VCUQ in partnership with the Ministry of Civil Service Affairs and Housing hosted day one of the Annual Tasmeem Design Conference.
The Day began with a presentation by London-based textile designer Rebecca Earley. Earley began by explaining how throughout her career she had always embraced the conference's theme 'Sometimes you have to do it yourself'. "From the beginning of my career I have always come up with my own themes, I have always made my own way, there is no guide book to becoming a designer, and it is important for young designers to be pioneers and innovators, my designs put the environment first" explained Earley.
During the presentation the audience learned that the textile industry is one of the industries which causes the most damage to the environment, only second to the chemical industry. 20 million deaths are caused every year by poisoning due to pesticides through the cotton production process. Other factors contributing to this damage are over consumption and unethical production.
Earley aims to improve the environment by design at the beginning of the chain (i.e by designing more considerably at the outset). This can be done by making better material decisions (i.e the choice of material), the use of technology with lower a impact on the environment, ethical production, reducing the need for transport, emotional durable design, designing to inspire the consumer to be involved in the design process and design garments which require a low launder. All these decisions can reduce the negative impacts that producing garments have on the environment by up to 95%.
Dawn Hancock founder of Firebelly started her presentation by explaining the motto of her company which is 'good design for good reason'; she took the audience on a picture tour of her office in Chicago and introduced them to seven of her colleagues that make up the company, which is more like a family than a company. Firebelly's philosophy states that research lays the foundation of everything, The company believes in visiting their clients space, that collaborating and brainstorming should be a part of everything they do, understanding their client and audience is essential and that there should be human touch in their work.
Hancock went through her personal history which made Firebelly what it is today, starting from the point when she became an activist at the age of 10 when she lost her mother to lung cancer; shortly after that she decided to become a vegetarian and decided to change her consumer decisions such as chasing one detergent over another.
Cameron Sinclair the co-founder and executive director of Architecture for Humanity discussed his organization which promotes architecture and design solutions to humanitarian crises in 3 continents and 12 countries around the world including India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Sudan, Senegal and Liberia. The organization is funded 90% by individuals and strongly believes that its designers should design with pride and not pity. "It is important to treat the victims of the crises like equals and not victims of a disaster" he explained.
Architecture of Humanity aims to arm communities with expertise, technology and social capital.
Dan Sturges President of Intrago, gave a presentation that was entitled 'Creating a New Transport system for our New Century'. It discussed comprehensive transport solutions which allow the user to move around with more efficiency and less energy. He believes the future will see more choices in transport with less ownership of cars and that there will be more use of rental which the users will select with the nature of the journey in mind.
Jewelry and industrial designer Gijs Bakker believes that if you have ambition you simply 'have to do it yourself'. His presentation focused on human sustainability. "We have to design not for others, but ourselves and society. It is important that you don't forget your background, or you risk the possibility of forgetting yourself while designing for others" he explained.
