GAIA GRAPHICS and ASSOCIATES

Cockblocker Posters Reduce Sexual Assault

2011-05-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

By Jamie Crutchfield

In recent headlines there have been three rapes involving alcohol abuse in a nine-day period. Now Cal Poly university leaders are making a call for change in the university’s alcohol related “campus culture.”

The call for change is not only aimed at students who abuse alcohol and also towards bystanders who have the opportunity to speak up before a situation arises.

Gaia Graphics worked with Cal Poly’s SAFER Program (Sexual Assault Resource and Prevention) and psychology professor Shawn Burn, PhD, to create flyers to inspire students to take action to prevent alcohol abuse and potential assault among their peers.

The flyers are specific to either women or men, and are posted inside the doors of bathroom stalls to take advantage of a captive audience. Some examples of each are posted here.

The statistics on flyers is borrowed from studies conducted by Dr. Burn’s psychology class in campus wide polling. The central concept of “norm appeal” social marketing is that much of people’s behavior is influenced by their perceptions of what is “normal” or “typical” of others.

In theory, reminding students that the majority of their peers are reacting in a positive and healthy way causes them to strive to emulate that same behavior.

The technique has been successful in major national campaigns against drunk driving and smoking and now can be applied locally in preventing sexual assault and violence in San Luis Obispo.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES

...creative by nature

www.gaiagraphics.com

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

California Schools Expand Environmental Education

2010-12-30T11:46:00.000-08:00

!!
by Susan McIntosh, Gaia Graphics & Associates

California’s landmark Education and the Environment (EEI) Curriculum incorporates learning about and protecting the environment into the history, literature and science classes of K-12 students throughout the state. Through real-life examples and hands-on learning, the curriculum is designed to prepare today’s students to become future scientists, economists, and green technology leaders.

Check out this sample page from Education and the Environment Initiative Expanding Environmental Literacy for K-12 Students:

At Gaia Graphics & Associates, environmental education is at the heart of our work. The interpretive signs, maps, posters and brochures we create are designed to promote environmental awareness and informed choices.

Our clients include:

Cambria Community Services District
California Native Plant Society
California State Parks
Cayucos Land Conservancy
City of Morro Bay
City of San Luis Obispo
County of San Luis Obispo
Earth Day Alliance
Environmental Center of San Luis Obispo County
Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo
Los Osos Community Services District
Morro Bay National Estuary Program
NOAA Coastal Discovery Center
San Luis Coastal Resource Conservation District
San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden
Upper Salinas/Las Tablas Resource Conservation District

and many other local and regional agencies.

Join us in celebrating the expanded California EEI curriculum and in making a difference in our world!
!!!

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES ...creative by nature

www.gaiagraphics.com

--===--===--===--===--===--===-- !!!

Ban Plastic Grocery Bags!

2010-11-19T13:00:00.000-08:00

!!
by Susan McIntosh
Gaia Graphics & Associates

Starting next July, the choice of paper or plastic will no longer be an option for residents of Los Angles County.

In a bold move the State of California has yet to accomplish, the County of Los Angeles has banned the use of plastic grocery bags and will require grocers to charge for the purchase of paper bags. Although the ban is limited to the unincorporated areas of the county, it will affect grocery bag choices for almost 1.1 million Southern California residents.

Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica environmental group, said of previous efforts to promote recycling of plastic bags at grocery stores, “You cannot recycle your way out of the plastic bag problem. The cost of convenience can no longer be at the expense of the environment.”

The ban will significantly reduce the use of plastic bags in L.A. County, which are said to account for 25% of the litter picked up each year.

--===--===--===--===--===--===-- GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES ...creative by nature www.gaiagraphics.com --===--===--===--===--===--===-- !!!

Finding the Happiest Place on Earth

2010-11-15T09:54:00.001-08:00

by Terre Dunivant
Gaia Graphics & Associates

San Luis Obispo, home of Gaia Graphics & Associates on California's Central Coast, has been named one of the "happiest place on Earth" by author Dan Buettner of a new book called Thrive.

In Thrive, Buettner unravels the stories of each happiness hotspot, revealing how he discovered each location and found the happiest people in Denmark, Singapore, northeastern Mexico, and San Luis Obispo, where I'm writing this from my home office. It's 72 degrees and sunny, a little November breeze ruffling the leaves of the orange tree, a hint of woodsmoke puffing through the window screen.

Economists, psychologists, sociologists, politicians, writers, and other experts interviewed by Buettner explain what contributes to each region's happiness. Essentially, it's all about the way we live our lives: the food we eat, the way we exercise, and the social networks we foster that feed our bodies and spirits.

The Happy Tax

For graphic designers in San Luis Obispo, we have what I think of as the 'sunshine tax' or the dollar cost of doing business in paradise. Many of us could make more money in Los Angeles or San Francisco, but all that stress and traffic is not worth a bigger income. Maybe 'happy tax' is a more accurate idea.

San Luis Obispo is a great place to pursue happiness, and the Gaia Graphics crew feels not only happy but blessed to work with the City of San Luis Obispo's Open Space programs, which clearly contribute to the overall level of happiness here.

We've designed direct mail fundraising brochures that consistently bring in high donations to preserve land and develop recreational opportunities. We worked with botanists from Cal Poly and the Native Plant Society for 16 months to produce a beautiful wildflower book showing hundreds of local flowers in full color. We've created a whole series of interpretive panels for hiking and biking trails, which detail natural and historical wonders of San Luis Obispo.

Happiness happens when you do what you love, in a place you love, with people you love.

The Past and Present South Hills Natural Reserve

2010-10-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

!!
by Susan McIntosh and Huc Ambrose, Gaia Graphics & Associates

We are very fortunate that the City of San Luis Obispo makes maintaining accessible open space a big priority! With the abundant variety of trails and environments to enjoy, it can be challenging to explore them all and to learn what makes each area unique.

These interpretive panels at South Hills Natural Reserve are a big help in recognizing which hills are which, and in revealing some of the history and natural features of the area. Can you imagine Meadow Park as part of a legendary dirt track, and racecars roaring through the streets of downtown San Luis Obispo?!

Check out other interpretive panels created by Gaia Graphics and other City of SLO open spaces!

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--
!!!

Interpretive Panels for the Wild and Rocky Irish Hills

2010-10-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

!!
by Susan McIntosh and Huc Ambrose, Gaia Graphics & Associates

The Irish Hills panels, designed by Huc Ambrose, required a bit of digging into San Luis Obispo's past as a mining town.

We needed a few specific images for these panels, so Huc grabbed his camera and took a hike in this wonderful City of San Luis Obispo Open Space. The meandering trails provided some great views, and just the photos Huc needed to complete the project (but NOT the mountain lion photo, which is a stock image from Dreamstime).

Check out other interpretive panels created by Gaia Graphics and other City of SLO open spaces!

And to explore that mountain lion and other wild and FREE images:

Latest free stock photography on Dreamstime:

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES

...creative by nature

www.gaiagraphics.com

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

!!!

Go Reusable! End Plastic Bag Pollution

2010-09-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

!!!
by Susan McIntosh, Gaia Graphics & Associates

Can a plastic bag's journey touch your heart?! This mockumentary really tugged at mine, using wry humor to point out the unnatural disaster we are creating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

What will you do this week to go reusable and move plastic bags toward extinction?

Learn more on this plastic trash sign we created for the City of Morro Bay.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES

...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

!!!

Go Clean a Creek!

2010-09-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

!!!
by Susan McIntosh, Gaia Graphics and Associates

UPDATE: In my original Creek Day post, I urged you to join family, friends and neighbors for a fun morning cleaning up San Luis Obispo County creeks before winter rains washed debris downstream. Thanks to many of you, San Luis Obispo County Creek Day 201 0, on October 2, was a great success!

This short video captures a bit of the action. Watch it now, share it with friends, and plan to pitch in next year for Creek Day 2011!

Make CREEK DAY your day! from Sammy Steelhead on Vimeo.

Here's the poster we designed for the Creek Day Committee, with fabulous artwork by Ben Lovejoy.

Check out our new interpretive panel about plastic trash and ocean pollution, created for the City of Morro Bay.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES

...creative by nature

www.gaiagraphics.com

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

!!!

City Stormwater Runoff Now a Welcoming Wetland

2010-07-13T11:29:00.000-07:00

!!
By Lindsey Collinsworth

Down the winding Bob Jones Bike Path in San Luis Obispo, past the Water Treatment Plant you will now find the City of San Luis Obispo’s newly constructed wetland. Thousands of native plants were put in the ground this spring with the goal of using stormwater runoff to create a wetland habitat visible from Highway 1, effectively stopping dirty water before it has a chance to harm the creek.

We had the pleasure of working with City Biologists Freddy Otte and Neil Havlik to create interpretive panels that illuminate the process in which the wetland was created, how a wetland functions, and how we can continue to preserve and protect our wildlife and remaining resources. These interpretive panels feature the California Conservation Corps, San Luis Obispo County Partners for Water Quality mascot steelhead kids, Samita and Sammy Junior, illustrated by Glenn Hiramatsu, and a visionary painting by Los Osos artist Jay Bonestell showing what we hope will be the result of all this effort.

The City’s foresight and dedication to environmental preservation and education is just another reason San Luis Obispo is a wonderful place to live.

To check out these and other interpretive panels, check

our website.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===-- !!!

Plastic trash in the ocean is a slow oil spill

2010-06-07T22:13:00.000-07:00

!!!
but with global reach

By Terre Dunivant

Captains David Robinson and Mark Kocina of SeaLife Conservation sailed the coast of California late last year, stopping in Morro Bay and other coastal cities to educate residents, City staff and Councils about plastic and ocean pollution. The evidence is shocking. People are taking action.

Demaris Hansen and the City of Morro Bay conceived this interpretive panel project to educate thousands of visitors and residents about ocean pollution prevention. The Morro Bay National Estuary Program funded a Morro Bay High School group to buy and offer free compostable takeout containers to local restaurants. Another grant will help Morro Bay's venerable Harbor Festival keep cigarette butts and plastic trash out of our beautiful bay during the popular event.

Ruth Ann Angus, who helped research and write this panel, said she came away from the Captains' presentation determined to see change. Shari Sullivan and Cheryl Lesinski, current and former MBNEP Outreach and Education coordinators, reviewed the panel and offered valuable suggestions.

We needed images that would tell the story, and One image in particular that would make this information matter. It took time to track down the images and secure permissions. We have access to millions of photos through our affiliation with stock sites like Dreamstime and specialty wildlife photo sites, but none had what we needed. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working to prevent ocean pollution, and we found some good, high-resolution images on the NOAA website. But the plastic trash problem is still largely invisible.

That One image was especially elusive. Then Save Our Shores posted Santa Cruz photographer Terry McCormac's otter mother trying to pull a plastic bag off her baby. All of the photos showing animals hurt by plastics are heartbreaking, though we made a big effort to keep it non-gory. But we love our sea otters on the Central Coast, and this is the image that will make waves. Terry told me everyone asks the same question: did the sea otter mother save her pup? Click the interpretive panel above to find out.

This project was a challenge in other ways.

Interpretive panels are usually positive and focused on things you can see, such as birds or views. Becoming educated about the tangled, burgeoning enormity of damage being done by plastics to creeks, estuaries and oceans dazed me. I thought I knew something about the issue, but when I looked deeply, it was deeply shocking.

Bad trash habits. Los Angeles River, California. Stormwater carries trash in gutters from all over the City.
What is captured by booms is scooped up and hauled to a landfill. Photo courtesy Algalita Marine Research Foundation.

We are surrounded by a steady flow of plastic. Beaches in San Diego, Hawaii, Guam, and the recently pristine Galapagos are piled with it, sometimes several feet deep.

The harm to wildlife is enormous, the threat to humans obvious. Albatross chicks by the thousands die of starvation with a belly full of trash. Toxins dissolve into seawater as different plastics break down under sunlight. Smaller and smaller pieces float a foot or two below the surface, looking just like a juicy mass of plankton to sea turtles and whales. Junk food, literally.

Unfortunately, California lawmakers recently rejected a bill that would have made the state the first in the nation to ban all plastic shopping bags. Bags alone amount to 70% of the plastic circling off our Pacific coast and around all the world's oceans. Abandoned fishing nets are a big part of the problem, but most of the plastic fouling our waters comes from disposables like bags, which might be used for 10 minutes and pollute for decades.

BP's oil spill in the Gulf is a tragedy for all concerned. The whole Gulf of Mexico is slicked, dosed with experimental chemicals. The damage is enormous and likely to persist for decades.

Plastic trash is a slow oil spill, with far greater reach. Ten years ago the Pacific garbage patch was thought to be the size of Texas. Now it circles between the coasts of California and Japan. There's another garbage patch orbiting the Atlantic. Yet plastic has been in use only about 70 years. It was only a century ago that cars became popular and oil use kicked into high gear.

Most people realize now that the true price of oil is much, much greater than the price at the pump. From control to extraction to refinery to product to disposal, oil threatens life on Earth. But the status quo is changing because most of us don't want to live in a dirty, damaged world. We will reduce, reuse and recycle for our own good.

For those who need the economic motivation, oil will only get more expensive and limited as this finite resource gets scarce. Alaska, which taxes its oil wells, has a budget surplus again this year. The great state of California, which does not tax its wells, might as well be sucking air.

Photo courtesy Algalita Marine Research Foundation

Try this: Save every piece of plastic you use for a month. Cut your use of plastic every way you can. Now save every piece for another month. I think you'll be astonished, but don't let it paralyze you.

You can do something about it. When you eat out, bring your own takeout boxes. Ask the bakery to put your muffins in paper. Reuse the Ziplocs. Get creative. Do what you can. If you own a restaurant, you can have a big impact by switching to compostable containers and cutlery. Don't get discouraged when you see for yourself how much plastic surrounds you. Keep cutting it out. Make sure your trash doesn't get away from you. Support legislation that restricts disposable plastic products. Stay with it. Believe that we can fix this. We must.

-===--===--===--===--===--===--

GAIA GRAPHICS and ASSOCIATES

...creative by nature...

www.gaiagraphics.com

--===--===--===--===--===--===-- !!!

Biomimicry: How We Learn From Nature's Success

2009-12-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

Janine Benyus is a science author who is full of great ideas. One of her passions is to promote the ingenuity and function in our products based on the performance of the nature around us. This process is called biomimicry, one that aims to examine the systems and elements at work in nature in order to recreate them in our modern products and designs.

Designing something based on the functions and successes of nature is nothing new, but it is certainly something that we have drifted away from recently. To help challenge the conception that we have to conquer nature in our designs, Benyus helped create AskNature.org a project to display nature's problem solving skills so we can learn from and recreate them. By recreating the existing natural systems we can help preserve our environment, so that we can continue to learn from it in the future.

"The sophisticated, almost pro-growth angle of Benyus shows the great potential profitability of copying some of nature's time-tested, nonpolluting, room-temperature manufacturing and computing technologies."
-New York Times

The following video is from Ted.com, standing for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It is a nonprofit that works to spread "Ideas Worth Spreading" at annual conferences in both California and England, as well as other conferences throughout the year. You can watch almost all of the talks at their website, on topics such as climate, phycology, education, genetics, and almost anything in between.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--
!!!

Nature and Design

2009-12-01T15:02:00.000-08:00

Richard Shilling is an artist who specializes in Land Art, a form of art which derives its design and inspiration from the natural materials in and around the site. Focusing primarily on sculptures, whose existence are often temporary, allowing for the natural elements to reclaim what he has created, Richard's pieces are made and then carefully photographed to capture the pinnacle of the sculptures short life.

While each sculpture is unique to the time and place it is created, they all reflect the notion that design in nature is all around us. As a kid if you ever built a sand castle, only to watch it wash away with the rising tide, then you have participated in nature's design. If you ever raked a pile of leaves, only to jump atop it and watch them fall to the ground again, then you have also participated in nature's design. These moments of embracing design exist universally, and are worth the pause in the middle of an afternoon stroll to admire.

The next time you are out and about, stop and take a look at the trees above you, the rocks beneath your feet, the moss within the sidewalk cracks or the water running in the street, I bet their outward beauty will seem deliberately placed in front of you.

For more of his images, check out Richard Shilling's website or flickr page. All images posted here are owned and protected by Richard Shilling.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--
!!!

Comic Sans Misses "Font Fight"

2009-11-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

Following the font conference, the typefaces involved met in an abandoned warehouse to "settle the score" and stage a typeface fight. The leaders of the two gangs, Arial and Helvetica, attempt to win the fight to become the ultimate default. Unfortunately, no one asked Comic Sans to join their gangs, forcing him to miss the typeface-off of the century.

This video was made by CollegeHumor.com for viewers who think that typefaces have real personalities associated with them. The original link can be viewed here.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--

Tempers Flare at Font Conference

2009-11-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

During a conference of fonts held at an undisclosed location, the family of popular typefaces gathered to determine if the typeface Zap Dingbats should be offered membership into their elite club. Their meeting was interrupted by Ransom, who was holding Courier and Curlz MT hostage with the hopes of getting placement in loads of programs font libraries. The tables were quickly turned when an unlikely hero appeared to save the day, Comic Sans.

This video was made by CollegeHumor.com for viewers who think that typefaces have real personalities associated with them. The original link can be viewed here.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--
!!!

Coffee Grounds Turned Into Ink.

2009-10-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

Every morning when I wake up, one of my favorite parts of getting out of bed is knowing that I can have a cup of coffee to start my day off right, as well as jump start the neurons in my brain. But morning after morning, cup after cup, it's hard not to wonder what better use these grounds could provide in order to make them slightly more functional. If you have a compost, they are great for that (even the unbleached coffee filters can be put in the compost as well!) but if you don't have access to a compost, they most likely go into the garbage. What if I was to tell you there might soon be a way to turn these used coffee grounds into ink for printing? There might be a way to do such a thing sometime soon, thanks in part to the Greener Gadgets Competition.

This past year, Inhabitat and Core77 partnered to host the Greener Gadgets Competition in order to encourage designers to create environmentally friendly consumer electronic devices. Because it is a competition, designers are forced to come up with ideas that are extremely unique and challenge what it means to be a "green" product. People from around the world competed last year as it was cut down to the top 50 designs, judged by internet votes, industry professionals and the sponsors of the competition.

Entries this year ranged from bicycle powered lights to energy monitoring equipment to human energy capturing infrastructure. One entry stood out as a radical approach to what most considered a waste product, meaning it has no further use beyond it's initial purpose. Introducing, the RITI Coffee Printer :

It is a simple product, allowing the user to insert coffee grounds into the provided filter/cartridge and compress it into ink. The device does not require any addition power sources, as it is powered by human strength (just moving the cartridge back+forth to distribute the ink).

Production of this printer is unknown at the moment, but it did well at the Green Gadget Competition in 2009. Stay tuned for an update on the upcoming 2010 Competition this coming February.

Next time you consider the lifecycle of the products you use, keep an open mind, any attempt at being creative and diverting waste from landfills is a step in the right direction and who knows, you might come up with the next great Green Gadget design!

(all images in this post via Inhabitat)

Leslie Bloom
LEED Accredited Professional

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--
!!!

PaperStone Products

2009-09-17T12:46:00.000-07:00

Choosing to use recycled paper products is a relatively simple way to reduce our impact on our waning tree population, and the people at PaperStone Products have some of the most eco-friendly materials on the market. Using recycled paper as the main content in their hard surfaces in buildings has allowed them to become certified by the Smartwood program of The Rainforest Alliance to Forest standards. Because it is made of 100% recycled products, it can also add to LEED (USGBC ’s rating standard for sustainable buildings) certification for buildings. In addition to reaching certification standards, PaperStone was also included on the GreenBuilding.com top 10 green building products list back in 2006.

There are different types of recycled content out there, don’t let the bombardment of the word “recycle” confuse you, here is a breakdown of what the terms mean:

Post consumer content: made from products that have already served their initial purpose to the consumers (me, you, offices, schools etc)

Pre consumer content: made from the waste+scraps in the manufacturing process (most likely the company you’re purchasing from)

Using 100% post-consumer products to create their line of surface products, Paper Stone Products is one step closer to closing the loop on our paper supply. If we are able to embrace our increasingly digital world of communication, we can decrease our consumption of paper, allowing our trees to stand tall and soak up the large amounts of carbon dioxide in the air.

Turning paper from this:

To these finished countertops:

We will most likely never stop using paper, but what we use can certainly have less environmental impact than it does now. By using post consumer content, Paper Stone has found a way to recycle our "waste" and give it a new purpose.

Leslie Bloom

LEED Accredited Professional

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--
!!!

Holy font fans! Ecofont saves ink (free download)

2008-12-27T17:51:00.000-08:00

!!!
Appealing ideas are often simple. Netherlands-based design company SPRANQ decided to see how much of a letter could be removed while maintaining readability. After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. At this size it looks like rhinestones on mary janes, but used at a regular text size, SPRANQ claims you'll use up to 20% less ink. Ecofont is based on the Vera Sans (like Verdana), an Open Source letter, and is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. Free to download, free to use.

Thanks, SPRANQ!

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--

!!!

The Secret Life of Paper

2008-09-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

!!!
Off Ramp Films and 18th Street Media teamed up for project INFORM to create this short, inspiring video about paper – how much we use and at what cost.

An American family of five sits on steps while cardboard and junk mail piles up to show how much is used every two weeks, until the people are totally obscured. They take away a third of the pile to show paper waste in England. Most of the pile goes away to show average paper waste in Mexico, where people use a fifth what Americans do.

Dr. Thomas Henningsen of Greenpeace Germany said every second, forest in an area the size of a soccer field is cut down, and globally we've lost 80% of all forests. He adds, "There is no need to make toilet paper out of wonderful, hundreds year old trees."

Germany passed a packaging law in 1991 that makes producers responsible for their packages. The first thing to go was excess packaging, like the boxes toothpaste comes in. Jars are standard sizes so they can be sterilized and reused as is, saving all the energy wasted in America to sort, crush and re-make bottles.

What we can do:

- Use less.
- Recycle everything.
- Buy recycled. If you can't find it, ask for it.
- Use recycled paper and add a line at the bottom to remind others to recycle and use recycled.
- Pay bills online.
- Copy double-sided.
- Don't print electronic files like email.
- Choose digital printing, which wastes less than commercial offset, and only print what you need.
- What else?

Best quote: "Every time a consumer picks up a recycled product, they're casting a vote for the environment." ~ Bette Fishbein, Senior Fellow of INFORM.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--

!!!

Design: How NOT to do it

2008-08-20T10:25:00.000-07:00

!!!
This hilarious video imagines the stop sign as designed by a committee.

Any designer who's been at it awhile will relate, but in my experience most clients are not like this. They hire us for our expertise and are not about to waste time and money over-controlling the process. Enjoy the video!

Stop! A Committee Designs the Stop Sign

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--

!!!

KIDS - go outside and get into nature!

2008-08-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

!!!
Most kids can identify 1000 corporate logos, but know the names of fewer than 10 plants or animals native to their own backyards. It's NDD - nature deficit disorder.

Average middle-school aged children spend 30 hours a week looking at TV or a computer monitor. Outdoor educators, including the No Child Left Inside Coalition, encourage kids to get outside and experience nature face to face.

"If you sit in the classroom and open a book and say, here's the food chain, they may understand it but they don't really care," says one teacher who takes students outside for lessons. "I want them to love it! Outside, I see excitement. Their eyes open."

A recent study by the California Department of Education found that children who learn in outdoor classrooms increase their science scores by 27%.

"Why not make outside part of your classroom? If you're doing measurement, why not measure for a garden? If you're doing descriptive writing, why not go outside and look at something real to describe and use adjectives? If you're doing science it's a natural tie, but if you're doing social studies and you want to find out how this area has changed over time, how has the environment changed over time, why not use the environment as a context for that learning?"

If the kids are touching, smelling, seeing, tasting... that's the way they learn the best.

National Association for Interpretation
No Child Left Inside Coalition
California Regional Environmental Education Community
"Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder"

"In the end, we will conserve only what we love;
we will love only what we understand;
and we will understand only what we are taught."
- Baba Dioum, Senegalese ecologist

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--

!!!

MPAA: "Best Practices Guide for Green Film Production"

2008-04-20T02:34:00.000-07:00

!!!
UPDATE 2010: The Producer's Guild of America website has more information about green film production, which includes the MPAA's Green Film Production Guide. NBC Universal also offers a pdf download with information about green film practices.

We've also updated the other links in this article, originally posted in 2008, as many had gone dead.

------------------------------------------------------------

Film students, Hollywood producers, production crews, directors, actors! Get your red-hot GREEN FILM PRODUCTION GUIDE here!

The Motion Picture Association just announced their new guide to green procedures and strategies to reduce waste created by the film industry. The "Best Practices Guide for Green Production" doesn't actually seem to be available anywhere, including MPAA's website, but the announcement is all over the blogosphere.

No worries -- until MPAA actually produces their Guide, you can access the California Film Commission's GREEN RESOURCE GUIDE for film production, which was introduced last September. The CFC's site also has links to Green Government Sites, and Green Office Practices as well as Green Film Production. It's a great effort.
Back to the MPAA's announcement. The press release quotes CEO Dan Glickman saying, "A new norm is emerging in which eco-friendly practices are best business practices."

He's right on both counts. Eco-friendly practices are best business practices, simply because waste in any business hurts the bottom line. And true, most people get it now: damaging the environment is literally the same thing as damaging ourselves.

"Hollywood continues to evolve as an industry that takes environmental responsibility, individually and collectively, on the big and small screen, and behind the scenes," said Mr. Glickman. "Every major studio is getting in on the act."

Let's hope it's more than an act.

In 1990 the studios formed a Solid Waste Task Force in response to CA Assembly Bill 939 addressing the wanton filling of garbage dumps across the land. It took them awhile, but last year Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, Fox, CBS, NBC Universal, and Sony Pictures together recycled 20,862 tons of studio sets and other "solid waste" according to the press release, which they say is equal to removing over 14 thousand cars from the road.

From smaller DVD packages to solar lights to The Red Carpet made from 95,000 soda bottles at last year's Emmy Awards, every major studio in Hollywood is collaborating to expand eco-friendly practices!

OK, good!

It's about time. According to Ecorazzi and a 2006 UCLA study, Hollywood is the grossest air polluter in the LA area, which is saying a lot. It's not all explosions and hair spray. Also cited were idling generators and idling limos, jet travel, freight. Add catering waste, habitat damage around the world, and just bad old-fashioned Hollywood excess to get a bigger, clearer picture of the damage done by the magicmakers.

I don't have a TV, but I don't hate Hollywood. I'm one of those geeks who watches the DVD extras: the story behind the story, outtakes, deleted scenes, and especially anything to do with production. Long after my partner has gone to bed, I'm checking out the shorts about CGI effects, costume design, props, sets... I love it all.

But. Hollywood is huge, excessive, over the top consumptive. The industry's impact on the planet is huge. Hollywood is also the undisputed leader in putting on the glam. Some of the studios' green efforts, praised in the MPAA's press release, were actually pretty thin relative to what they could and should be doing.

The MPAA and the studios they represent are very very anxious about copyrights, or more accurately copywrongs. They haven't given much space to green production guidelines, despite the fact that they will save money by actually practicing them. The more they do the more they save! Maybe a lot more money than what they keep for themselves when they bust Pirates of the Compactdisc burning illegal copies. I understand there are some good accountants in Hollywood who could help them figure out the ROI.

There's just this single press release parading some small efforts towards undoing some very large damage. The MPAA doesn't provide a link to its own guidelines or mention the California Film Commission's, which were probably the catalyst for the studios jumping on the bandwagon.

So naturally I wonder about the claim of environmental responsibility, "individually and collectively." On the other hand, every litter bit helps. They can only get better at reducing their footprint, as can we all.

"Hollywood's film studios have come a long way since they started recycling in the 1970s," said Gary Petersen, environmental member of the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

"Studios' waste reduction and recycling efforts are having a real impact on reducing greenhouse gasses and they have implemented many other responsible practices that showcase how the private business sector can contribute to sustainability," he added.

Hooray for Hollywood! No really, I mean that.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--!!

True Colors in a grayscale world

2008-04-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

!!!
This study in gray pushes grayscale about as far as it goes in any direction, in this hectic CGI animation short from Movieola on my favorite new place to go, hulu.com.

A city in grayscale. Robots race through a maze of freeways surrounded by factories, production lines, and constant reminders to BE WHITE. When they find a giant spray can and unleash the power within, the city and its manic citibots are transformed.

True Colors is 9 mins and could use some editing, but it's a blast of primary colors. This is legal graffiti.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--

GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--

!!!

What is the SOUND of COLOR?

2008-02-28T18:09:00.000-08:00

!!!
A neat project by Rehab asked five music artists to create music that interprets a color, then gave the music to five directors to intrepret the music and create video. With lots of latitude the results are very different, but each one is fresh creative work.

I especially love the Raveonettes' take on black and white, and Marie Digby's "Paint me in your sunshine" song about the color yellow. Both are fabulously artistic music videos.

Watch all five here:
ColourLovers

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--!!!

Flashy Frogs and the Amazing Colors in Nature

2008-02-03T05:12:00.000-08:00

Kermit said it first: it isn't easy being green.

If you're a green designer, it isn't easy if you limit your color palette to shades of green – and why should you? Nature contains more colors than the eye can see – from ultraviolet to infrared, including all the colors of the rainbow and everything in between.

Margaret Walsh of the Color Association says the color for 2008 is bamboo, a yellow-green hue, because "It just has a power; you know, these are very insecure times."

Leatrice Eiseman of the Pantone Color Institute says the color for 2008 is blue iris, a sort of purplish blue that is "a reflection of the times, [bringing] together the dependable aspect of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast... meditative with a touch of magic." Last year Pantone's choice was chili pepper red, but they've chosen some shade of blue four years out of the last eight.

One of my favorite resources for exploring color and color trends is COLOURlovers, the Color + Design Community for Creative Inspiration. A brilliant entry by ruecian for fazai38 shows color palettes inspired by fantastic frogs and toads.

Kermit would be jealous.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--

EcoPinion Survey: The Green Gap

2008-01-29T07:04:00.000-08:00

!!!
Second EcoPinion Survey Points To Green Gap Between Customer Perceptions And Green Products and Services
WASHINGTON, DC

January 14, 2008

EcoAlign, a strategic marketing agency focused on energy and the environment and an affiliate of DEFG LLC, today released the results and findings of the second EcoPinion survey on customer perceptions of green technologies.

The second EcoPinion Survey provides further evidence of a green gap between willingness to adopt or purchase green products, services and technologies, and consumer value perceptions around those offerings. While concern for the environment is at an all time high, consumers think that many forms of green technology (renewable, energy efficient or recycled materials) are cost prohibitive, difficult to understand and maintain, and aesthetically unappealing.

“As Kermit the Frog sang, it’s not easy being green,” stated Andrea Fabbri, COO and Chief Marketing Officer. “Vendors of green products and services have a lot of work to do to educate and promote their value proposition.”

Findings from the EcoPinion Survey Report include:

1. Forty six percent (46%) of consumers interviewed have adopted some form of green technology. This percentage jumps significantly among the 55+ age group.

2. However, when asked to compare attributes of green technology, consumers who have not already adopted some form of green tech tended toward the more negative value attribute for every comparison. These consumers perceive green technology to be ugly, expensive, and difficult to understand and maintain. The 46% who have adopted green tech were significantly more positive.

3. When asked about their level of concern should their neighbors adopt or install different forms of green technology, the overwhelming majority of consumers are not concerned.

4. For those consumers who would be concerned if their neighbor installed green technology, appearance and safety were the top reasons, with 39% of consumers citing each of these.

5. Consumers age 55 and over are more likely to have adopted green technology, less likely to be concerned if their neighbors install green tech and more likely to view green tech in a positive manner.

A copy of the full EcoPinion report is available at no charge by visiting EcoAlign’s website. For more information on DEFG, please visit the DEFG website.

--===--===--===--===--===--===--
GAIA GRAPHICS & ASSOCIATES
...creative by nature
www.gaiagraphics.com
--===--===--===--===--===--===--

!!!