Social Communication

Veterans of War: The Homeless of America

The homeless epidemic in America is at a slow decline with organizations attempting to give food and shelter to those in need.  Unfortunately there are still alarming figures of roughly more than 420,000 families who are homeless, a rough estimate of 924,000 of those who are homeless are children (2).  Amongst these families who are homeless are veterans of war.  According to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty estimate that 23% of the homeless population are veterans of war, nearly half of them who served in Vietnam.  Over 3/4ths of homeless veterans suffer from alcoholism, other drug abuse, or mental health problems such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Although there are organizations and legislation taking place to prevent the homelessness of veterans there is still not enough being done.  It takes a year or more before a homeless person is recognized as a veteran of war, but that is not excuse for the lack of effort towards the homeless epidemic as a whole.  It is time for communities and individuals to take action and support those in need, especially those who risked their lives to protect our freedom. It is time we stop taking for granted our everyday luxuries and give back.

In every major city there needs to be more available housing for the homeless.  Most cities have bans that do not allow people to build camps, areas that prohibit loitering, and the begging of food and money.  Cities need to build communal 24-hr spaces or buildings that allow the homeless to come and go as they please, a place where food is made available more regularly and most importantly a warm and safe environment to sleep.  According to the National Homeless Organization over the past ten years there have been over 1000 reported violent attacks against the homeless which about one in three victims of violent attacks end up in death (6).

An idea to gain larger quantities of food is to have more fundraising and food drives.  Also everyday food businesses like Dunkin Donuts, Au Bon Pan, Panera Bread, and the average bagel shop throws away the left over’s of fresh baked goods from that day.   These can sometimes be multiple garbage bags full for still fresh edible food that goes to waste.  I propose drop boxes be erected and placed outside of these business.  There would be two types of drop boxes.  The first would be a lockable drop box for loose breads that would be collected at the end of each business day and brought to soup kitchens and shelters for the next day.  A second type would be in the style of a newspaper dispenser that would be for packaged/wrapped breads, these would be for those passing by in need of food who can reach a hand in to grab something to eat. 

Another idea would be to create a type of survival package in the form of a backpack.  This would contain a first aid kit, space blanket, poncho, hat and gloves (winter season), and any other necessary survival gear.  There would also be a map that shows where hospitals are, police station, soup kitchens and shelters, and other important land marks.  Another map would show what areas of the city are safe and not safe and marked with recorded "hobo symbols" which is apart of "hobo language" which lets others know where it is safe to go.

The homeless epidemic is easily overlooked because of the common misconception that those who are homeless became this way because a lack of work ethic and drug abuse.  Not everyone realizes that an alarming number of those homeless are veterans of war who had a hard time coping with the war and could not fully function within society.  We need to start a campaign making these statistics available to the masses.  Slogans like “Fight For Those Who Fought For Our Freedom” and a picture of everyday people (cops, teachers, doctors, moms, teens, etc…) raising an American flag in the style of Iwo Jima.  More posters and campaigns need to be made to raise awareness and to encourage the everyday person to become involved.  Not everyone one goes unfed everyday, so why should the homeless.

Whether or not we agree with war and our political views may differ, it is important to always support our troops.  Not everyone is for the war and some of those people choose to join the military and fight to protect our civil rights, freedoms, and luxuries. 

Dawn Danby

Dawn Danby is an Industrial Designer who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2000 and received her MBA in Sustainable Business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute in 2007.  She originally went to school for art and became a designer, because of her interest in environmental issues.  She calls herself a cross-disciplinary designer for her many different talents, which she has applied to her work throughout the past few years.

In collaboration with WorldChanging (a non-profit organization of journalists, designers, and other environmentally conscious people who bring new ideas to consumers to inform the public and promote a green future) Danby co-authored WorldChanging: A User's Guide to the 21st Century (2006), which touched on issues of environmental sustainable designs, technology and art.  Her main purpose of the book is to inform people of the benefits of thinking green and building a green future. 

In 2007 Dawn Danby collaborated with Jyoti Stephens and Mary Rick to develop a solution to British Columbia's food importing to create local food distribution called the Beeline project.  Their goal is to make consumers aware of the benefits of supporting local farmers and buying locally grown food.  In collaboration they created a more simple transportation route starting from Vancouver to other cities, eventually making a full circle back to Vancouver.   The products would also be tracked by RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification Device) to track who is buying and selling, to bring farmers together to reach new markets, eliminate emissions and CO2, and to informer consumers. (pictures?)

Danby also manages Autodesk a computer software company that creates sustainable design programs.  Autodesk allows users to create 3D computer models of entire cities.  It enables users to design sustainable buildings while calculating data on how much energy will be used to construct the building and how much energy the building will use.  It also makes it possible to create models that are sustainable with clean energy and will give data on how much energy will be captured from the surrounding environment.  Autodesk offers eight different programs, four of which are CAD programs and the other four are programs for design, modeling new mechanical products, animation, and other 3D designs.  Autodesk promotes designers to create entire green sustainable cities and products with accurate data.

Danby puts a large emphasis on designing cities and products that are environmentally friendly.  She holds the idea of learning to design with and her goal to inform the public of pressing environmental issues.

Danby today is apart of The Green Corridor in Canada, which is to revamp city slumps across Canada, “the industrial rustbelt”, by bringing nature into urban environments.  The project will create a eco-friendly environment linking Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan.  Danby has also designed a pedestrian footbridge lined with trees and wind turbines.

Dawn Danby on her own time has designed sustainable furniture and other products.  She practices all forms of art giving her an interdisciplinary perspective.  He also gives lectures promoting sustainable design and operates her own website, Sustainable Design Portal (http://eco.barkingcrickets.org/) promoting sustainable designs, with links to websites, designers, architects, artists, books, and anything that promotes green technology and sustainable design.

Dawn Danby is an environmentally conscious designer who strives to work with the environment and believes we can learn from our surroundings.  She actively is working on current environmental issues and believes that designers should inform the public and give them the tools to build a more sustainable future.  Danby has learned to embrace technology by using the Internet to promote environmental issues and to inform the public.  She also actively uses computers to create accurate 3D computer models to predict future sustainable city designs.

http://dawndanby.com/

http://www.azuremagazine.com/newsviews/blog_content.php?id=1146           

http://eco.barkingcrickets.org/

http://greencorridor.ca/

http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20071005/sourcing-it-dawn-danby-of-aylanto-icff-2007

http://www.subtletechnologies.com/2005/symposium/dawn_danby.html

http://usa.autodesk.com/

Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight (2008)

-       Form and light

-       New York

-       SVA

-       To inform

-       Civil rights

The Milton Glaser documentary To Inform and Delight features Milton Glaser at 82 years of age discussing his role as a graphic designer and the importance of informing the public in modern times.  Glaser also explains his technique and style, while examining the range of works he has done independently, his fifty years of work for the School of Visual Arts, and other work for programs and businesses.

Glaser is a Jewish-American graphic designer who started drawing at an early age and later went to high school at LaGuardia Arts, which he redesigned the name to and a new logo.  He later went to Italy to study art. In the 60s Glaser and a group of friends started New York magazine, which featured current pressing issues and promoting New York getting the public involved.  As a way to boost morale amongst New Yorkers Glaser designed the “I Love New York” logo, which is seen everywhere today and has been adopted by others to express what else one might love.

Glaser also supported the Gay Rights Movement in the 1960s and 70s.  He has always been a humanitarian and activist of Civil Rights.  In the 60s he designed the upside-down pink triangle to represent Gay Rights.  He adopted it from Nazi Germany who previously used the pink triangle to “mark” who was gay.  His motive was to take this symbol of Gay individuals and turn it into something positive.

Today Glaser is still very active in Civil Rights and wants to inform the public of pressing issues.  With the School of Visual Arts he developed posters to promote awareness of the genocide currently taking place in Darfur, Africa.  His poster reads “We Are All African” which means we as citizens of the world all support Africa and have this common heritage.

Milton Glaser has also been associated with the School of Visual Arts for the past 50 years.  He has been designing posters for the school promoting SVA and other SVA affiliated programs.  Through SVA Glaser has also created posters like the Darfur poster to inform the public and raise awareness of important issues.

Today Glaser runs his own design firm out of New York, Milton Glaser.  There he and his staff create new designs for clients.  Glaser states in the film that he does all his work by hand drawing everything.  He does not own a computer or really supports technology.  The only computer work done is by his staff and he usually just watches and guides their computer work.

Milton on his personal time has created a children’s book with is wife Shirley.  Shirley Glaser is an author who wrote the book The Alphazeds and Milton did the illustrations.

Milton Glaser is one of the most important graphic designers of the past 50 years who has created many iconic posters and styles over his career.  At age 84 now he is still designing very thoughtful and elegant art.  As a designer Glaser recognizes his skill act communicating ideas to the public and realizes how important this skill is.  He calls himself designer-citizen, which to him means using design to inform people to work towards a better future.  It is important to him to be labeled as a citizen, because he believes all designers has a social responsibility to the world to be truth and to inform the public.