This is a very cool project archiving common symbols that are globally recognizable, free, and simple - a useful resource for designers or anyone who needs a good visual language reference.

Interest no. 6: "The focus of the interest deals with gang related crime and whether the Danes have changed behavior because of it."

Interest no.4: "The focus of the interest deals with whether or not the Danes think it's ethical to wear religious symbols in public professions."

Orntoff's Infographics project attempts to put data into context by using representative images.  I'd perhaps tweak the actual representation used to better match each data set (e.g. proportions are unclear in the second example) but the general concept is brilliant. See more images and more context at his site.

In this volume, photographer Frédéric Chaubin reveals 90 buildings sited in fourteen former Soviet Republics which express what could be considered as the fourth age of Soviet architecture. They reveal an unexpected rebirth of imagination, an unknown burgeoning that took place from 1970 until 1990. Contrary to the twenties and thirties, no “school” or main trend emerges here. These buildings represent a chaotic impulse brought about by a decaying system. Their diversity announces the end of Soviet Union.

BlogLESS: Talk to me about why the program was founded?
ZD: The reason for founding the MFA in Collaborative Design is summed up nicely by Peter Schoonmaker of Illahee, one of the mentors in the program. His Twitter bio says "Seeking non-trivial solutions to wicked problems." I think there is a pretty clear recognition in the world of design that the wicked problems facing the planet require an approach that works between and even transcends disciplines and takes into account the needs and desires of many more human and non-human actors than are currently consulted by designers.

These ideas and the need for this program have been percolating over the last five years at PNCA, and finally became a reality this year. I am very excited to be part of a program that allows students create work with native wetland species as their primary clients! What do the wetland plants want, and how do we make these designs viable and integrated? What other stakeholders need to be taken into account?

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My friend Zack is helping to launch a new graduate program at PNCA in Oregon this fall. The program is focused on a number of things that we here at BlogLESS love - collaborative research across disciplines, design that addresses new challenges, systems thinking, and plain old good design. If I were in the market for an MFA program, I'd be very much into this one. From the program's site:

Participants will encounter and co-create a series of expanded design practices and will develop skills to meaningfully address the emerging challenges of the 21st century. Working in transdisciplinary studio teams, students will respond to design briefs containing challenges such as resource depletion, emerging technologies, urban demographic change, and global climatic shifts. These environmental, social and technological challenges demand design practices that assemble and maintain networks of people, places and artifacts in order to develop non-trivial solutions. Students will graduate with a portfolio of projects that feature design as a process for considering and acting in a complex and highly interconnected world.

They have a ton more information on their site, as well as a tumblr which showcases work & inspiration. Applications are due at the beginning of April.

I like the whole "light-emitting-wireframe" concept, but two things bug me:

1.) How good does it look in the daylight, or if your decor is not black and matte gray?

2.) Why not hide the power cable more? Does it really have to hang off the light source? Why not figure out a way to work it into the frame? It ruins the lines.

Maybe I'm just not the right audience...

With ever-increasing evidence of the links between the environment and our health, this project is timely as well as awesome.

Warning Signs is a visualization of the pollution that exists invisibly all around us. When the wearable senses carbon monoxide, the piece subtly changes color and pattern to indicate higher levels of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere to the wearer and those around him or her. This piece was designed and created by Nien Lam and Sue Ngo.

Check out the color change in action here. Via.