Use and Reuse

Via PSFK and Dinosaurs and Robots

In 1963 Heineken introduced a beer bottle brick. Called the World Bottle this ingenious design helped solve the problem of refuse and broken glass littering the beaches of the Caribbean coupled with the problem many islands face, a lack of affordable building materials. Wish they'd bring this back!

Brand Immersion: A Wish for World Peace

In December I first wrote about Pangea Day and shared their call to action - make a film that can change the world.

The thesis: What if everyone in the world watched the same film at the same time? How would it transform us? How would it unite us?

Now, in a mere 36 days, we'll see the fruits of that labor. On May 10, 2008, at 6:00 PM GMT (2:00pm EST) millions of people from all over the world will come together to share a program of short films, talks and music, broadcast on TV, the web and mobile phones around the world.

People all around the world are becoming Friends of Pangea Day, hosting large and small viewing parties to share this four-hour program of films from around the globe. You can be part of it.

Attend an event in your neighborhood or create and host your own event.

Pangea Day was conceived by Jahane Noujaim, a visionary documentary film maker (Control Room and StartUp.com). It is the result of Jahane's Ted Prize winning wish for world peace.

Brand Immersion: Design and the Elastic Mind

Yesterday I took a brief walk through Design and the Elastic Mind, a new exhibition at MOMA. The simplest way to describe it is "rocket fuel for the mind."

The web version of the installation is far more eloquent...

"Adaptability is an ancestral distinction of intelligence, but today’s instant variations in rhythm call for something stronger: elasticity, the product of adaptability plus acceleration. Design and the Elastic Mind explores the reciprocal relationship between science and design in the contemporary world by bringing together design objects and concepts that marry the most advanced scientific research with attentive consideration of human limitations, habits, and aspirations. The exhibition highlights designers’ ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and history—changes that demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior—and translate them into objects that people can actually understand and use. "

This goes beyond being a typical museum exhibition. It is an experience that requires a clear head and a few hours. You'll want to drink in every word on the walls as your brain wraps itself around images and objects that are beautiful, shocking, pragmatic and fantastical. As my friend Yael remarked, "it is like being a kid in a science museum." Information is being crammed into your brain in great volume, at lightening speed and all of it is wonderful - in the every sense of the word.

Only Bruce Mau's Massive Change exhibition comes close to helping us look at the world in important new ways and understand our role in designing changes that are necessary and important.

Skip working late on Friday and see it for free or grab three friends over the weekend and take the plunge. Then let me know what you think.

If you are not going to be in New York before the exhibition closes on May 12th, see the amazing online companion to the exhibit (masterful visual organization of information) at http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/

Brand Immersion: Water for All

Water. Vital to our existence. In the United States we've elevated water to being a status symbol. There are those who feel compelled to spend handsomely on bottled water. And others who understand the folly of that. But what happens when access to water makes it a very dear and scarce resource? Here's an amazing and beautifully designed innovation for those in third-world countries who must travel for their water and contend with sanitary storage of it.

Can Your Film Change the World?

Make a film.
Share it with the world. (submit by Feb 15, 2008).
Change the world.