#LondonDesignBiennale back for the 2025 edition: "Surface Reflections" - what futures we want to build?

⚡ Through craft, making, governance & skills, resilience and circularity comes from placing people at the centre of design.

#Instituteforglobalprosperity @ucl.ac.uk @designcouncil.bsky.social.

NEW: 2024 has just been confirmed as the warmest year on record, and the first to breach the 1.5C threshold.

We used a ridgeline (Joy Division inspired) chart to visualise daily temperature anomalies since 1940.

2024 clearly stands out with 100% of its days above 1.3C and 75% above 1.5C.

In honour of great Thomas Matthews agency, we are reposting an old manifesto image today to honour the firm closing.

Much of their work was made in the image of the first ever public declaration for design to transform our society and planet, First Things First).

HUGE Respect Sophie + the team.

Always a pleasure to see #HatoStudio 's work. This rebrand for the #NewContemporaries 75th anniversary (showing this year at the ICA in London) raises many questions about how graphics can contribute to the "continuously changing collection of matter".

www.itsnicethat.com/articles/hat...

Urban Community Land Trusts are gaining attention as a response to the housing crisis. 👀

However, it’s not just urban areas that can benefit from the CLT model, writes Tom Bennett, a director at Studio Bark architects. Read more. ⬇️
https://bit.ly/40DHKCj

We couldn't have put it better ourselves.

This week’s newsletter is another Creator Note: being alive to opportunity, and the story of how I missed one of the biggest that came my way.

www.aftershocks.co/p/creator-no...

And thank god for #JeremyDeller. He pens an interesting piece on the fear and hesitancy facing artists/designers being vocal on Gaza. Not surprising, given the 'cultural clampdown' we are witnessing in Germany. (bit.ly/4g8uaeT)

Needs a re-read: Legendary sociologist W.E.B Du Bois was using data visualisation to challenge racism more than 100 years ago. Reminds me of the powerful illustrations of enslaved people packed into Western ships - rational yet horrifying design.

One from the archives - really worth checking: exploring how #data & #design can create social change in times of crisis, introduced by @leoniebell.bsky.social. @martaforesti.bsky.social, @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social and others... buff.ly/3we99cq

“The idea of design has to be transformed from the notion of a specialist function, to [an] attitude of resourcefulness and inventiveness which allows projects to be seen not in isolation but in relationship with the needs of the individual and community” László Moholy-Nagy, ‘45

Fight! UIers vs UXers.

👏 "I’ve come to understand the importance of broadening our perspectives beyond the Western framework. Today... I see design as a tool for liberation – a means to reclaim and reshape narratives, bridging worlds and histories."

www.itsnicethat.com/articles/gra...

"A brand system built to solve only for today risks becoming irrelevant tomorrow. A strong identity doesn’t just offer rules for consistency; it also provides a kind of time capsule – seeds of ideas that anticipate where the brand might need to go." Elizabeth Goodspeed (@goodspeed.bsky.social)

So true: "what might seem like gossip over semantics actually speaks to a larger question: who gets to own a brand’s story when multiple studios contribute to its evolution?"

A key tenant of design for a new world: "the kind of leadership required rests most of all in a willingness to make a genuine invitation to everyone to collaborate for the common good, across private and public sectors, and, critically, the community at large".

The absolute don of graphic design, Ken Harland. Feels suitable for our first ever repost on Blue Sky :)