As Bruce Mau said about his Massive Change Project: “It’s not about the world of design. It’s about the design of the world.” Design has never been more powerful and is “increasingly understood in a much wider sense as the human capacity to plan and produce desired outcomes.” This is why we’re ecstatic to have one of the leaders in using design to create transformational change in under served and disadvantaged communities, Elizabeth Johansen of IDEO to speak on Design for Social Impact.

According to their website:

“We believe in the power of design thinking to create significant social change. As perhaps the purest example of our human-centered approach, Social Impact at IDEO enables design as a tool to address such global social issues as poverty, health, water, economic empowerment, environmental activism, and the need for basic services. Design for social impact seeks to incite transformational change in underserved, underrepresented, and disadvantaged communities.

We believe that engaging in design for social impact advances the craft of human-centered design, as social design challenges are typically complex, systemic, and inherently human. We work domestically and internationally to bridge markets and inspire multidisciplinary conversations about the role of design in large-scale problem solving. We engage in projects with a variety of clients in the private, public, and social sectors to enable communities, individuals, and economies to grow through thoughtful design approaches.”

We believe that design has a crucial role in social change and we’re thrilled to have IDEO at The Feast.  To hear Elizabeth speak, please buy your tickets to The Feast Conference to be held on October 16th in NYC!  She’ll be among many other social innovators including Tom Szaky of Terracycle and Dale Jones of Playpumps.