The Circular Economy

February 28, 2016October 9, 2016Leave a comment

A circular economy is restorative and regenerative by design, and aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, distinguishing between technical and biological cycles.

TO LEARN MORE go to: www.circulareconomy.com/ and play the game below.

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In Package Design I encourage students to apply the theories of the circular economy to package design. It is important for their clients to stay competitive, the circular economy is good business sense as resources are preserved throughout the production and life cycle of the product. it is good for the planet and the people as resources are preserves and waste is lessened dramatically enough to change the world today.

This video provides a good explanation of what a circular economy is, why it is important to all of us and our planet; and how we can persuade the companies we but our products from to adopt it.

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For more information on how you apply the circular economy to your business Check out the following links:

Watch video circular economy overview
http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/overview/concept

Learn what the CE terminology means and how to apply it to developing a circular economy design project
http://www.circulareconomy.com/

Package Design of the NEAR future
http://www.rwmexhibition.com/library/Circular-Economy-Drives-Packaging-Innovation-How-sustainable-design-thinking-is-enabling-some-of-todays-leading-brands-to-reap-economic-and-brand-rewards

Watch video on the disruptive innovation festival
https://www.thinkdif.co/

Topics/events covered at the Disruptive Innovation Festival
https://www.thinkdif.co/news/eight-must-watch-dif-2015-design-related-events

CE100 – corporations getting on board
http://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/ce100

How CE is applied to packaging
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/how-circular-economy-plays-out-packaging

Examples of package design for the circular economy
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/dec/17/how-to-apply-circular-economy-principles-to-package-design

Further information on the circular economy:
http://ifixit.org/
http://www.c2ccertified.org/
http://www.asknature.org

Suppliers of ecofriendly materials:
http://www.ecovativedesign.com/

Art Student/Entrepreneur

August 1, 2015February 16, 2019Leave a comment

Thania Gutierrez, a graphic and web design student at Art Institute of California-San Diego, is part of a growing number of young designers seeking business skills in addition to the traditional “creative” education. Like so many other young designers she has an interest in or is planning to go indie. By that I mean, when these students graduate from college, they are opting to work for themselves, either in side jobs or as small independent business owners. Lean start-up is the buzz word for emerging grads today. More and more “creative or art” colleges are offering courses to enhance business savvy.

A growing number of young designers seeking business skills in addition to the traditional “creative” education.

In this interview I answer her questions about what it takes to be a creative entrepreneur.

Creative entrepreneurs need five things in my opinion,

A burning desire
A willingness to continue to learn technology and adapt to change
Business savvy
Design thinking/Problem solving skills
Amazing personality or soft skills

Students are requesting classes that teach business skills. They realize that there is a lot to learn like. Like how to start a business, how much to charge clients, how much money will they need to run a profitable business, how to work with independent contractors, what is licensing, what is fair use, how do they protect their assets and intellectual property, what is creative commons, and copyright law to name a just few of the areas that have great impact on their success.

With the assistance of Corey J. Willis, Academic Director of the School of Design, AICA-SD, I was given the opportunity to develop a two-part class in creative entrepreneurship that fit into the schools new curriculum called Design Team – Pre Production and Design Team – Production.

For free handouts and other resources follow this blog and sign up to be notified when more free resources are available.

Developing Creative Entrepreneurs – a new design school model

January 13, 2015October 4, 2015Leave a comment

Since I started my career as an independent designer in New York in 1998 I have focused my efforts as a design professional in the ever evolving technological economy to working on creative teams. You can read more about me on my profile page. The point is it is impossible to master all the skills needed to meet clients needs in a world on online branding through multiple media channels.

In addition students need to have business skills

Here is a picture of some of my students from Design Team 1, a class I teach at the Art Institute of California – San Diego. I will be posting some recent work from this class soon.

Nobody Tells This To Beginners -by Ira Glass

October 20, 2014October 20, 2014Leave a comment

I posted this previously but feel it is worth revisiting because applies to any undertaking that is new – be it a new drawing, a new piece of writing, a new film or a new start-up. Thanks for the pep talk Ira – we needed it.

Draw Your Future – A case for drawing even if it is stick figures

October 19, 2014October 19, 2014Leave a comment

Interesting Ted Talk on how to draw your way into the future you wish to have and you don’t even have to know how to draw. A nationally acclaimed comic performer, high-performance business consultant, speaker, strategic illustrator and newly minted author, Patti Dobrowolski spends her time focused on new neuroscience discoveries that leverage the power of imagination and visuals to actualize a vision of the future.

AIGA San Diego Y Design Conference 19 Sketchnotes by Anne McColl

March 18, 2014Leave a comment

AIGA San Diego Y Design Conference 19 – Sketchnotes from Anne McColl

Here are the Sketchnotes generously shared by copywriter Anne Mccoll

Y Conference 19 – Highlights

March 18, 2014August 31, 2014Leave a comment

The theme this year was curiosity.

Jake Lefebrue of Design Army gave an amazing talk about the agency and their process and how sketching is key to their concept development.

Lindsey Baker and Rufus Deuchler, Adobe Evangelist talked about the future of web design and Adobe Muse.

Chip Kidd, award-winning book jacket designer was entertaining as always. I will be posting a video of his talk in a future blog post.

My collegue Richard Ybarra, Professor and lead faculty at the Art Institute of California,San Diego and I had fun at the after party.

CITRON SPA

March 17, 2014October 4, 2015

Brand Identity, Web Design

Objective: To design a brand identity system for a new spa for women specializing in all natural products and promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Designer: Jessica Diaz

Instructor: Lindsey Baker

Process: Students start out by creating mood boards, brainstorming and developing the brand identity. For the website, the planning starts with a sitemap and wireframe, then web layouts. Finally a promotional item was required to serve to build brand recognition and word of mouth advertising.

Back to Student Showcase

Learn WordPress – Free download

December 21, 2013Leave a comment

Here is a download from a workshop I teach on WordPress

I teach at the Art Institute of California – San Diego and for the past two quarters I have been teaching a workshop in how to use WordPress. In a forum through AIGA that I participate in a former AI student asked me if I could share the resource so here it is.

This is a good place to start, when I first started using WordPress, I was clueless and it was daunting. There are so many variables, so I hope this helps anyone interested, in getting started with WordPress.

Download How To Use WordPress 11-13

If you need to learn Coding and CSS, there is an excellent class at Aquent Gymnasium. Other places I like learning programming and business subjects for free are Udacity and Khan University.

Hope this helps!