A Better World By Design, a Big Success

This past weekend Providence played host to the first ever Better World By Design Conference. A Better World by Design posed the question of how can we use technology to improve the world? By bringing together a wide range of attendee’s from the business and media world to industrial designers and architects, A Better World By Design was an innovative and rousing event that championed novel ways of dealing with poverty, the environment and many other social crises.

Talks were given by dozens of industry leaders, panel discussions were held by established professionals, with topics ranging from Sustainability in Architecture to Green Consumer Products. Along with the panel discussions, Cameron Sinclair and Iqbal Quadir delivered inspiring keynote speeches on how responsible design and capital flows can positively impact the developing world. Our own Matt Grigsby was involved with a panel discussion, aside Dawn Danby from Autodesk and Steve Hamburg from Brown’s Environmental Studies program and conducted a workshop on triple bottom line businesses. The Material’s Petting Zoo highlighting a sampling of the latest and greatest eco-friendly materials on the market today.



By bringing together such a diverse group of attendees and speakers, the three-day event was a major success. The turn out was great and people were highly motivated and enthusiastic about how design can change the world for the better.

For more information about the event visit A Better World By Design.

Green Design In the Real World: IDSA Boston’s Real Green Conference, Nov. 8th

Think green design is just a fad? Come to the Real Green Conference to see sustainable, green design first hand. The conference is a one-day event hosted by IDSA Boston that focuses on organizations that are taking green design beyond just theory.

Guest speakers include Nick Rodrigues and Andrew Motta from Artists for Humanity, Gordon Goetsch, founder of Windtricity, and The New Vision for South Africa Foundation, and Pete Lankford from Timberland. There will also be a talk from members of the joint venture between Recycline, PagePD and Evo about the design and production of recycled products. Ecolect will also be hosting the Eco-materials Petting Zoo showing off all of the latest and greatest green materials!

The Real Green Conference is being held at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design on Saturday, November 8, 2008.

Admission Prices:
Online: Students $10, IDSA Members $20, Non-members $40
@MassArt: Students $20, IDSA Members $40, Non-members $60

For more information see the Boston IDSA’s website

Petting Good Materials in Boston

Ecolect held yet another successful Materials Petting Zoo, this time at the cutting edge, Boston-based design firm Continuum. Ecolect team members were on site to provide first hand material expertise and to field questions from the audience. 40 members of Continuum listened to a presentation by Matt Grigsby who outlined the origins and goals of Ecolect and the growing need to design more responsible and environmentally conscious products.

The leading design and branding consultancy is based in Boston has additional offices in Seoul and Milan. Continuum has a strong commitment to the environment and recently launched Colorblind, the ongoing consumer-focused sustainability project. With their strong commitment to environmentally positive design, Continuum was the perfect audience for another Ecolect Petting Zoo.

The atmosphere was fun, lively, and inspirational, with designers, engineers and other eager staff actively engaged, eager to see what material design alternatives are available. With the great talent at Continuum’s design studio, expect to see great environmentally friendly products on the market soon!

For more information about Continuum and their project Colorblind, visit www.dcontinuum.com/colorblind

Ecolect + MoSS

This past weekend was the first year edition of MoSS- Museum of Sustainable Style in Chicago. MoSS is an exhibition of sustainable fashion and furniture that highlights the reality that one does not have to sacrifice style for the environment.  Curated by Pivot  boutique owner, Jessa Brinkmeyer, the exhibit was created to run in parallel with Fashion Forward Chicago, Chicago’s fashion week.

It was the first Ecolect + MoSS collaboration. Ecolect was invited to curate a sustainable materials Petting Zoo focusing primarily on the fashion and furniture design industries. We highlighted materials such as hemp linen, faux biodegradable leather, Geami packaging, LoVo paint, and a sorghum surfacing material. The MoSS exhibit was designed as a self-guided tour.  First, buyers and fashionistas walked through to learn about the garments, the designers, and the story behind each designers decisions. Then they ended up at the Petting Zoo with hands on experience to the materials themselves and corresponding material information.

Saturday afternoon MoSS hosted a panel discussion moderated by Jonathan Shaun of Connect and 3.Zero, and on it sat Natural Living Expert and TV show host Sara Snow; fashion designer Lara Miller, Brentano founder Iris Wang, and Green Exchange founder Barry Brusak. The panel conversation highlighted the importance of our decisions as consumers to make responsible purchasing decisions.

In all, we taught viewers the importance not only of the end result but of the importance of sourcing decisions, transportation and packaging decisions, and all the associated design decisions that make sustainability a vital Pivot point.

MoSS: Museum of Sustainable Style

This weekend in Chicago, Ecolect is hosting a custom curated eco-materials Petting Zoo at MoSS- the Museum of Sustainable Style. Moss is a part of Fashion Forward Chicago, Chicago’s fashion week.Curated by Jessa Brinkmeyer of Pivot boutique, MoSS exhibits garments by Chicago eco-fashion designers, and seats and tables by local sustainable furniture designers. The collection exhibits how one can live and outfit sustainably without sacrificing style. To go along with this theme Ecolect was invited to co-curate an eco-materials library of fashion and furniture specific materials. Included in the exhibit are materials from Brentano, Hemp Traders, Pickering International, Noon Solar, and more.A panel discussion will be held on Saturday, October 4 from 2-3pm to discuss the details of sustainability, style, function, and our tomorrow. Come by and check out the collection. Admire the custom designed patterns by Chicago’s graphic design guru, Alex Fuller, and a video animated by Chicago’s One Design Company.