Responsible Design for Our Global Community

Ricardo Gomes

Wednesday, 04 Feb 2009 at 7:30 pm – Kocimski Auditorium, College of Design

Ricardo Gomes is an advocate for culturally relevant and socially responsible design. He runs the Design Center for Global Needs, a nonprofit international research and development center that promotes design solutions to such issues as health care, the aging, community development and sustainability. A former Fulbright Scholar in Kenya, his experience has included design for developing countries and sustainable design. Gomes is professor and chair of the Department of Design and Industry at San Francisco State University. He received his MFA in Industrial Design for Low-Income Economies from the University of California, Los Angeles. Part of the College of Design 30th Anniversary Celebration.

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This presentation will reveal the emerging presence and role of responsible design practice within our emerging global society. We will assess our values and ethics as designers to better understand what, why and for whom we are designing. We will acknowledge a diverse range of topics confronting designers working in various disciplines: visual communication, industrial and architectural design. Within this context, we will analyze what it means to be "socially responsible" designers, by utilizing a paradigm that establishes Universal Design; Sustainable Design; and Information & Identity Design as the three primary components of "Design for Social Responsibility." We will also review the concerns for the appropriate development, of design and information technology in both a domestic (local), national and international (global) marketplaces. In this context, the presentation will draw reference to the impact of design, technology, information applications and aesthetic principles on the diverse social values and cultural identities within our global society. We will investigate the significance of the design process and methods used to measure the success and sustainability of such projects in promoting positive social change in the global community. The focus of the presentation will be not only to reinforce a global design consciousness, but more importantly a "design awareness" that addresses the basic needs of the vast majority of the world's population.

Cosponsored By:

• College of Design
• College of Engineering
• Design Council
• Engineers for a Sustainable World
• Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)