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April 17th, 2010

Recap: Wilmington High School, April 16th

Last fall, I met Mark Rembert and Taylor Stuckert at the Pop!Tech Conference in Maine where the three of us (and others) were part of the Social Innovation Fellows program. Mark and Taylor are the founders of Energize Clinton County, a community economic development group based in Wilmington, OH, which also happens to be their hometown. Watch their presentation above for the amazing story of how they ended up doing the work they’re doing today.

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Main Street, Wilmington

Of all the Fellows in the program, I seemed to relate most to Mark and Taylor, who believe in working locally, going deep into a problem, and committing resources to pervasive work with exponential impact. The two have backgrounds in economics and development and have applied the micro-local approach to bring a local food economy, downtown development, and community to Wilmington and the surrounding county. Their approach, like Project H’s, is in a way the anti-scalable, not looking to do one thing in a million places, but to do one thing well for the long-run.

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When we fist arrived, we headed to the local bar/hotel, the General Denver (above), where the food is great and the beer aplenty. Mark and Taylor know everyone, and in between greeting folks passing by, told us about how they took a “reverse boycott” approach to rally the bar to serve draft beer, how rural development is SO overlooked compared to urban issues, and how eventually the US will return to rural lives. We spoke about how we have all traveled to the far reaches of the earth, to challenging places without water and where we don’t speak the language, and yet the small town, where resources don’t come in droves like they do in big cities, is actually just as much of a challenge. And we heard about the county’s history, from a glacier bringing nutrients to the now agricultural region, to General Denver himself (yes, THAT Denver), the underground railroad stop which is now a KKK meeting spot, and the Murphy Theatre downtown founded by a former owner of the Cubs. Mark and Taylor have since been joined by some of their friends moving back to Wilmington to work and “make a home.” One of these “move-backers,” as they call them, is John Cropper, photographer and writer who came out to the trailer and wrote an article for the local paper (read it here).

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As Matt and I are in the process of moving to Bertie County, North Carolina, which is even more rural and poor by comparison to Clinton County but shares a lot of the same economic battles, we have drawn a lot of inspiration from Mark and Taylor (they are even a big chunk of our presentation as examples of the importance of working locally). And so, they were a logical second-to-last stop on our tour as we pulled up to Wilmington High School yesterday.

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Their friend Steve Reed, an art teacher, had organized a morning presentation to all art students, followed by four class periods of high school and middle school students coming out to see the road show. In the lecture, I asked what “design” meant to students, and one answered, “Gucci,” which so perfectly demonstrated why we need a design revolution. A group of 6th graders was working on an Invention Project, and were particularly inspired by the Hippo Roller and some of the solar gadgets that they said might inform their project. All the students were well-behaved and engaged, and as usual we loved sharing the work with a younger crop of students.

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In the afternoon, we stopped by the Clinton County Youth Council, run by Mark and Taylor’s friend Kevin. About fifteen middle and high school students were there for the after school program, and we did a brief show-and-tell, in which the One Laptop Per Child and “brass knuckles” Subtle Safety Ring were supremely popular.

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A particular thanks to Mark and Taylor for setting up the day with their friends and community, and a thanks to Taylor’s parents for letting us park outside their house!! We were so excited to end the road show with friends doing work that inspires us, and we do hope to come back to Wilmington soon, not only for the local asparagus served at the General Denver, but because here’s a place where the local commitment of youth and resources is truly making a difference.

April 16th, 2010

Daily Postcard: April 16th

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Kids at the Clinton County Youth Council check out the book!

April 15th, 2010

Quote From The Road: April 16th

When: April 16th, 10:15 a.m.
Where: Wilmington High School parking lot

Student #1, about to enter the trailer: “So is it awesome in there?”
Student #2, coming out of the trailer: “Yeah, it’s pretty dang sweet.”

April 15th, 2010

Quote From The Road: April 15th

When: April 15th, 11:59 a.m.
Where: In a meeting with design faculty at University of Cincinnati

Professor Sooshin Choi: “Design education is like Home Depot: You can do it. We can help.”

April 15th, 2010

Recap: University of Cincinnati, April 15th

Our former intern, Jince, is a student at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning (DAAP), so we were not at all surprised to see him out on the college’s lawn and the first to greet us with his usual jovial smile. Jince had helped us plan the event with help from his professor Sooshin Choi, pasted posters all over campus (so many that administration made him take them down), and is even the co-author of our Design Revolution Toolkit.

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As we pulled up to McMicken Commons, which is essentially the central nexus of campus, we were almost immediately mobbed by a group of excited DAAP students who had been awaiting our arrival. Our location was central to a slew of star-architect-designed buildings on campus, from Peter Eisenman to Frank Gehry. Before heading to our lecture, we enjoyed bagels with a select group of students and faculty who discussed DAAP’s program with us and asked for suggestions on how to move to a more social impact-driven collaborative model (though it seems they have some great studios in place already, including one looking at Cincinnati’s transportation system from the perspective a variety of disciplines). Sooshin Choi talked about the importance of building skills before you can rebel as a designer (as our intern Jince said, “I want to understand the beast before I tame it.”). We heard about the college’s co-op program, in which students spend every other term in an internship to better learn the profession from a real-world standpoint and extend their education into the practice of design.

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Jince interviews his fellow students about the Design Revolution (see video above)

After our lecture, in which we urged students to put pressure on faculty to teach more studios focused on social impact (the faculty was in a meeting), we headed back out to the trailer where we were joined by the Dean of the college, and dozens of others.

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It was great to catch up with Jince and some of his colleagues who are equally as impassioned about taking design beyond the product. We took a small detour to Graeter’s, the city’s famous ice cream establishment before packing up shop and taking to the road again. A HUGE thanks to Jince and everyone at DAAP for hosting our third-to-last-stop!

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April 15th, 2010

Daily Postcard: April 15th

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Driving in lovely western Ohio towards Cincinnati

April 14th, 2010

Daily Postcard: April 14th

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Wisconsin. JalapeƱo havarti. Awesome.

April 14th, 2010

Quote From The Road: April 14th

When: April 14th, 8:43 a.m.
Where: In an RV Park outside Madison, WI

Emily: “I don’t want to run fast, I want to run far.”
(On my goals as a runner, a statement which Matt thinks is begging to be analyzed by a psychologist)

April 14th, 2010

Recap: University of Wisconsin Stevens Point

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We rolled into the lovely town of Stevens Point in Central Wisconsin to kick off our last full week of the Design Revolution Road Show on Monday. UWSP was one that we were happy to be able to add to our itinerary after having already set most of the schedule. Nisha Fernando who heads the Interior Architecture department, had pulled tons of strings for us to be there (thank you Nisha!). Our visit was also one of our few 2-day stops. We parked in the parking lot near the Arts building, and across the plaza we had a great view of a student-done tile mural which we photographed the day before for our Daily Postcard.

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The school only has Interior Architecture, Graphic Design, and Fine Arts departments, and we spent most of our time with the Interior Architecture students. After visiting a few studios, in which the students were learning everything from space planning to basic drafting skills and how to compile a furniture schedule, we gave a lecture in one of the main lecture halls (we brought Junebug up on stage with us as well). Questions after inquired as to our process of working “blindly” with communities, and I reverted to an explanation of our “with, not for” tactics for bringing our clients, communities, and partners, in as co-designers in the process.

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After an afternoon of open exhibition time, in which we met some interested students who wanted to build Learning Landscapes locally and look more closely at the use of resources in dairy farming (yay for local engagement!), we joined some of the professors for a delicious Italian dinner. We learned about the best local brews in town (Central Waters and Point Brewing) and that the world’s largest renewable energy fair happens right outside Stevens Point!

On the second day, we enjoyed spending the morning with a senior class working on a hotel interior architecture project in Milwaukee. While most of our class critiques have been on conceptual product design projects, it was nice to look at construction documents and provide feedback on straightforward (albeit very creative) spatial solutions for a change. Despite the fact that the project was a high-end hotel, we found ways to speak to students about social impact within luxury, and how smart decisions about the use of space can change behavior for the better through design.

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Before leaving, a class of fifty or so graphic design students came out to visit the trailer, and asked questions about everything from the Lifestraw to the One Laptop Per Child, which we reminded were not perfect, and that critique is key in pushing design to more socially relevant places.

Thanks so much to Nisha Fernando and the entire faculty and staff and student body at UWSP Interior Architecture for hosting us and for the great 2-day visit!

April 13th, 2010

Daily Postcard: April 13th

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Detail of the awesome tile mural at UWSP (see it full scale here)