A few days ago, we had the privilege of sitting in on the final presentations of Sustainability Design, a new class being taught by Scott Boylston at SCAD.
The focus was the branding and marketing of the Trustees’ Garden, including its 9 acre plot of land (now being developed as an organic garden, headed up by Farmer D with participation from Union Mission), The Trustees’ Market (which features local farmers, music, food and art) and the Charles H. Morris Center.
The students were broken up into 4 groups, each with a different focus, but all intended to engage the community:
Group 1: Branding and Marketing-
They designed a logo for the Trustees’ Market as well as a brand for the Trustees’ Garden complex itself. They also designed a website and a mobile kitchen/vegetable stall that could service as a versatile marketing tool.
Group 2: Educational Game Cards –
They designed an educational game which utilized playing cards intended to teach kids about conservation and sustainability. They also offered suggestions about using the cards to promote the Market by incorporating coupons as a part of the design of the cards.
Group 3: Containers and bicycles –
These student focussed on the use of local materials like sweet grass and clay to create planting containers, as well as the reuse of existing plastic containers in an interactive way to teach kids about gardening. They then segued into talking about the use of bicycles as transportation to and from the market, using them as mobile advertising in a fashion similar to Ikea.
Group 4: Sculpture –
This group focused on the design of a large piece of sculpture to be installed on the grounds of the Trustees’ Garden. They also suggested the duplication of the sculpture in smaller scale in various locations throughout the city and in the form of keepsakes for the purpose of raising funds.
Although I’d have liked to see some of the loose ends tied up a bit neater as far as issues concerning practicality, materials, effectiveness etc. overall, I was happy to see the students thinking in terms of the triple bottom line.
Kudos to Scott Boylston for teaching this class!
This is definitely where the future of design is headed.
Branding
Mobile Kitchen / Vegetable Cart
Educational Game Cards
An example of Systems Thinking
Containers
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