Comments on: Design Intervention

By: The Project « Think Tank

The Project « Think Tank — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:05:55 +0000

[...] We are spending the remainder of the semester trying to come up with innovative and meaningful ways of introducing the language into culture. One example, that has been posted on a few websites already is the package we created for the guests who attended the Juice conference at OCAD a few weeks ago. The package contained a five dollar bill with the definition on depletist printed on it. The concept was that we were giving the recipients two tools. One being the word, the second being the money. In the package we quoted Joel Makower ‚ÄúEvery time you open your wallet you cast a vote – either for or against the environment.‚Äù By placing the definition on the money we forced the owner of the bill to think twice about what they were buying. This was also a great way to spread the word, while at the same time creating no waste. We also created stickers with the definition printed on them (which were sized to fit into your dictionary), and to continue with the mandate of no waste we printed instruction on how to add the word to your computer‚Äôs dictionary on the back. [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:54:48 +0000

Hey James, thanks for the support. We are working on a website and some other related content. When it’s up I’ll post a link here. Hopefully real soon.

By: James Kingsley

James Kingsley — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 23:08:29 +0000

Hey chris, great idea! thanks for the visual reminder. I’d love to spend some time working the word into the public realm around my parts out here in victoria – is there a website or any other info on the campaign/initiative by any chance?

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:07:13 +0000

I see what you’re saying. Given our printing technique (inkjet printer) I’m pretty confident that it will wear off before it gets to the bank of canada. Given standard ways of communicating new ideas (posters, brochures, etc.) we think it is proving our point of not being wasteful. Also, it confronts the owner of the bill when they go to use it. Are you buying something that makes you a depletist? Can this make you think twice about what you are spending your money on? What if it was on a credit card? It is playing of the idea that every time you open your wallet you cast a vote, either for or against the environment.

This project is still very young and we’d love to have a lot more ideas of how we can introduce it to the language in ways that don’t contradict our intentions. We’d love your, or anyone elses help.

By: Gregory

Gregory — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:08:07 +0000

hmm interesting, but i’m not sure about the execution…i find ironic that these 5 dollar paper bills will now be destroyed and new ones will have to be printed once their circulation reaches the bank of canada.