Design Revolution Road Show Coming to a Campus Near You

By bringing the Design Revolution Road Show to students, rather than professionals, Project H hopes to make a stronger connection between education and design.

Emily Pilloton -- Interior Design, 1/11/2010

As some creative professionals and designers have begun to rethink their traditional consumer-based practices, prioritizing design as a tool for problem solving and social action, San Francisco-based design nonprofit Project H Design is taking design for the greater good on the road.

From February to April 2010, the Design Revolution Road Show will bring a lecture series and traveling exhibition of “design that empowers people” to 25 design universities and high schools across the U.S. A Project H Design initiative, the road show will feature a biodiesel-powered truck and Airstream trailer exhibition of 40 humanitarian design solutions that have been showcased in the book "Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People," written by Project H founder Emily Pilloton. The products range from homemade water filters made in the developing world to user-friendly blood glucose monitors for a retail market, mobility tools for the elderly, and educational toys for mentally challenged children. Each product is an example of how design can enable and improve life, rather than simply take up space as a commodity or accessory.



The 25 schools include design universities and high schools. By bringing the Design Revolution Road Show to students, rather than professionals, Project H hopes to make a stronger connection between education and design, both as provocative and socially relevant subject matter and as a way to learn and teach problem solving through design thinking and creativity.

The Design Revolution Road Show’s programming will bring the evidence of and tools for design for social impact to the doorsteps of students, with the ultimate goal of enabling and empowering the next generation of creative problem-solvers to apply their skills to the world’s most pressing problems and improve life on a global scale.



Images courtesy of Project H Design.

See Emily Pilloton, guest on The Colbert Report, Monday, Jan 18: