Wednesday

TASK 4 - Corporate social responsibility (CSR)


Corporate Social Responsibility is the commitment by companies to contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment. Other definition is that CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society or how they incorporate social and environmental concerns and also ethical standards in their business operations. A company which shows a good CSR policy is Nike.


“It’s not just about getting better at what we do – addressing impacts throughout our supply chain – it’s about striving for the best, creating value for the business and innovating for a better world. Athletes push themselves toward higher and higher levels of performance. They want to achieve that breakthrough moment, their personal best. As environmental, social and economic challenges in our world proliferate, they demand our best performance.” That`s their approach to corporate responsibility.

 























The reason why I chose Nike is their market position as on of the world's leading athletic brand. “We’re using the power of our brand, the energy and passion of our people and the scale of our business to create meaningful change. The opportunity is greater than ever for our sustainability strategy to drive business growth, build deeper consumer and community connections, and create positive social and environmental change. We’re focusing our corporate responsibility efforts in the areas in which we can have the greatest impact and create the most value: Through the materials we design into our products, through the process of making those materials and products, and in the world of sport where our products are used.”

Values, ethics and moral responsibility
Like everyone in their professional activities, designers have responsibilities not only to their clients or employers but to society as well. A graphic designer cannot be separated from the social dynamics that happen around him. For instance, when a designer sees global warming destructs the earth he has to do something. Graphic designers must use their work to increase public awareness of a variety of social issues. Across the globe as well as on an individual level, they are being challenged to create work that’s socially responsible.


Different viewpoint

Henry Steiner is a designer with a different viewpoint, believing that graphic design does not have any moral implication. He cited as an example the Nazi’s swastika symbol, explaining it was the most successful and important corporate identity created in the 20th century. Although the entire world condemns what Adolf Hitler and Nazi had done, 
it does not imply that the swastika is a bad design.
...part of a designer’s personal ethics requires the ability to communicate, understand and identify the client’s problems. Therefore, to Steiner, social responsibility has nothing to do with professional design standards.
Except ethics and values, I think that my personal social responsibilities as a designer must be focused more on sustainable design solutions.




Thursday

Signage & wayfinding


I just came across this web. while researching about typography and what I found is very strong and impressive works...I thought to share the link with you!
They have been involved in some signage and wayfinding projects and 
I really like what they do.


büro uebele
Signage system and interior design adidas Laces 2011
www.uebele.com

http://www.uebele.com/en/projekte/orientierungssystem/adidas-laces.html#i1




Monday

TASK 2 - Wayfinding

WAYFINDING
Contemporary sign system

Wayfinding encompasses all of the ways in which people orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place. In more modern times, it has been used in the context of architecture to refer to the user experience of orientation.

As part of my second task of “Wayfinding” at Critical debates in Design, I have chosen to evaluate the Westfield shopping center wayfinding system.
At the end of 2008, the Westfield Shopping Centre (Shepherds` Bush, London) was opened, an indoor shopping centre whose dimensions in area and exploitation potential can only be described as ‘spectacular’. It was the largest urban shopping centre ever, a city within a city. You can also find banks and pharmacies there, as well as cinemas and restaurants, whose international diversity offers a vast selection to satisfy the tastes of its visitors.
 

The internal life of this empire of progressive experience offers an enormous wealth of shopping and recreational possibilities, to include spas, sports and culinary facilities. Westfield integrates exclusive designer boutiques and fashion shops with supermarkets and dry cleaning stores, all under one roof. While researching I have found out that Westfield commissioned PearsonLloyd to deliver a unified concept for all the on-mall messaging and signage which included static wayfinding, digital signage, concierge reception desks and interactive wayfinding information points. They were provided and technically implemented by Rosskopf & Partner. Due to its optimum possibilities of translucence and thermal shaping, solid surface material was selected for manufacturing all of these elements. The ingenious results in forming these exceptional objects can be seen throughout the centre. Individual objects were designed that called for progressive solutions that previously had never been produced in this form anywhere in the world. The unique organic shapes conceived by PearsonLloyd were fabricated from LG Hi-Macs by world leading manufacturers Rosscopf and Partner AG with the Concierge Reception desks actually being fabricated on site.
10 Squared were commissioned by Westfield to modify the conceptual designs of the Interactive Rings to ensure that form did not compromise function and then to design, manufacture and install the touch screen technology module. In all, 32 interactive screens were installed including the 4 screens on the Concierge Reception Desks. Each screen is direct sunlight viewable and in order to provide the highest possible screen clarity is glass bonded, which has the added benefit of making the screen incredibly rugged.

The idea, aesthetic, choice of materials and technical implementation of innovative ideas were translated into formats that are best described as ‘avant-garde’. On the other side, except the futuristic forms unseen before (for me) I can say that the system of orientation and digital map screens there show us how sophisticated is the way of communication and how their client-connection is established. However, while this contemporary sign system does his job very well, I think that sometimes there is not enough information and I can find it a bit confusing to find the displays in such a big mall.
Even though that at the beginning the wayfinding system may not be familiar with all ages, which may have trouble finding them due to size of the facility in general and problems to navigate due to some of their digital forms, I think that this system has brought some new standards of modern signage, image and communication. 
 
















References:
http://www.rosskopf-partner.co.uk/case-studies/westfield-shoppingcentre/benoy-international-architects/ http://www.rosskopf-partner.co.uk/case-studies/westfield-shoppingcentre/westfield-group/
http://www.10squared.co.uk/westfield.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayfinding