DESIGN FOR GOOD LAUNCHES

Design for Good is a non-profit alliance of leading global organisations that will directly harness the creative talent of thousands of designers to design and deliver positive impact against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, on a scale only possible through global collaboration.

Thousands of leading designers will work together across the alliance, to design new products and services to make direct progress against the SDGs. The solutions will all be made available open-source, to maximise their use by impacted communities. And NGOs will be involved throughout the programme each year, to ensure the solutions have real-world impact.

The Design for Good alliance comprises General Mills, Logitech, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft Xbox, Nedbank, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Philips and the Royal College of Art — with the aim to expand its ranks soon.

The design leaders at each of the founding companies will make up an advisory council that supports the 5,000-strong design community across all nine organizations in an unprecedented, nine-month initiative to design and develop open-source products and services to address some of society’s biggest challenges.

Combined, the Design for Good alliance already has over $400 billion in revenues, almost 1 million employees and 5,000 designers. Each organization has committed to allow their designers to work together in cross-company teams to research, design and develop products and services that will make a meaningful difference to the UN SDGs. “The scale of the environmental and societal challenges we face today — climate change, poverty, water and sanitation, global inequality and injustice — requires collaboration of equal scale if we are to find solutions for all people,” says Alastair Curtis, Chief Design Officer at Logitech. “The role of a designer is to improve the way we live; and this is a chance of a lifetime to do just that. Design for Good harnesses the talents of a world-class design community, unleashes the force of our collective experience, and can catalyze innovation and social change. It’s time to act.”

Each year, Design for Good will focus on one UN SDG. In this, its inaugural year, the alliance will seek to address Goal 6, focused on clean water and sanitation. Billions of people worldwide live without safely managed drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services, which are critical for protecting human health. Gilbert Houngbo, Chair of UN-Water, is a trustee of Design for Good and will help cultivate the support of local NGOs in communities most affected to provide insights into real-world needs and constraints, to ensure designers’ solutions are sustainable. Design solutions may address issues such as access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene; the promotion of desalination, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies; or the implementation of integrated water resources management.

The Board of Trustees for Design for Good already comprises Houngbo, Benedict Sheppard (Partner, McKinsey & Company), Nick de Leon (Executive, Royal College of Art) and John Maeda (technologist and designer). The participation of local NGOs is integral to the initiative, providing insights and support to the designers from the outset to ensure the products are based on real user needs and constraints. Each year’s program is run over 6+ months to allow sufficient time for iteration within impacted communities.

All new solutions will be made available to the impacted communities on an open-source, license-free basis to maximise impact. The most promising initiatives will be given additional funding and support to scale their benefit further.

Visit the Design for Good website here for more information.

Main Image: Design for Good

World Design Capital® 2024

The World Design Organization (WDO) announced today that the cities of San Diego (USA) and Tijuana (Mexico) have been jointly named World Design Capital® (WDC) 2024 as a result of their commitment to human-centered design and legacy of cross-border collaboration to transform the region’s natural and built environments.

The cities were awarded the designation by the WDC 2024 Selection Committee, comprising seven international experts in the fields of design, urban planning, and economic and social development.

As noted by WDO President and Chairman of the Selection Committee, Srini Srinivasan, “The San Diego-Tijuana bid showcases the power of design to unite and connect us, despite geographical differences. Their culture of design innovation and unique urban landscape were well-represented throughout their bid, and the region is poised to develop a WDC program that will serve as a model for other border cities around the world.”

Set between mountains to the East and the Pacific Ocean to the West, San Diego and Tijuana are situated across the busiest land border in the Western Hemisphere, representing an important transit hub and future global market.

Under the theme of HOME (Human-Centred, Open, Multidisciplinary / Multicultural, Experimental), the San Diego-Tijuana bid was put forth by the Design Forward Alliance. With a particular focus on equity, access and inclusion, the region is hoping to position the transnational community as a place of design synergy and opportunity.

With plans to leverage the WDC platform to build upon years of binational collaboration, representatives on behalf of San Diego and Tijuana hope the designation will cultivate an even more robust design-driven ecosystem across local industries, communities and governments.

As noted by Michele Morris, President of the Design Forward Alliance, “This is about showing the world that we are more than just a border or two border cities. We are one regional home to 7 million people who are more alike than they are different and who partner in many incredible and groundbreaking ways.”

Moscow (Russia) was the other shortlisted city for the title of World Design Capital 2024. Their bid, put forth by the Agency of Creative Industries (ACI), highlighted the city’s rich design history as well as the ongoing achievements of the city’s design community. It was indeed a difficult decision put forward by the Selection Committee as both bids were very impressive, and WDO plans to work with Moscow to establish other design programs in due course.

WDC is a biennial designation that recognises cities for their effective use of design to drive economic, social, cultural, and environmental development. 2024 will mark the ninth cycle for the program, with San Diego and Tijuana being the first binational designation in the program’s history.