Design for Social Impact

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 24, 2014 Based on the idea that design is a way of looking at the world with an eye for changing it, Design Revolution: Innovating for a Better World offers a view into the ways designers, engineers, students, professors, architects and social entrepreneurs from the Southeast are designing solutions to the problems of the 21st century. In 2008, Philippe Starck announced to a German newspaper that he would shift his focus from the design of luxury objects to the design of useful things such as wind turbines, adding that "everything that I designed is absolutely unnecessary." In declaring himself to be finished with the late 20th-century trend of design for design’s sake, he heralded a design revolution as he joined a cadre of designers who were shifting their focus from the creation of highly-priced and highly-styled objects to the use of design processes to solve the problems of everyday life. The revolution continues today as designers apply design principles to the world’s most pressing problems. Design Revolution demonstrates how firms and practitioners across Atlanta and the Southeastern United States are using design methodologies to tackle a wide-range of real-world challenges, from the purification of water to the provision of shelter for the homeless and from the re-thinking of transportation systems to the development of games that produce positive world outcomes by teaching, training and raising awareness of social issues. This MODA-curated exhibition will feature local designers, but their solutions might be used in any part of the world. Click here for more.