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Our Year in Pictures: 2012

2012 was a year for the record books.  300++ projects, 12 designers, 1 new outpost in Bangkok, 2 office moves, 80 APHA posters in 4 weeks, a 400+ page volume of charts, 5 conferences, 4 pregnancies, 2 babies (so far) — it was a productive and fertile year.

January

Happy Birthday, Brian! A sweet pairing of chocolate cake and hand-crafted paper flowers.

 

February

Stef back at the UN.

Brian tests the new video cam.

March

Carly weaves daisies into a delightful message for Design Lab’s booth at the Global Leadership Meeting.

Everybody loved the booth and binders too.

 

Anne in FHI 360 orange with Liza at the GLM Closing event.

April

Matt Mattassa, official understudy for TEDxDupontCircle speakers.

More hosting duties for yellowpants: “Have a great, er good Friday!” at  TEDxChange TEDxDupontCircle

Melanie scribbling on the TEDxDupontCircle wall (that she ordered!)

May

Un voyage à Paris? Mais oui! A stroll through the City of Light after meeting with UNESCO. Followed by THE BEST. MEAL. EVER.

  

How’s it hanging in the FHI 360 PQC (aka condom exploding lab)? Kung shows off her…*ahem*…package designs. (Yes, she designed the pink strawberry!)

 

June

Just hangin’ out…

Leanne joins Brian, Jake and Anne at the Vimeo Film Festival. (It was a windy day.) Cool video wall in the Gehry-designed IAC Headquarters building.

   

July

Design Lab moves to new studio! So many, many, many boxes.

Kung visits DC! Taking her out for some Southern Hospitality.

Birthdays – sponsored by Google Hangout

Homemade (in-house illustration) Candy. Welcome to Design Lab, Kay! How did we exist for so long without you?

August

Meliha auditioning to be a Pantene model. #glamphotobomb

Scenes from Design Lab Pet Thursdays. Note the kitty stare-off.

September

Louis Frederick Saab III is born! Congrats to Deanna, now the mother of two. (But seriously, how can she look this good moments after delivery?!)

Working and working out….

Major team headache effort: APHA Conference Posters. Signed, sealed, delivered – 80 research posters for in 4 weeks.

Good morning, AIGA DC!: Lively and passionate audience at AIGA Salon“How to Design for Good, Full-time

October

After a long search… Welcome Irinn to Design Lab/Bangkok! (Something tells us that you’re going to fit right in)

Congratulations to the new Mrs. Shannon Smith Dyson!

WOW! Our laser cut Marian Bantjes poster on display at Cooper-Hewitt’s Graphic Design: Now in Production

November

Thanksgiving package. Welcome to earth, Stella Marie O’Brien. Stef gets a new name: MOM.

 

December

Design without a dime…Kay crafts a message for our wall using tape, paper, and whatever else is lying around the studio.

And then the Rauschenberg arrives…

 

Our BKK ladies…at play work

 

Prepping for first ever TEDxLumpini at the stellar FHI 360 APRO office in Bangkok.

Irinn’s concept note: An “X” forms when you bridge the space between “> <”

Last checks with Kung, the “AV” director (It means different in BKK. Scroll to 1:46 to find out.) with Pailin and the inspiring TEDx speaker / horse whispherer Dr. Siraya.

Anne with the lovely Jackie McPherson

Thank you to AIGA and the fine folks who attended our studio tour.

Holiday mini potluck. On the menu: Kay kale, Peruvian chicken, noodles, a blueberry pie, green tea crepe cake and Brian’s divine ginger crème brûlée. Naps.

 

 

 

“Design for Good”: A Working Definition

Opening remarks from the AIGA DC Salon: How to Design for Good, Full Time, September 24, 2012, Washington, DC

“Design for Good” is any form of design work that aspires to better someone’s life. To me, it is a distinct facet of the design practice, a specialization as discreet as branding or interactive design. Designers working in this field have expertise in the traditional aspects of graphic design — print, web, interactive — but will have one special power: empathy.

Aside our usual obsessions — fonts, paper, the smell of ink, kerning— we are also keenly interested in people, in history, in current events, in culture and care to know how our work is received and how we can do better next time. Our work supports, vivifies and amplifies programs. Change doesn’t happen when the brochures are delivered from the printer.  Design is part of the process and not the end.

Design for Good is iterative. Inclusive rather than exclusive. We co-create. To be effective, our work must be timely and responsive, not just to a client deadline but say, to the urgency of a burgeoning epidemic. We are pragmatic as we are idealistic.

What we won’t be able to spend time on is the word “Good”. There are gradients to “good” perhaps enough to warrant its own Salon. At times, “Design for Good” can be political or critical. But at the heart of Design for Good is always a love for community, a cause and the other. Design for Good” is animated with a zeal for service. —AQ