Tag: inclusion
Waste Colonialism and the Fashion Industry
Valentina Auer
Valentina has navigated through many design disciplines, from interior design and furniture design to communication design. However, the fascination and passion for all three areas are connected by one important factor: the focus on sustainability and conscious design.
This not only concerns material and production but also entire systems and processes—where the topics of feminism and equality also play a significant role. Since 2021, she has been working at the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg, where she aims to instil her passion in young aspiring furniture designers.
In her keynote speech at »Next Gen Design: Women Creating the Future of Design« on 20th September 2024 at designfourm Wien, she discussed her experiences as a young woman in the design and working world in Austria and Europe. Thought-provoking ideas, observations, and insights on teaching in the design field, along with visions for a female-led design world, were significant topics.
Therese Balslev
Therese is a strategic circular designer at the Danish Design Center working with strategic design-driven approaches to circular economy and the green transition. She has been part of developing DDC’s circular toolkit – Designing Your Circular Transition targeting mainly businesses to get started (or continue) their work on circular initiatives with a holistic and design-driven approach.
She has also co-developed the Circular Behavior Toolkit, an introductory tool to the intersecting field of circular economy and behavioral design. With the Circular Behavior Toolkit, businesses, organizations, and design studios are provided with a tangible method for working with behavioral design in the context of a circular economy. Its purpose is to get you started actively working with the human factor in a circular context. Therese is part of the international cluster by designaustria of the next generation of designers who are meeting frequently in Vienna, Austria for peer events.
Oskar Pernefeldt
Oskar is the designer behind the proposal The International Flag of Planet Earth. Besides running IFOPE-O, Oskar works as a Creative Director at Oatly and serves as a member of the board at Beckmans College of Design.
Clive Russell
Russell was one of the earliest members and collaborators of Extinction Rebellion, a global movement to persuade governments to act on the climate emergency.
Russell is a UK graphic designer who creates groundbreaking identities for cultural movements and causes. He is a co-founder of This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll, a London-based studio whose client list includes the Tate, The National Gallery, Right to Repair etc. His work has won multiple awards (he turned down the nomination for Design of the Year in 2019 for his Extinction Rebellion work) and is in permanent collections at V&A, British Museum, MOMA and the Smithsonian.
He was a central part of the team that created the movement’s distinctive visual identity. The design work was released with a Do-It-Together message inspiring artists, activists and designers to use, interpret and add to the original design. Russell also co-founded the artist collective Ocean Rebellion and helped start the Museum of Care and the David Graeber Institute where he remains a collaborator.
Bobby Kolade
Kolade’s brand first collection is titled Return to Sender, and is made entirely out of waste textiles sourced from second-hand markets across Uganda. Each piece is redesigned and redistributed to the Global North, where the raw materials were originally bought and discarded.
Bobby Kolade is a fashion designer from Uganda who started his career in Berlin and Paris, cutting his teeth at major companies like Maison Margiela and Balenciaga. In 2018, he returned to his hometown of Kampala and was struck by the severe decline of the country’s textile industry. Today, he is the creative powerhouse behind BUZIGAHILL, an independent label that brings attention to this issue through art, clothing and activism.
As co-host of the podcast Vintage or Violence, Kolade further examines the true cost of the global fashion industry and the impact that waste colonialism has on local communities and ecosystems.
Henriette Waal
As a curator of Mediamatic’s Bio-Me program, Waal developed a cross-disciplinary platform exploring brewing practices and design with micro-organisms, focusing on yeasts, fermentation, bacterial cultures, and beer brewing.
Henriette Waal holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Design Academy Eindhoven’s Man and Public Space Department and a Master’s degree in Interior Architecture from the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. She was a finalist for the Dutch Design Awards for her research on rural areas in the Netherlands and received the International Award for Public Art for her innovative placemaking approach.
Alongside founding several socially engaged art and design projects, she has been teaching since 2013 in the Social Design Master Program at the Design Academy Eindhoven and the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. She currently serves as the Artistic and Research Director of Atelier LUMA in Arles.
Modularity
The design offers a flexible and visually striking solution for urban public spaces, showcasing the seamless integration of form and function.
The modular system is built around three key concepts that blend functionality, aesthetics, and sustainability. The “Time to Rest” module combines bicycle parking with a seating area, offering space for up to eight bicycles. Made from concrete or metal and enhanced with LED lighting, it includes wooden seating for added comfort, fostering social interaction and providing cyclists with a welcoming place to relax. The “Playfulness” module is designed for narrow urban spaces, featuring a zigzag arrangement of bicycle holders that adds a dynamic visual element to the surroundings. Like the other modules, it incorporates LED lighting, ensuring practicality and an appealing look, even at night. The most ambitious design, “Flower”, is a circular module with eight concrete holders accommodating up to 16 bicycles. At its center, a large metal planter with a tree symbolizes the integration of nature and urban life.