Design. Charity. Life.

What do you think of this BBC news headline: “Youth cannot live without web”?

A survey of 16 to 24 year olds found that 75% of them feel they “couldn’t live” without the Internet. Ok, maybe there is some truth behind it, but I wouldn’t say we’re that dependent as in life or death! If Facebook simply disappeared one day though, I’d be pretty disoriented and disconnected.

A report recently that said that young people feel happiest when online! Do you? An article called Young people leading ‘hybrid lives’ and almost half ‘feel happiest when online’ references the survey that calls us a generation of ‘digital natives’, and I agree that yes, we are “at ease with a range of modern communications technologies”, don’t you?

What I don’t think we are all doing is “neglecting human contact”. I mean, sure there are those teens and even adults that live online, but for the most part most of us still meet up and go to events and talk at school or work, right? Either way, apparently 1/3 felt no need to talk to a person face to face about their problems because there are online resources.

I also came across a great photo competition, the topic being to show a scene from the world with no Internet. See the top 20 entries in The World of Tomorrow (If The Internet Disappeared Today).

One thing addressed is our way of getting the news? Many of us get it through Twitter or links posted on Facebook and other social networks. Most young people haven’t been reading the actual newspapers, especially with everything now online. So this entry to the competition is hillarious representation of what could be reported if there were no Internet:

One of the entries for the same photo competition shows a student getting an “A” on a Spelling and Grammar Test. OK, is your spelling really that bad online? I guess MSN talk and quick Facebook wall posts has really changed the way a lot of kids are growing up and learning to spell – so with no Internet, apparently everyone would be getting perfect on spelling tests.

That initial report published by online charity YouthNet also talks a lot about the risks and dangers of young people online. While there have been some serious cases, what do you really think about your safety online as a young person or young adult?

I agree with this guy, an Open University psychologist Graham Jones, who simply says that “I think children, teenagers and people under their mid-20s have grown up with technology and they understand it deeply”. So maybe those doing the studies just don’t understand. What do you think?

Nothing you agree with above? Suggest one in Other or post a comment here.

If you’re looking for design inspiration, there’s a ton out there. You can spend all day browsing through portfolio sites, magazines, and walking downtown. But here are some things I’ve found helpful so far.

One thing I recommend is to subscribe to design magazines. Some have student prices, though they’re still not very cheap, but worth it. Some of the ones I suggest are Adbusters, Print, Wired, Communications Arts and Wallpaper.

There are also tons of other magazines that you can checkout online that range from general news to creative that cover work and ideas from the arts world. Some I don’t read regularly but have been recommended to me: Azure, ID Magazine, Vogue, National Geographic, Popular Scientist, TIME, Scientific American, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair.

A lot of times my inspiration and ideas and everything comes from what I see online. Constantly search through sites of designers and agencies to see their work. Some that I have bookmarked in the past include Abduzeedo.com, Logo Design Love, Leo Burnett, Just Creative Design, Droga5, I Love Typography, and I’m Just Creative.

If you’re not on Twitter, get Twitter! Don’t know who to follow? There’s a site that lets you put in a keyword (e.g. graphic design) and gives you a huge list of people that are designers or agencies, that you can then follow. It’s amazing, you get links to some really great articles, tips, ideas, resources, even tutorials. Here are more than 85 of the best Twitter users designers should follow.

Also, one of my former highs school teachers, Diana Prior, is building a website right now at teachcreativity.ca which will be full of great resources on creativity, creative advertising, entrepreneurship, and more.

Why look at all of this stuff, you ask? To be exposed! To be aware of current trends – not only in the design industry, but in technology and healthcare and everything in between.

“Design is art people use” – Ellen Lupton

Ralph Lauren Model Photo: photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com

A heavily edited image of an ultra-thin Ralph Lauren model sparked outrage, recently. Photoshop users beware. Originally commented on at BoingBoing.net, the post was labeled “Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis”.

Looks pretty ridiculous. So, how does the company explain this look? Ralph Lauren’s official apology was:

“For over 42 years we have built a brand based on quality and integrity. After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the caliber of our artwork represents our brand appropriately.”

After being fired the model, Filipa Hamilton, said “They fired me because they said I was overweight and I couldn’t fit in their clothes anymore.” She said that she was “shocked to see that super skinny girl with my face.” And yes, I agree with her when she says, “It’s very sad, I think, that Ralph Lauren could do something like that.”

Whatever the truth is – let’s figure out the image we want to portray, as humans. Do we want to look like this, anyways?

Branding an educational institution would definitely be challenging, if I could imagine. There’s pressure to stay classic and academic but not too ‘old’ vs. taking a risk to make it modern but not too ‘cool’ and unprofessional, to begin with. Case in point: University of Waterloo.

In the spring of 2009, the University of Waterloo announced plans to re-brand and update their image. They wanted to start by simply putting up banners in the summer – however, their new logo design was leaked and has since caused an incredibly outcry from students and the community. There was a Facebook group called Students and alumni against the new University of Waterloo logo that had over 5,000 members in its beginnings and now as over 9,000.

As the design blog Under Consideration writes, the main complaint throughout is that the new logo is not dignified enough and it does not represent the school.

Since September, the school’s opinion site has been flooded with comments on the logo, and a Facebook page has been created to collect opinions on the logo – all of this serious consideration taken after the original plans were to be officially launched this fall.

Now, the university seems to have been left with only one choice: to accept and review feedback. The team then went through 131 iterations of the logo. As of July 24, 2009 they have begun to “share the new visual identity system with campus groups” and are preparing for a reveal in the November issue of Waterloo Magazine. On August 28, the University of Waterloo’s identity task force announced that they would have to re-evaluate the prototype logo.

From the very start, the University officially described it as part of a way of “How to better tell the Waterloo story“. I wish them luck in doing so, while keeping all of their students from transferring schools!

If this is the reaction Waterloo (a school recognized for sciences, engineering and quantum computing) is getting, I could not even begin to imagine the feedback OCAD (the university of design, art and imagination) will get when they re-brand their logo in the near future!

So, Waterloo student or not, what do you think?

[Update]: MJ Braide, the Lead Brand Strategist on the project, shares what they would do differently next time: ”Perhaps we would not have taken no for an answer when we invited the entire student community to engage and only 11 obliged. As she reflects on it Meg observes that she might have stood her ground a bit harder on the logo. It was was a great design with real integrity.”

[Inside Perspective]: Lead Brand Strategist MJ Braide shares the inside story on her blog here.