Alan Gray, writer for News Blaze and supporter of heirloom design, wrote that “Compostmodern has been running for five years now and it just keeps getting bigger and better. The conference demonstrates how sustainable solutions converge as design, ecology, social activism, business, and economics intersect.”

Of the “diverse” speakers, Gray felt that “they presented a very interesting series of presentations and ideas that had the attendees riveted to their seats and asking questions at the end.” Gray says that the much-needed change from America’s rampant consumerism to heirloom design “will not be easy and it will not be fast, but those who attended Compostmodern 09 and those who watch the webcasts and other videos could easily be the harbingers of change.”

Full article here.

Leading industrial design magazine and resource, Core77, hosted Gelatobaby’s Alissa Walker’s liveblog posts of Compostmodern 09. Walker, leading design writer, described Compostmodern 09 as “one of the best-curated conferences around.” Full posts below:

How We Already Know This Compostmodern Conference Is Different

Compostmodern 09: Why We’re Here

Compostmodern 09: Eames Demetrios and the Power of Scale

Compostmodern 09: Allan Chochinov’s 10-Step Program

Compostmodern 09: Michel Gelobter Is the Coolest

Compostmodern 09: Saul Griffith Runs the Numbers

Compostmodern 09: John Bielenberg and Pam Dorr Think Wrong To Do Right

Compostmodern 09: Emily Pilloton’s Very Good Year

Dawn Danby Is Throwing a Sustainability Party and Everyone’s Invited

Compostmodern 09: Nathan Shedroff Has Monday’s Homework Assignment

Compostmodern 09: Urgent Reflections and All Posts In One Place

Before Compostmodern 09, the San Francisco Examiner spoke with Executive Director of Redefining Progress and Founder of Cooler, Michel Gelobter.

On the reduction of urban sprawl and the effect this would have on San Francisco, Gelobter commented that “cities are the best way for lots of people to live together and share resources, like transportation… San Francisco is already fairly dense, but should benefit by increasing its density and increasing its housing stock by decreasing the amount of people who have to commute a long way to get there.” Full article here.

Jaymi Heimbuch of Treehugger has written a great piece about John Bielenberg and Project M. Read the full text here. Can’t wait to see John speak with Pam Dorr tomorrow…

Do you have your Compostmodern tickets yet?? There’s still time!

It started innocently enough: last summer, Compostmodern 09 speaker Emily Pilloton (Project H Design) engaged in the romantic, time-honored tradition of taking the train cross-country. The reality was not what she imagined.

“I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse, but I can never take off my ‘designer’ hat. We were sitting on this Amtrak train, and I was thinking wow, this is the most poorly designed space. There’s nothing joyful about it. The seat is really uncomfortable, the interiors are ugly…and then their systems – the food, dining car, kiosks…it was terrible. I got off the train, signed my book contract the next day, and lo and behold, my first draft had a 500-word rant on Amtrak.”

The book, Design Revolution: 100 Products and Solutions that Empower People, showcases Pilloton’s perspective on the future of social design – with a 60-page essay that she describes as “one part call to action, one part critique and one part cheerleading for a cause.”  We’ll have to wait until September to read it, but in the meantime, she has some advice for young designers.

“Don’t work for a design firm. Go work for the government or a non-profit. Or Amtrak! They might never think to hire a designer, but if they did, and they started doing things right, it could have a huge impact on the way the public views mobility and transportation. Maybe your job title won’t be ‘Designer,’ but you are one, and they need one. These are the places where we can make the biggest difference.”

—Natalie Linden (www.someonemightcare.com)

With such an amazing speaker lineup, Compostmodern 09 promises fertile ground for sustainable solutions – not to mention a great place for curiosity, creativity and new connections.

Tickets are still available – $80 for regular admission, $70 for students, $60 for AIGA members and $50 for AIGA student members. Join us!

The in-the-know greenies over at Ideal Bite San Francisco have just ‘tipped’ Compostmodern 09! Check it out here.

Come on down, Biters! We’d love to see you in the audience…

—Natalie Linden (www.someonemightcare.com)

Steven Heller, co-chair of the Designer as Author MFA and co-founder of the MFA in Design Criticism at School of Visual Arts, recently sat down with Allan Chochinov to debate whether design students should be taught to stop making stuff. Chochinov says:

“I’m critical of design, designers and design practice—both in my teaching and in my editorial roles at Core77—but I’m also the biggest cheerleader for the power of design. I see unlimited potential for the discipline at a time when the world desperately needs creative thinkers, problem solvers and brave visionaries. I am also cognizant of the vast damage we can do as our design decisions are multiplied out across the globe. I don’t see those two postures as mutually exclusive. Indeed, I see them as a requirement—both in practice and in school.”

Check out the full text on Voice: AIGA Journal of Design.

Have you ever stumbled upon a historical place you didn’t know existed? Now that Compostmodern 09 speaker Eames Demetrios has created – or rather, discovered –  Kcymaerxthaere, your odds of finding one just went up.

Listing 44 sites in eight countries (and counting), Kcymaerxthaere is the art project Demetrios created to document a universe much like our own, but whose history is completely unique. Sites like the Krblin Jihn Kabin in Joshua Tree or The Place of Refuge in Singapore recount these stories with all the fanfare of a historical landmark, including bronze plaques. The effect is nothing less than disorienting.

“Even if you know a place, when you go to look for one of these things, the very knowledge that you’re looking for it changes your experience. One of the most common reactions is that people kind of look around to see if someone’s watching them, but I think they’re also looking to see if they can prove or disprove the experience. When you’re reading something that you know is false in a linear world and yet seems totally plausible in the moment, you realize how much we learn from what other people tell us. If it’s on a bronze plaque, it has to be true, right?”

Kcymaerxthaere is the product of Demetrios’ lively imagination, and the latest milestone in an eclectic career that includes filmmaking, storytelling and the caretaking of his family legacy at Eames Office. His motivation? To use storytelling as a means of challenging assumed knowledge.

“In child psychology, they talk about the transitional object. When you see a kid playing with a blanket, they know it’s a blanket, but it’s also their connection between the internal mother-child world and the external world. That object is critical to the breakthrough of understanding their place. In a way, I’m trying to turn the planet into a transitional object. What if our world were the means, not the end?”

But how does this relate to sustainability, you ask? Well, it’s a matter of perspective.

“One of the cool things about Kcymaerxthaere is that it helps you see possibilities. That’s something we really need to focus on right now. I’m all in favor of understanding dire situations, but I think the way we’ll solve them is by changing our frame of reference. The brain tends to interpret what the eye sees before you even know it, which is really great when you’re crossing the street, but maybe not so great if you’re trying to strip back all your assumptions and look at things fresh.”

—Natalie Linden (www.someonemightcare.com)

San Francisco Bay Guardian correspondent Andrew Shaw has just released a nice write up about Compostmodern 09. He says:

“Taking on Herculean problems is not for everyone. But Compostmodern seeks to engage top designers with the task of making the seemingly impossible a little more likely. It’s a goal that is essential to achieving sustainability on a grand scale and using this economic meltdown as an opportunity to redesign our world.”

Thanks Andrew! You can check out the full text here.