Inconvenient Youth and We Can Solve It

Inconvenient Youth is a group of young people dedicated to disseminating information about the environment to their peers. Article here from World Changing.

The We Can Solve It Campaign is a project’s goal is to build a movement that creates the political will to solve the climate crisis. It offers solutions and ways to take action about saving the environment from a personal and a political perspective. Short videos on the each of the pages offer a friendly way of introducing each topic.

Filed under: advocacy groups, environment, Inconvenient Youth, We Can Solve It

The Green New Deal

The Green New Deal is a response to the credit crunch and wider energy and food crises, and to the lack of comprehensive, joined-up action from politicians. It calls for:

• Massive investment in renewable energy and wider environmental transformation in the UK, leading to,
• The creation of thousands of new green collar jobs
• Reining in reckless aspects of the finance sector – but making low-cost capital available to fund the UK’s green economic shift
• Building a new alliance between environmentalists, industry, agriculture, and unions to put the interests of the real economy ahead of those of footloose finance

The Green New Deal is published by nef on behalf of the Green New Deal Group. Link here to news articles related to this publication.

Filed under: environment, future, "Green New Deal", environment, future, policy

Visuals for Information

Visuals for Information
Rune Pettersson 1988

Page 90: According to Lanners (1973) we only see the things that affect us emotionally. Everything else is ignored. When we look at a picture, we first discover the cues we already recognise.

Page 93: Our western society is domination by the written word and [is] extremely quadrangular. It is a society in which bureaucrats occupy quadrangular cells in such a way that creative and intellectually lively people are perceived as disturbing and disruptive features of the prevailing order. New ideas are effectively stifled. This leads to stagnation, industrial crises and breakdown of the social fabric.

Download the whole book here

Filed under: book, dissertation random ideas, visual literacy, book, quote, visual literacy

Findings from visual literacy research

Knowledge of graphic design, information design, visual communication, visual language, and visual literacy are important for our ability to produce messages that work. Eight groups of ID students were asked to rank how they perceive the importance of 50 research findings related to sender processes, text design, image design, graphic design, and receiver processes. The result is a “set of guidelines” helping us to improve quality of information materials.

Presentation:

Audio:

Filed under: visual literacy, "Rune Pettersson", research, study

Information Design Journal

Subscription and content list link

Filed under: journals, "information design journal"

Visual Perception reading list

From a seminar in visual communication by Professor Sandra Moriarty at the University of Colorado LINK

Some articles:

• Abduction article: A Theory of Visual Interpretation
• Visual Communication as a Primary System
• VisCom Theory Survey: A Search for Roots
• A Conceputal Map article
• Mapping the Field paper
• Representation: A Philosophical Discussion
• Visemics: A Proposal for a Marriage Between Semiotics and Visual Communication
• Visual Semiotics and the Production of Meaning in Advertising
• Visual Cues: An Interpretive Study in Advertising
• Gulf War: An Antiseptic War? A Study of Images from the Persian Gulf
• Cultural Palettes: A Review of Research
• 88 Election: Newsmagazine Visuals and the 1988 Presidential Election
• 92 Election: Newsmagazine Visuals and the 1992 Presidential Election

Filed under: visual perception, "reading list", "visual communication", visual perception

The Information Program

The Information Program has two aims. First, to enhance the ability to access, exchange, and produce knowledge and information for key open society constituencies and disadvantaged groups, especially in the poorer parts of the world.  Second, to use new tools and techniques to empower civil society as a force for open society in national, regional and global arenas.

These aims translate into projects in three focal areas, each with its own subset of initiatives:

Filed under: societies, information, knowledge, sharing, society

Four examples of how film can be used for social advocacy

Link

Filed under: advocacy, film, advocacy, film

Designer of 2015 trends

from AIGA

Six major trends, and the challenges they pose for the profession (which AIGA will take on as its challenges), emerged from our research. These trends define design’s role in a much broader, strategic context than its roots: the making of things and beautiful things. Although that remains an important contribution, they will be a manifestation of a solution that may involve many different forms, including intangibles such as strategy and experiences. Among designers and educators, there has been an enthusiastic response to taking on these trends, although there is also anxiety about whether designers are adequately prepared to take on the broader context of the roles these trends imply for them. They were, in the order of importance as identified by designers:

Filed under: article, "sustainable design", advocacy, trends