All posts in Events

MAD Exhibit: Look, do touch.

By melanie on June 13, 2013 in Cheers, Community, Events with No Comments

Velvet ropes, motion detectors, and glass boxes begone!

Anne‘s “Take One / Leave One” exhibit at the New York Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) allowed visitors to both contribute and bring home objects on display. Check out the full article about the event here, published today in The Atlantic.

Here’s a snapshot of items deemed museum-worthy by the public:

The curators hoped serious artists, designers, and crafts people, “who have been waiting to be collected by a museum,” would bring their artwork to MAD. But they also were excited by more random possibilities. “I really wished someone would have taken off their bra and left it there,” Quito says.

No bras were recorded in the log, but there are a few delightfully curious transactions among the 150 people who participated and who were asked to fill out a donation card with title, date, artist’s name (if known) and personal notes. Murray Moss, a well known design entrepreneur, left a vintage red star pin with a photo of the baby Lenin. Someone left a Chilean satirical newspaper with Barbie on the first page and took the donkey mask. A young boy left a pencil from the MET gift shop in exchange for a paper sculpture by a visiting artist at the MAD Museum. Another visitor swapped a Library card from Maryland for a urine test kit. Then there was a faulty iPod with “Superior Music” exchanged for a broken “10:15:37 cat o’clock” (a broken watch). One visitor wrote in the log: “Entry: I TOOK: ‘a look’ I LEFT: ‘happy.'”

Our Year in Pictures: 2012

By melanie on December 25, 2012 in AIGA, Community, Events, Hugs, Studio Life with Comments Off

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

By melanie on September 24, 2012 in AIGA, Community, Events, Studio Life with Comments Off

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

TEDxPhoenix: Double Ds for Change

By deanna on July 25, 2012 in Cheers, Classics, Community, Events with No Comments

Anne shares insight on designing full-time for development at TEDxPhoenix.

Irinn and Kung at Lumpini Park

By melanie on June 28, 2012 in Community, Events, Studio Life with Comments Off

So Irinn turns out to be a fantastic photographer and Kung a very persuasive model recruiter. Some never-before-seen images for a planned TEDxLumpiniWomen JR InsideOut Project collab.

Our Year in Pictures: 2011

By deanna on December 20, 2011 in Events, Studio Life with No Comments

Thank you for another inspiring year. Your work and passion fuel our creativity.

January
The perfect dozen cupcakes from Charles.

Carly and her sewing machine, prepping for our winning display at the “Project Runway” themed Social Change breakfast

February
Designers LOVE here. As a collective valentine to the beleaguered company we love, our team decided to make handmade greetings with found materials. No templates, no plans. Just pure improv with whatever was in front of us. It was great working with our hands again—paper, thread, glue. Check out the wild assortment of cards here:

March
A field trip to the Goethe Institut to view German for Beginners exhibit. Recap by Stefanie O’Brien, Design Lab’s resident secret design spy of German origin.

Day trip to NYC for kick-off meeting at the UNDP.

Pondering the um, suggestive painting in Anne’s office.

April
On April 15, 2011, a beautiful cloudless morning in Washington, DC, the AED sign goes down. Design Lab rescues the “A” which now hangs on our wall.

May
The beautiful and delightful Anna Frances Ledet Saab is born. Stef in the secret furniture storage on the 3rd floor.

Our Shared History Timeline project: Crowd sourcing AED’s history with staff milestones.

Five room installations for the Legacy celebration in two days. Egads. Stef feeling the ’80s.

Golden moment: Jeff Koons typography via Party City.

June
Anne’s dad visits the studio and takes in DC views from the rooftop. Anna at 1 month channeling Maggie Simpson.

Mid-day rebus challenge answer: STEFANIE + O+BRIAN

July
Meliha and the Legacy Awards. More than 300 awards, lovingly assembled and framed.

August

Brian in Botswana: Filming the BORNUS video with Duane and the Golden Teens group in Gaborone.

Break in case of emergency: 240 calories x 50 servings. Thank you Tom and Memo.

September
Change of scenery at the FHI 360 Asia Pacific Innovation Summit, Hua Hin, Thailand. In love with our new FHI 360 APRO family already — Tony and Jackie (with Allegra Jordan of Innovation Abbey).

Mayo Center Innovation Conference, Rochester, MN

Brilliant minds and the loveliest assortment of hipsters and dandies at the Barcelona AGI.

Melanie gets hitched!

October
The best unproductive Skype meeting ever.

Spotted: Carpet snag man outside Shannon’s office

November
Anne at TEDxPhoenix talking about the Double Ds for Change.

Celebrating Meliha’s birthday with spongey sweet cakes from the local bakery.

December
Flurry of activity for TEDxDupontCircle viewing party of TEDxWomen. The amazing women of Batala DC getting ready to go on stage.

Carly heads west to San Francisco for the HOW Interactive Design Conference and wins the HOWIDC Challenge!

Packed and ready to move to our temporary space as we wait for our new studio.

Pausing for a moody group picture by Holly Ladd.

Where’s Design Lab these days? Across the bridge, North Building, 11th floor, turn towards the double glass doors but don’t enter (that’s SMCC), then trek down the corridor…or just call us.