Design for change
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 10:47 PM Check out this inspiring TED presentation from a young woman whose non-profit approach to design is reshaping education in the poorest county in rural North Carolina.
Emily Pilloton is using grants, her own persistance and supportive educators to give students a design-centric educational environment that not only teaches important life skills but leaves lasting evidence of those lessons for the community as a whole to see and cherish.
It's pretty heady stuff to think a young woman can drive this kind of change amid such poor conditions. It shouldn't be surprising, given her TED bio that reads, in part:
"At graduate school, people were starting to talk more about sustainability, but I felt it lacked a human factor," she said. "Can we really call $5,000 bamboo coffee tables sustainable?" Convinced of the power of design to change the world, at age 26 Pilloton founded Project H to help develop effective design solutions for people who need it most.
I was once told the best design is design you don't see but which makes your life better, easier, more rewarding. This would seem to fit that bill.
