the queen of rage?

I'm not a huge fan of Michele Bachmann (less of a fan of the Republican party at this moment and even less of a fan of the Tea Party ), but I respect her as an elected representative of my follow citizens.

The last time I posted about Newsweek, the Stephen Colbert cover had me grinning from ear to ear. This time I'm a little sad to see an ambitious and dedicated woman portrayed in such a negative light.

Could I design for a company that asked me to produce this?

Click here to read GOOD's short and sweet article about Newsweek's shady history when it comes to featuring female politicians on their covers.

Conventional Wisdom, Think again

"No, your eyes aren't deceiving you. You're reading Stephen Colbert. And for that I apologize. The last thing I want is to contribute to the corrosive influence of the print media. I prefer to yell my opinions at you in person.

But I can't do that this week, because I am in Iraq. I've brought my hit TV broadcast over there to support our troops. I figure if I do this, I can finally take that yellow- ribbon magnet off my Audi without looking like a jerk. God knows what it did to my paint job."

I will be picking up a copy of this as soon as possible. Colbert is the magazine's very first guest editor since it was founded 76 years ago!

via

the less we use our power, the greater it will be

Just finished watching the Obama Cairo speech via the united states of jamerica.

So many things said that I've always wanted but never thought I'd hear. If you haven't seen it already, take a gander!

design and government

"Design Den Haag 2010-2018 researches the relation between Design and Government in Europe within an international context, from cultural, economic and social viewpoints. Starting spring 2010, Design Den Haag will organize a total of five public events biennially in the field of design, architecture and visual communication, with exhibitions, publications, lectures and debates, workshops and documentary films. Each edition will entail a collaboration between Den Haag and another European government Capital: Berlin, Stockholm, Rome, London and Paris. Every edition will be evaluated. The final evaluation of the five editions will be submitted as report to the European Union at the end of 2018. This report will contain recommendations concerning the betterment of relations between design and governance, and on governmental funds for the quality of design, architecture and visual communication."

I had planned on writing President Obama a nice long letter when I graduated about design and its political/social importance in hopes that he would consider increasing its role in government. (and maybe offer me a job! haha)

So, I found out today that an organization called Foundation Design Den Haag in Europe has already started collaborating with the government of Berlin to discuss the potentially dangerous connection between design and government (hmmm). The group started a workshop this week with students to create future political campaigns. Kirsten Verdel, member of Obama's campaign team, even gave a lecture about the campaign and strategy.

It sounds really interesting and I'm excited to see what the future holds for these guys. (The website has a cool feature that takes note of every ip address that visits the site and creates a unique tone from the number combination. they play while you navigate!)

Design.nl will be following all of their events. You can find them here!

^d
sarah

the paper industry

As graphic designers, we produce a lot of waste. (I LOVE paper, and I'm sure most of you do too.) Fortunately, most of us are very aware of that and do our best to conserve when it is possible. But, maybe we aren't doing enough. I read this article from the Nation today about some mischief in the paper industry and feel pretty disgusted.

"Thanks to an obscure tax provision, the United States government stands to pay out as much as $8 billion this year to the ten largest paper companies. And get this: even though the money comes from a transportation bill whose manifest intent was to reduce dependence on fossil fuel, paper mills are adding diesel fuel to a process that requires none in order to qualify for the tax credit. In other words, we are paying the industry--handsomely--to use more fossil fuel.

...

Enter the paper industry. Since the 1930s the overwhelming majority of paper mills have employed what's called the kraft process to produce paper. Here's how it works. Wood chips are cooked in a chemical solution to separate the cellulose fibers, which are used to make paper, from the other organic material in wood. The remaining liquid, a sludge containing lignin (the structural glue that binds plant cells together), is called black liquor. Because it's so rich in carbon, black liquor is a good fuel; the kraft process uses the black liquor to produce the heat and energy necessary to transform pulp into paper. It's a neat, efficient process that's cost-effective without any government subsidy.

"Seventy-three percent of the energy we use in our mill system we produce," says Ann Wrobleski, IP's vice president for global government relations. "We feel like we're the original green industry, if you will." (In developed nations, paper is the third-largest industrial greenhouse gas emitter, behind the steel and chemical industries.)

By adding diesel fuel to the black liquor, paper companies produce a mixture that qualifies for the mixed-fuel tax credit, allowing them to burn "black liquor into gold," as a JPMorgan report put it. It's unclear who first came up with the idea--Wrobleski told me it was "outside consultants"--but at some point last fall IP and Verso, another paper company, formerly a part of IP, began adding diesel to its black liquor and applied to the IRS for the credit. (Verso nabbed $29.7 million at just one of its mills in the final quarter of 2008 for its use of mixed fuel.)"

You can read the rest of the article here.

Could the Paper Industry have proposed an addition to the legislation that included companies who already use alternative fuels? If they had brought this issue to the light in Congress, would Congress have any choice but to say yes? How could the leaders of the paper industry agree to such an unethical strategy? How could they be so insensitive to the well-being of this country and the world?

Although I am incredibly disheartened by this reality, it has opened my eyes just a little bit more to the opportunities for change and activism within the design world.

Moldova Protest via Twitter

I was a huge skeptic of Twitter until I started using it. Most of the people I speak to are still cynical, and I have to admit, I was really on the fence until reading this article from the New York Times.

"A crowd of more than 10,000 young Moldovans materialized seemingly out of nowhere on Tuesday to protest against Moldova’s Communist leadership, ransacking government buildings and clashing with the police.

The sea of young people reflected the deep generation gap that has developed in Moldova, and the protesters used their generation’s tools, gathering the crowd by enlisting text-messaging, Facebook and Twitter, the social messaging network."

You can read more about the protest here. It is great to see a young generation acting so closely within politics. Though the President, Vladimir Voronin, denounced the organizers as “fascists intoxicated with hatred," I am positive that their demonstration had some effect their fellow Moldovans, and certainly made an impact worldwide.



all images via B|zZare on Flickr

The Line

I found this comic at Virus Comix while stumbling this morning. A lot of text initially, so much I stumbled again before my curiosity got the better of me and I had to go back.

I am not sure of the author's real name because he doesn't give it.

"WINSTON ROWNTREE (not his real name) likes to make comics for some reason. Virus Comix is the pretend company under which he makes his work known, and Subnormality is his weekly comic in which he inflicts upon the world a variety of thinly-veiled misanthropic tirades (well, maybe). "

The story is pretty touching. It involves two young girls who both joined the BDM (League of German Girls, the female branch of the Hitler Youth) in their late teens. They choose opposite paths and, consequently, opposite fates.

I wanted to post it because there are some design elements involved that I don't generally associate with comics (the line and its separation of text, the overall composition) and I found it incredibly intriguing.

But, I also wanted to post it because it deals mainly with injustice and gives us an idea of what it really takes to stand up against it. It is easy for us to believe that the world is better now than it was then. It is easy for us to dismiss or ignore injustice when we are separate from it, when it doesn't immediately effect our own lives.

Sometimes I think narratives like this, though a little upsetting, are good for me. They remind me that there is always something more that I could be doing for the world, for my fellow humans. As I enter the professional design world, I am constantly reminding myself of the responsibility I have, as a visual communicator, to humanity. I hope that I am able to maintain my values, as one of these girls did, through even the darkest times.

^D
sarah

Obama for Mankind

The inauguration is so close, and I can barely contain myself. I wish my thoughts communicated better with my words so that I could explain the incredible feeling I get every time I consider the possibilities for our country's future. I'm elated. The same hop I found in my step on November 5th finds its way back each time I recall our new president-elect, each time I recall the millions of others who set aside bias, personal interests, and even politics in hope for a change.

I never had a chance to post these on Election night, so here are a few of the photos I took of the Obama parade. That night I felt excitement and relief, but I also found a great degree of comradery. It was as if the minor details that divided us each day no longer existed, we did this together and we would celebrate it together. Best night of my life to date.

{CLICK on these images to enlarge//You can find more pictures of that night on my Flickr page: http://flickr.com/photos/sarahkeane}

uh oh

Chrysler will shut down plants in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico for at least a month starting Friday. This is kind of crazy, you can read about it here at Reuters (my favorite news source).