LCD Weekly Issue - 015 - Should we celebrate Earth Day?

Apr 21

🏔️ Words from the mountains

At first, we didn't want to celebrate Earth Day because it involves a lot of GreenWashing BS. Then, I started reading about the Earth Day organization and its efforts in climate literacy, green education, and environmental education in schools and universities. I realized that we should celebrate this effort as a school.

The Earth Day organization does realize the greenwashing that happens on the 22nd of April and make you aware of this. "We all know greenwashing is happening, and it is infuriating," Earth Day organizer Ms Rogers. "Governments need to take robust action and crack down on any business or industry lying to consumers." - BBC News

In this newsletter, on the 22nd of April, I celebrate Earth Day by celebrating the amazing women who finished the Shifting from Human to Life-Centered Design course last Friday with some fantastic projects and learnings.

Alice Donferri Mitell i created a beautiful project about place-making in the Alihoop coliving, using Nature as a starting point in Stockholm. One of Alice's learnings is that "Doing makes all the difference—even if you feel a bit stupid at the beginning."

Natalie Seisser is exploring reconnecting with Nature in Singapore's newly created urbanization/neighbourhood, Tengah. The irony of this project is that they cut down a beautiful secondary forest to create a "green" neighbourhood for 45,000 inhabitants.

Abigail Mapua re-iterated the place-making cards she uses for her company, Kindmind, in Manilla, the Philippines, and made them life-centered. Her central question is how love for cities can lead to their rewilding.

Sushmita Charlu's highly immersive and creative Coastal Cleanup project of the beaches near Chennai, India, Reduces & reimagines the negative impact of disposable food packaging by using Life-Centred Design with a bold non-human persona from a Ghost Crab.

I celebrate Karin Aue for opening our eyes to the invisible life of our stuff in general and in Singapore precisely, where all the waste gets incinerated and dumped on Semakau Island, the home of the native Orang Laut until the 1990s. Karin wonders, What if we get to know our things inside and out? Imagine you would keep a diary of your relationship with the product.

Sophie Sandham took prototyping to the next level and created a 3-week Co-Working Home in Noorhoek, Capetown, to explore the impact of a new way of working with friends in a house, connected to Nature, has on the mental health of the home-workers, the local community and Nature.

Veronica Contreras bravely endeavours to create an Innovation Center in the Universidad del Pacífico using an LCD approach that connects students with local Nature and the ocean. She truly challenges the way we innovate today!

Lovisa Boberg moved me because she challenged herself during the course. She is creating an agricommunity in Stockholm to engage expats/young professionals in Stockholm to spend a few hours monthly helping at small-scale farms.

Alline Goulart is creating a new Semente Negócios program focused on Entrepreneurship and Innovation that promotes Social and Environmental Impact through Business and Individuals in a favela in Florianópolis, Brazil, with a Regenerative mindset, a Decolonial attitude, and a Measurable impact.

Sara Daniela Munoz from Colombia did the Life-Centered Design course to fall in love with design again after she lost it with a previous employer. She presented her manifesto based on slow design, playing with inspiring narratives and understanding herself with nature metaphors.

Aileen Strickland McGee taught us all that it is okay to be incomplete. Sharing a beautiful non-human persona of the concept of Curiosity and creating some learnings that touch. One very important one from an LCD perspective is: "Start where you are!" Don't try to fix everything; start with what you can.

I am humbled by all the learnings, the conversations, the empathy and the outcomes from cohort 4. Thank you Aileen, Daniela, Alline, Lovisa, Sophie, Veronica, Karin, Sushmita, Abigail, Natalie and Alice.

🐅 LCD in the Wild - COHORT 4

☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼

We have covert this weeks LCD in the Wild with all the beautiful projects from Cohort 4. When you are ready to make the shift to life-centered design join the waiting list for Cohort 5 in October 2024

🪄 Inspiration- Nature is and Artist

Sounds Right is a music initiative to recognise the value of NATURE and inspire millions of fans to take environmental action. For the first time, NATURE can generate royalties from its sounds to support its conservation

🔥 Hot in the School- LCD Talk #1 with Thorsten Jonas

Thorsten Jonas will join us during the first LCD Talk to explore the relationship between life-centered design and UX design. Over the years, we have received many questions about how to apply Life-Centered Design in the UX space. And it is time to answer some of them with Thorsten, an experienced UXer and sustainability advocate.

During our conversation, we will discuss Sustainable UX, its differences and similarities with Life-Centered Design, and why both approaches are relevant now.

In the first 40 minutes, Thorsten & Jeroen have an in-depth conversation, followed by the Q&A where you can ask questions about UX and Life-Centered Design.

Join the LCD Talk #1 and learn about Sustainable UX

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So, that's all for this week,

👋 See you next Monday!

Jeroen

Jeroen Spoelstra

I am a passionate designer and mountain biker focusing on bringing people forward using a human centered approach. As a designer you could call what I do Social Design, but nowadays there are hundreds of different design names. So for me I am a designer and try to be humble to the world. I like solving issues together with other people in co-design and I love helping people reach there goals.

I find inspiration in mountain biking, traveling and in my current home the Spanish Pyrenees. I use sports, traveling and being outside to get inspired for my work as a designer.

Design to me is constantly shitifing between making meaningful products to creating impactful and real solutions/ approaches/ business that can make a difference.

The Design profession shouldn’t solely be reserved for the designer (in developed world), but for everyone! I design for impact and help people bring out their little designer in himself or herself. I am not saying everyone should become a designer, but I do think people can use a little bit of design to help themselves forward in their personal/ professional life.

https://www.unbeatenstudio.com