Current Issue 05 is structured around the theme of Iteration, Invocation, Intimation, and features articles by Jorge Frascara and Guillermina Noël on the role of collective intelligence in design for healthcare, and Ann Thorpe on design as activism. Also in the health design section, “Stay Safe” and “Violence and Aggression in Healthcare” reflect on a […]

Design as an Agent for Change: The Need for Collective Intelligence. We see design as a profession whose aim is the improvement of the welfare of people. To achieve this, the very nature of the problems faced force us to work collaboratively. If one is going to do something important, it’s quite likely one is […]

Design is our collective intelligence: it shapes the world we live in. We can recognize design in the materiality of our objects, the environments we dwell in, and the visual communications we share. It pervades every form of societal expression; we conceive our material and virtual world through design. Design is the common ground of […]

Emily Carr University of Art + Design has engaged in designing for complex problems in healthcare for many years, and recently formed a specific research area, the Health Design Lab, to gather a range of initiatives together into one centre. One of the lab’s partners is Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), a publicly funded regional health […]

Violence and aggression suffered by healthcare workers “has become a significant problem in healthcare professions” [3], causing both physical and mental consequences for workers and wider systemic issues for the healthcare industry as a whole. Violence, in this context, is defined as “violent behaviour that is intentional, or not intentional due to illness or injury, […]

Metro Vancouver is a “political body and corporate entity operating under provincial legislation” which consists of 22 municipalities [1]. One of their services is to manage solid waste and recycling; people in this jurisdiction throw away nearly 1.5 million tonnes of garbage every year [3]. In order to help people produce less garbage and recycle […]

Inspired by our hometowns of Prince George, British Columbia, and Medicine Hat, Alberta, we chose to focus our thesis project on how these small cities can become places that support more local culture and economies, especially since their reputations aren’t typically associated with these ideals. Both of these places have populations of around 60–70,000 people […]

Air quality is an inherently important aspect of both personal and environmental health. This is a problem that many Canadians struggle with due industries’ proximity to residential areas. This project focuses on two communities in Ontario, Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia, which are next door neighbours to Chemical Valley, Canada’s largest refinery of petrochemical products. Health effects […]

“People need not only to obtain things, they need above all the freedom to make things among which they can live, to give shape to them according to their own tastes, and to put them to use.” —Ivan Illich. The New Clothes is a project that engages consumers in constructing new meaning, value, and potential […]

I found myself one day at a standstill in bumper to bumper traffic heading up Clark Street in Vancouver and noticed the Skytrain fly right over us and envied the riders as I looked at the sea of big semis and trucks that I was stranded in. It was at that moment I had an […]

Over the past few years, I’ve been sitting in audiences and on the occasional stage hearing two common criticisms of design activism. In this article I hope to convince you that these criticisms are misguided. You should not accept their implication that designers should shy away from or be afraid of activism. My goal is […]

Today the types of services, forms of media, and methods of creation a designer will confront in their future career are as broad in scope as they are uncertain. It’s no longer reasonable to study only a discrete area of specialization that may, four years later, be largely outdated. Design education has begun to focus […]