The Good Design Book

Good Friday: Hiccups

Sometime last Friday our servers crashed. Like, all of them. No email, no website, no Good Design Book blog, nothing. In all four websites, three blogs and eight email accounts were offline until late yesterday. Needless to say, we’ve been scrambling to recover.

Now for some good news!

Alice Bybee sent us her essay late last week, John Bielenberg turned in his “And Now for the Bad News” foreword and we now are the proud possessors of all but one Grant of Rights form (every image we publish must be accompanied by a signed written agreement allowing us the right to reproduce the project or photograph in the book).

I hear word from Brian Collins that he expects to finish his essay over the weekend and we expect the others next week as well.

Now if I can just get off my ass and finish up my writing we might actually have a book on our hands!

Oh, and I’ve saved the very best news for last. We have officially secured our sixth and final essayist. LA’s number on pedestrian and all gelato connoisseur Alissa Walker will be writing for the Reacting section. Alissa writes for GOOD Magazine, Fast Company, and on her own blog Gelatobaby. I really couldn’t be more thrilled to have her as the final member of this special family that has become The Good Design Book.

Right now I’m dashing out to the Celery happy hour (not just to party on a Friday night, but also to take a photo of Brian Dougherty for the book).

Good Friday: Essayists

So, I’m finally able to share with you who our contributing essayists are for the book. I’m really excited about their diverse perspectives and what they will mean to the book and the work.

As I’ve already reported, John Bielenberg is writing the foreword. You can always count on John for an oblique perspective.

Each of the six sections is also anchored by an essay:

• Teaching (How are critical causes being addressed in design education?) Essay by Allan Chochinov
• Seeking (How can design thinking pro actively identify and address social, cultural and political issues?) Essay by Brian Collins
• Organizing (How does design help spread the word, make people care, and motivate them toward action?) Aaris Sherin
• Supporting (Work that supports an existing cause/non-profit) Essay by Kate Andrews
• Reacting (What is the designer’s creative response to the human condition?) This one I still need to confirm, hang tight…
• Celebrating (Work that celebrates the arts or achievement, contribution or service to a cause. Sometimes good design is, itself, good design.) Essay by Alice Bybee

In addition we have interviews with Emily Pilloton, Michael Osborne, Randy J. Hunt, Brian Dougherty and others.

We also just confirmed to day that Ric Grefe will be contributing some written perspective, along with a few others that still need to be locked down, so I shouldn’t jinx anything by mentioning them here.

I’m very excited and extremely pleased to have the support and contribution of these remarkable leaders and thinkers. Their thoughts and perspective will certainly be a critical force in elevating the relevance and thoughtfulness of the book.