Chairman and Executive Editor of GreenBiz.com
- Allan Chochinov, Editor in Chief, Core77
- Eames Demetrios, Filmmaker, Writer and Creative of Kymaerica
- Emily Pillton, Founder, Project H Design
- Pam Door, Hale Empowerment & Revitalization Organization (HERO)
By the end of the day, the exhausted, but excited, students had plenty of footage to produce a compilation that told the story of what happened that day. Through this process, they learned why sustainability is so important and how, as designers, they could change lives.
The students were so moved by their experience, they approached Bob and Gino with an idea. Why not create a class that focused on social design? Contribute X was born just 7 months later.
Starting this month, BFA students that meet a set criteria are selected by their department to work on a multidisciplinary collaborative project based on the Project M model established by John Bielenberg. The goal of this unique course is to design and produce a comprehensive integrated project that serves the environment or community in a way that’s different from a more typical design project involving design for commercial application.
Enjoy the video created by the Spring 2009 WNM BFA Video 1 class that inspired them to take action. Perhaps it will inspire you, too?
