February 8th, 2010
Before we left San Francisco, we met up with Rob Forbes (formerly of Design Within Reach), who has just launched a new venture called Public Bikes. Tagline: “Mass transit for one.” The mission of Public Bikes is to encourage people to be more conscious of the way they get around every day, and to provide them with beautiful, low-maintenance, easy to use bikes to make it that much easier to get around responsibly. While the company doesn’t officially launch until later this Spring, they’re promoting a few bike models they love including the Dahon folding bike, which I’ll be riding for the duration of our road show (mostly from RV Park to morning coffee from the gas station down the road). Check out more of Public’s mission here. Thanks Rob!!
Riding my Dahon at dusk at Art Center in Pasadena
February 7th, 2010
When: February 7th, 12:10 pm
Where: Pulling into Art Center on Super Bowl Sunday, Pasadena, CA
Emily (to Matt): “Can we please book a cheap motel tonight so we can have cable and watch the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet?!” (More info on the Puppy Bowl, a canine version of the Super Bowl, here)
February 7th, 2010
We just pulled up to the Art Center College of Design’s beautiful Hillside Campus in Pasadena, looking forward to a full day tomorrow. While the daytime programming (lecture and open exhibition hours) are mostly for students, come on down from 6-10pm for a public reception hosted by GOOD and Art Center’s Alumni. We’ll have books for sale, refreshments, and of course a nighttime viewing of the road show trailer. View the invitation here.
February 6th, 2010
Picnic benches and a soon-to-set sun at the Pyramid Lake RV Park (Interstate 5 Grapevine in CA)
February 6th, 2010
Wind turbines on the Altamont Pass (east of Livermore, CA)
February 6th, 2010
Students hard at work at the Academy of Art
February 6th, 2010
When: February 6th, 11:02 am
Where: The common room (during a senior citizens’ meeting) at an RV Park in Patterson, CA
Elderly man: “My TV says Dunkin Donuts is the best coffee.”
February 6th, 2010
When: February 5th, 5:42 pm
Where: Driving our rig, just outside Livermore, CA.
Emily: “It’s so nice, but rare, when my to-do list for the day fits on one page of a Word document.”
Matt: “My to-do list for today? … Drive.”
February 5th, 2010
Our 5th stop in 5 days, we spent today at San Francisco State University, hosted by their Design and Industry department chaired by Ricardo Gomes. San Francisco State is home to Whirlwind Wheelchair, and boasts an entirely accessible campus. We were asked to rethink the trailer exhibition (the trailer does not have a ramp or a door wide enough for wheelchairs to enter) so that it might be accessible and of course we were happy to oblige.
Because we designed the exhibition around a modular unit (the milk crate), we were easily able to simply transport all our products and set up shop in front of the Coppola Theatre lecture hall in the Design and Industry building. The foyer space in front of the theatre made for a great space to install our shelves of products on tables, tiered using our milk crates.
The lecture began at noon, and after a few technical glitches I presented the Design Revolution as a call-to-action to all in the audience. The Q&A was lively and supportive. Ralf Hotchkiss, founder of Whirlwind Wheelchair brought a colleague who had an important question about accessibility in design. He raised the point that while Project H’s work is responsive to human needs and accessible to all, the fact that it has been designed with physical accessibility in mind should be made explicit as one of our design values. He raised the point that while more and more things are wheelchair accessible thanks to ADA requirements, very few designers or engineers explicitly make accessibility a core value to what they do.
After the lecture, we filtered into the foyer area to check out the exhibition. Other students group joined our communal exhibition, including iDo (Industrial Design Outreach), an amazing on-campus team that “promote the field of industrial design and use its methodologies to enhance the education of both high school and university students.” Department head Ricardo Gomes’ adorable son was in attendance to test out the Hippo Roller (below), along with dozens of students and educators. It was a great afternoon event to end a wonderfully eventful week!
