We've been dealing with real money, real deadlines and real buyers and sellers," said Candice Bonnamour, a junior in textiles and apparel from Warwick, N.Y., who worked on the financial and communications committees of the team. "This was a real problem that we were responsible for. The ABC team, for example, canvassed the "alumni" to select the best of those 3,900 images, collected negatives and copyright releases, researched printing costs, raised the money, sought donated services, designed the poster and had 3,000 of them printed. They used strategies from the final and sought regular input from the course "alumni" who, by this time, were scattered around the globe. This semester, 10 of those students formed the "ABC team" and undertook an independent study project to produce the poster. In a final exam question, they were asked how to overcome the multitude of hurdles involved in transforming those images into a printed poster to promote social change. In one assignment last year, 140 Cornell students had to capture the letters of the alphabet in ordinary objects - such as railings, doors, shadows, fire escapes, clouds and vegetation - on color film. "And I wanted to inspire students, showing them how leaders use design to make change, take risks, view the world imaginatively and solve problems creatively." Thus, the course explored how design affects daily life, the impact of design from the individual to the global level and how design has been used to make positive social changes it also examined creative problem- solving, risk-taking and leadership in using design to promote change. "Rather than merely teaching elementary design concepts, I wanted to show how design can be a tool for change for biologists, lawyers, community activists or business CEOs," Danko said. Roots of the project began when Danko developed a new introductory course on design called Making a Difference: By Design (DEA 111). They will be sold by these institutions to benefit their youth education arts programs, which nurture the creative potential in our nation's youth. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell, which teaches children and art teachers about youth art education. The posters also will be donated to Cooper-Hewett National Design Museum Smithsonian Institution and the Arts Connection, both in New York City, and to the OMNI Program/Herbert F. With no previous experience, no sales or marketing force and no startup money, the students have produced a full-color, 2-by-3-foot commercially printed ABC poster - with the majority of the images photographed on the Cornell campus - that goes on sale graduation weekend May 24 and 25. Now for the final exam: Using design and creative problem-solving, describe how to turn those images into a tool for social change.Īt Cornell University, the answers to that undergraduate exam question were so strong that Sheila Danko, associate professor of design and environmental analysis in the College of Human Ecology, challenged her students to forge ahead and make their creative visions a reality. For example, find the letters of the alphabet in everyday objects, such as a cloud that forms a C. Try this: Practice viewing the world as a child, seeing things as they might be, exploring your creative potential.
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