Making Sustainability Central in Design
On April 4th of 2022, I had the opportunity to assist in my first networking event online using the Eventbrite platform. The event was about how Designers are impacting the way we use products to help the environment and our quality of life as a society.
This event was presented by Joelle Danant, which is an Educator and Minister from the Pratt Sustainability Center. The event was held online through zoom and the main topic was to find solutions for designers to carbon emissions and use recyclable products to design.
The event started with a demonstration from Tetsu Ohara, an architectural designer who has built houses using recyclable materials and emphasizes the quality of air and ventilation over utilizing all the space. This is one of the works that he has done:
Tetsu focuses on Energy Efficiency while keeping a Japanese aesthetic. The house was expanded and remodeled to meet those criteria.
The second demonstration was done by Daniel Penge, a product designer from Brooklyn. He teaches people about the importance of designing and evolving objects using recyclable materials. He’s also part of Material Bank, a company that focuses on finding the right materials and re-design the usability of certain objects used by other companies. This is what they called DFE (Desing for Environment). Some of the work that he has done are:
Ergonomic chairs, cyclist stops, and even Benches and Tables for colleges.
Our next designer was Kat Choate, they/them are a visualizer and a prototype designer. They make sure that the client has a visual representation of the product that they are looking to build. Mostly buildings and streets. They design using different software to create this form of communication so clients and people can see the future that we need to build.
Next we had Elizabeth Bridges. She’s a Biodesigner and Sustainable Theory practitioner. Her work is to use Biomaterials to sustain the future of the planet. One of the works that she displayed was the use of Sustainable soils to reduce carbon emissions. It would mean using trash piles to create soils that work as plants’ superfoods. Some other interesting project that she showed was the creation of a mask (for covid) using bacteria that has air filter quality as good as the N-95 Mask. She stated that this was such a shame that they didn’t have something like that prepared before the pandemic, because it would have saved a lot of materials.
This event was interactive since we had Q & A at the end and we were also encouraged to talk and present ourselves. There were 22 attendees in total and I decided to connect with two of the presenters. All the designers provided their emails for further contact which was very nice in case someone was interested.
My takes from the event are:
- It takes time to be that professional.
- Sustainability Design is important even for Graphic Designers who use a lot of printing materials.
- These platforms are incredibly helpful to build connections
- I can support sustainability through my design.
At the end of the event I had the chance to ask a question to one of the hosts Kat Choate:
Q: Hi, I do have a question for Kat Choate. By the way, amazing designs from all the presenters. Kat, what software do you use to design your ideas for clients? You mentioned communication is key and I’m a communication design student. I would like to hear more about your thinking process.
A: Primarily for 3D model Rianaxurus product design architectural design,
Maxwell renders simulating lightning and photoshop for realistic contact with plants and people.
Although this is not my area of study, it was super interesting to learn from other designers in other areas and experiment with a new niche that I did not know existed. This opens more the spectrum of what type of designer I would like to be and makes me exciting to keep networking with other creatives.
To learn more about the speakers:
Daniel Penge
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-penge/
Kat Choate
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-choate-designer/
Elizabeth Bridges
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ecbridges/
Tetsu Ohara
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tetsu-ohara-a7b1676/
Joelle Danant
