Community

The idBrooklyn Collective.

idBrooklyn is a large-scale semi crowd sourced design project with a goal of creating the graphic identity of Brooklyn through community support. The project, which launched on kickstarter wants to setup a series of community-based workshops, with a website and a mobile app that will showcase icons of Brooklyn’s culture which will hopefully create the New York’s first community branded borough. I’m loving the icons I am seeing so far, and the screenshots of the free iPad app look promising. If I were a Brooklynite I’d participate for sure.

“In recent years Brooklyn’s culture has received national and international attention due to its booming arts and maker cultures juxtaposed with its historical significance in the United States.” So why not showcase Brooklyn to the world.

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“Flex Alert” a Series of Fantastic PSA’s from Brainchild and Buck.

After almost 30 days this summer of plus 100 degree heat in the Kansas City area, these amazing animated shorts from Brainchild Creative and Buck LA are spot on. Actually they apply to everyone in the 63 states that are experiencing above average temperatures, and drought.

I love the look, and the rhythm that these pieces have. There is a vintage quality to them with fresh updated look. The color pallet is spot on. The script is easy to understand and really sells the message without being heavy handed.There are 5 versions of the same basic piece below. If you watch all them you will see the variations that led to the final version (video number 4)

These PSA’s are fun to watch, easy to remember, and have an impactful message. A message that actually reaches beyond this summers extreme weather. What is being said in these video clips applies all year round. If you follow what is being said, you’ll save money, reduce load on the grid, and improve the environment.

Credits:
Client: Wally McGuire / State of California
Exectuive Creative Director/Writer: Jef Loeb
CD/Art Director: Chris Chaffin
Executive Producer: Stephanie Heinsohn
Motion Graphics: BUCK Los Angeles (buck.tv)
Music: Sunday Morzeno (sunofz.com)

Standard Concepts a Green Community.

Sustainable design, urban gardens, community gardens, and social engineering are not new ideas, but this building concept from Standard is a new approach that brings all of these elements together. This building concept is man-made terrace of lush gardens and communal green spaces that encourages interaction with your neighbors.

The greenery on these terrace surfaces is not designed to be used for energy reduction or passive cooling, as it often is with current green architecture (actually that would be a secondary effect, because it would also provide these beneficial energy effects.) This greenery is for eating: and for encouraging interaction with your neighbors. This is a multi-family complex designed around the idea that food brings us together.

The architects describe their live-eat housing complex as being “a cooperative community of 1,000 people living together in terraced cliff dwellings overlooking lush urban canyon. Residents gain equity in the co-op through participation in construction, agricultural, maintenance, education and conservation programs central to the sustenance of the community”. Not bad, I could live in a place like that.

Threaded through the community are food-growing terraces. Each family gets an allotment that allows them to grow, exchange and share their produce with other residents. The terraces are designed to encourage gatherings and social interactions that stem from growing, harvesting, and consuming food. The architects thinking is, this would break the ice that normally keeps neighbors from getting to know each other.

In addition to the terraces with their own private allotments, at the base, there is a community farm that is the focal point of the southern canyon, situated on the stepped terraces that link the levels of the canyon floor. Produce from the Community Farm would also be sold in the market spaces below. The Community Kitchen – next to the child care center and the fitness center – offers regular classes and food tastings focused on nutrition and the benefits of growing produce locally.

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