We Are Climate Designers

In this episode, recorded May 12, we sit down with the designers who collaborated on an updated version of the FirstThings First Manifesto, originally written by/for Graphic Designers in 1964.

While keeping the humor and vision of the original manifesto, First Things First 2020 was written with a sense of urgency due to our climate emergency, along with the expectation that this decade is pivotal for people to proactively unite around social- and environmental justice-based climate action.

Meet Namita Dharia, a socio-cultural anthropologist, PhD of Architecture, and the assistant professor of political economy at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the Nature–Culture–Sustainability Studies MA program.

Ben Gaydos is the co-founder of Good Good and the chair of the art & art history program at University of Michigan Flint.

Listen to learn more about the work Ben and Namita are doing to bring relevant cross-disciplinary climate impact focused education to their design programs.

Show notes at http://climatedesigners.org/podcast/105

Michael Leggett was a software designer working for big tech companies like Google and Facebook until the 2016 election spurred him to find a new career tackling the climate crisis. He joined forces with Seattle startup Nori to help build an online marketplace where customers pay farmers to draw CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in the soil. In this episode we chat about what it was like to leave his steady tech job to pursue what he felt called to do, and how he views the role designers play in taking climate action. “There’s so many things designers do that are applicable,” Michael says. “We are storytellers. We are salesmen. These are valuable skills. This is a hard story to tell.” Let’s roll up our sleeves and dig in.

Show notes at http://climatedesigners.org/podcast/104

We’re excited to introduce you to Eric Benson, one of our advisors and collaborators at ClimateDesigners.org.

Eric is the Chair of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as author of the book, Design to Re-Nourish, a manual of sustainability through systems-thinking for the graphic designer.

In this 17 minute conversation, we ask Eric to share some of his experience bringing sustainability concepts into the classroom as a design educator, even when the curriculum doesn’t necessarily call for it.

“Ask for forgiveness, not permission,” Eric says. Being a design educator right now gives us an amazing opportunity to influence the future of our climate crisis. With Eric’s help, we aim to add many more resources here at ClimateDesigners.org to help design educators do just that.

Show notes at http://climatedesigners.org/podcast/103

Warning: This Episode Might Get You Fired.

Inspired by books like Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro and Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi by Mark Boyle, we ask: “What can (or maybe should) designers do, in their current jobs, to take a stand and have an impact on climate change?”

We spend our 37 minutes discussing real practical ideas for designers to grow into the power and influence they can have at work.

Some of these tips might not make you the most popular, but as Sarah says, "I got to the point in my job where I would rather be fired than be a doormat, or do something that wasn't in line with my personal ethics and values."

Show notes at https://www.climatedesigners.org/podcast/102

For this episode of We Are Climate Designers, Marc and Sarah interviewed Evan Hynes of Climate.careers. Evan created Climate.careers to “Mobilize the world’s talent to solve the climate crisis.” Climate.careers is the place to go if you want to do impactful work within climate, or if you want to hire someone looking to dedicate their career to climate impact. We talk about finding purpose in your work, happiness, the solution to climate anxiety, building your personal brand, and how organizations with a positive mission will soon rule the world :)

Show notes at http://climatedesigners.org/podcast/101

New Podcast! For Climate Designers, by Climate Designers. Listen to this intro to get a sense of what this podcast will be all about.

Available in your favorite podcast player — please subscribe, and share with another Climate Designer you know to help us spread the word.

http://climatedesigners.org/podcast/000