Plane crashes aren’t often uplifting occurrences — unless Tom Hanks and a volleyball are involved — but minus all of the carnage, there is a certain beauty that comes through in the mangled chaos of wreckage. Scott Teplin’s Flight 704 shirt design manages to cut through the discord of aviation-related accidents to find an aesthetic happy place where artistry lives amongst the twisted scraps of metal and seat upholstery on an asphalt colored American Apparel tee. And if you have trouble reconciling something as horrible as an airliner colliding with the ground with personal style, just know that purchasing this shirt at designgive allows you to donate a portion of the proceeds to a charity of your choosing.
There’s little that’s not to love about jacket creator Jules Elin: the designs are flattering, fairly priced, and made in the City by the Bay. Not to mention that the current fall collection is made from 70% organic cotton and a portion of the proceeds benefit Dress for Success, an organization that promotes economic independence by providing professional attire for disadvantaged women.
Designer Julie Elin Burnbaum plays with a few eye-catching touches on her coats, including graphic lining and large hoods. “Erla” and “Soley” are among her pieces’ descriptions and named after loved ones. A website with these individuals’ stories and styles is set to launch next spring — good thing we’ve got her creations to stay warm in the meantime.
Designer Jamie Lim has found a way to combine two of ’08’s big themes, social enterprise and large specs, with her creation of the sustainable sunglasses company KAYU. Frustrated in her role as an IT consultant, she wanted work with a triple bottom line focus and broke off on her own. Her first frames are light yellow and made of bamboo, creating a nice break from the seemingly unending stream of Tom Fords. Additional KAYU styles and colors will be available by the end of the year, and the best part is that each pair sold pays for sight-restoring surgery in Ghana and India through Unite for Sight. Looks good, does good.
While the Brazilian street art invasion continues to migrate to the farthest walls of the world, its home territory is getting action from outside street artists as well. A few months ago Parisian stencil artist C215 joined up with the non-profit group Children At Risk Foundation, which gives kids in Sao Paulo’s Diadema favela a place and program to spend their time productively. He registers the experience in a neat, fresh video that follows him around the shantytown, adding 2-D faces and color. Anyone want to take bets that Banksy’s next piece will be found behind a dumpster somewhere in Brazil?
Technology Entertainment Design has once again put the challenge to their community to become modern-day genies.
The 2009 TED winners include oceanographer Sylvia Earle, SETI researcher Jill Cornell Tarter, and the founder of a Venezuelan children’s orchestra, José Antonio Abreu. Not only do these humanitarians receive $100,000 for their efforts, they get the far greater prize of getting one wish. There’s no Aladdin, no Robin Williams — just a room full of bright and capable innovators listening to three ideas that will better mankind. The next TED convention takes place February 5th, 2009. Expect a little magic.
The Anakin Skywalker of hip-hop, Lupe Fiasco has remained steadfast in his position as one of the most mature artists in the game. Rather than signing on the dotted line for every endorsement that comes along (excuse him for the Reebok campaign), Lupe is making sound choices when it comes to who he is teaming up with. Recently, he joined forces with Dr. Romanelli to design a pair of flashy patent leather Chuck Taylors as part of the Converse PRODUCT (RED) line. I have to give credit to Converse for promoting the cause and continuing to churning out stunners with industry heavyweights such as Lupe and Romanelli.
You might see quite a few of your favorite blogs playing this video today. That’s because today is Blog Action Day. Thousands of bloggers are taking time out to focus on the issue of poverty and what the online community is saying about it. We’ve taken our own spin on some creative activist products and issues over the years:
Two of my favorite groups have gotten together for a seriously awesome collaboration that takes words off the page and puts them into pockets. For the When Wallets Eat Words workshop, McSweeney’s 826LA arm got its young, aspiring writers to imagine short tales for the inside of Poketo’s wallets in their own scrawl. Those stories provided the inspiration for seven lucky big-name artists you already know and adore (like Tim Biskup, Christine Castro and John Pham). Poketo’s website features interviews with each artist about their collaboration, and the even sweeter photos of the proud authors posing with their wallet. I can’t see a better way to spend my $20. All proceeds go to fund 826LA’s writing programs.
It seems Etsy’s crafty influence has rubbed off on eBay, and with good reason. Melbourne artists have donated their work for FUSION 2008, a global street art charity auction that benefits Kids Under Cover. By buying a print, individuals can help the organization raise money to construct bungalows for families and educational scholarships for homeless youth. The Aussie organizers at nearby university RMIT explain that “artists are donating fresh work for this exhibition, and all of it is available to you no matter where you live, whether it be in New York, London, Paris, Melbourne, or in some god forsaken place in the middle of nowhere.” Most of the prints and collages are only available for the next four days.
Andy Yan has created a monster! Actually, he’s created several monsters. Originally he had only planned on putting his adorable animated ogres to work for himself, as a way to ask a girl he liked to the prom. Instead, he founded a clothing company and a much greater purpose for his AndyMonsters. Using the images of his tenacious teddy bears for a cause even more noble than a date, Mr. Yan has teamed up to raise money for some very deserving charities. One hundred percent of the proceeds from his “Smile” shirts will go to Smile Train, a charity that raises money for surgery for children with clef palates. Meanwhile, all of the proceeds from his “Wishing You Well” design benefit The Water Project, an organization that build wells for clean drinking water in third world countries. It turns out AndyMonsters might not be such monsters after all.
Here at JoshSpear.com we follow the lyrical example in Michael Jackson’s 1991 Song “Heal The World,” by attempting to “heal the world, make it a better place, for you and for me and the entire human race.” It’s this dedication that has led to our being on Home Rejuvenation’s second annual list of potential winners for Ten Most Influential Design Bloggers co-sponsored by Wallpaper*. Whether we lock up a privileged spot is entirely up to you. We beg you to head on over to their site and rock the vote by sending in a maximum of five choices before the October 16th deadline. Doing so makes you eligible to receive a free year of the print version of Wallpaper*.
In case a bit of women’s wrestling and a mannequin factory tour aren’t enough for your Thursday evening, maybe adding Iran’s Islam Revolution and transgender politics will do the trick. The LUNAFEST Film Festival premiers in San Francisco with an ‘08 lineup that’s eclectic to say the least. The Palace of Fine Arts will mark the first stop on the nationwide tour of “short films by, for, and about women” on September 18. Twenty dollars gets you a seat for 10 films, and host Luna Bar says every penny benefits the Breast Cancer Fund. Does that go for Sour Patch Kids purchases as well?
Throwing out rubbish is not something you’d think to make more interesting, but Dominic Wilcox has come up with a project that will have you finding reasons to make that trip to the trash can. As part of the Vipp charity auction, the idea man has created a Xylophone Bin, which consists of a xylophone spiraling down the outside of an everyday dustbin with a lid. Hit the pedal to pop the lid, and when it closes you are treated to the inexplicably pleasant sound of an erratic descending scale courtesy of a metal ball released upon the lid’s shutting. Sound weird? It is.
Recently launched Causecast “brings together nonprofits, community leaders, activists, celebrities and brands, with the goal of making a positive impact on the world.” Working with hand-selected charities and non-profits, Causecast is giving some much-deserved internet exposure to organizations who may be struggling in that arena. Users of the site can upload content, connect with like-minded individuals and stay up-to-date on a variety of causes.
Educating yourself is the first step in making a difference, and it seems like this will be a great educational resource and conduit for good. Design props to Bobby Solomon from Kitsune Noir as well, who headed up the prettiness of it all. Looking forward to seeing the progress to be made!
Let’s be straight, buying a bottle of water is much easier than donating some money to a charity of a worthy cause. The people at Project7 hope to bridge the gap by selling you bottled water. The company uses its sales to help tackle what they see as the seven areas of need: Build the Future, Feed the Hungry, Heal the Sick, Help those in Need, Hope for Peace, House the Homeless and Save the Planet. Fair enough, here’s the hook, Project7 sells bottled water with various labels describing one of these problems. By purchasing the bottle with the ‘Hope for Peace’ label the charities associated with peace efforts will receive the money from the sale. Pick your charity and buy your water. Its never been so easy.
Andy Yan has created a monster! Actually, he’s created several monsters. Originally he had only planned on putting his adorable animated ogres to work for himself, as a way to ask a girl he liked to the prom. Instead, he founded a clothing company and a much greater purpose for his 
Let’s be straight, buying a bottle of water is much easier than donating some money to a charity of a worthy cause. The people at 
