Presenting the winner and other top designs from our Washington Redskins rebranding contest [via 99 designs blog]
If you’ve been remiss to the recent national conversation of the Washington Redskins’ controversial team name, now’s a good time to get involved! This D.C.-based designer blog hosted a contest that produced multiple interesting rebranding concepts for the team, most of which keep the original colors in tact.
Warriors appears to be the most widely-embraced new name, but among some more unique mascot suggestions are the UFOs and the Griffins, a clever likening of team QB Robert Griffin III to a “fabulous beast with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion.”
Should the team rebrand or not? Does its existing brand hurt fanship, or would rebranding affect fanship more? And what’s your favorite logo from these entries?
The New Science of Who Sits Where at Work [via Wall Street Journal]
We’ve all been there; we’ve felt suppressed (and depressed) by the walls of our cubes, been annoyed by the volume of our office neighbor on the phone, or forgone the 20-step walk a couple of aisles over to ask a colleague a question, relinquishing team rapport and human connection for the sedentary convenience of email.
Workspace design is a key element in organizational strategy, and trends come and go according to the latest research. The newest one thrown into the mix? “Musical chairs.”
We want to know: How is your office seating designed, and how does it affect your productivity and happiness?
How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses [via Wired]
Now here’s something I think and talk about daily in my dual roles as digital professional and professor of digital: The influence of digital media on academics.
There’s an emergence of a new value set in education comprised of imagination, creativity, discovery, student leadership, individualism, and the acknowledgement that students’ control over their own learning processes produces unrivaled results.
In this model, teachers don’t simply transmit information to passive, slack-jawed students. Teachers are instead seasoned participants in an active, collaborative exploration of knowledge and ideas.
So here’s a story of how this method even works at the forlorn José Urbina López Primary School in Mexico–what many call “un lugar de castigo,” or “a place of punishment.”
The school is located next to a massive, exposed dump, and the smell of garbage permeates the building. There are often corpses littering the streets as the result from city’s entrenched drug violence. Internet access is unreliable, along with electricity in general.
Pitts: The modern disconnect [via the Richmond Times-Dispatch]
“In the murder of Justin Valdez and the bizarre scenario leading up to it, we find fresh, albeit bloody, evidence of how social media and high technology have changed us. These devices and new platforms of communication were supposed to allow us to be better connected to one another. Take this murder as Exhibit A for the argument that they actually do the opposite.
Granted, they provide a link to someone who is not there, but it is at the cost of separation from someone who is.”
These Eye-Popping Photos Show How They Get The Minerals That Power Your Gadgets [via Fast Co.]
If you don’t yet feel guilty about spending your days reliant on your digital prostheses instead of positively engaging with your present environment, this series of photographs shot by Marcus Bleasdale of children in poor working conditions in Congo’s tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold mines really won’t make you feel great about your cell phones.
But unsettling as it may be, this is stuff we need to see in order to affect change, and change is apparently happening.
“Through initiatives of their own, some industry giants say that conflict-free technology can be possible. Intel, for example, is working on a conflict-free microprocessing chip, while Motorola Solutions, Intel, and HP helped launch a conflict-free smelter auditing program. Apple also sources its tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold from conflict-free smelters. Nintendo, however, remains far behind the rest of the industry.”
Apple Taps Fashion CEO as Retail Magic Fades [via Wall Street Journal]
Next year Indiana native and Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts will begin her tenure as Apple’s senior vice president of retail and online stores.
