SWEET MANGO: Getting Closer!

Getting closer to getting my greeting cards up in an online store! Just got really busy with client work and holidays... All good things...

GOOD KARMA: Pay-As-You-Like Restaurants

When you hear the word Seva, what does it mean to you? Quite literally, Seva means service. In the context of faith, it means selfless service rendered as a community action, done for the goodwill and benefit of others. 

Seva Café is an experiment in the shared joy that comes from humble giving and selfless service. Their wholesome meals are cooked and served with love by volunteers and offered to guests as a gift, paid for in full by previous guests.

As more participate in the joy of giving, the more the experiment thrives. It begins with a single gift: first given, then received... multiplied, and given again, in a growing chain of kindness and care. The hope is that this Circle of Giving leaves one feeling more nourished, and inspired to carry the experiment forward. Locations: Seva Café takes over Zephyr Vegetarian Café 340 E 4th St. Long Beach, CA, 90802 and Shopper’s Plaza, 4th Floor Opp Municipal Market, C.G. Road Ahmedabad, Gujarat India, 380 009

Karma kitchen another Pay-As-You-Wish restaurant. There are no prices on the menu and where the check reads $0.00 with only this footnote: "Your meal was a gift from someone who came before you. To keep the chain of gifts alive, they invite you to pay it forward for those dine after you. That's Karma Kitchen, a volunteer-driven experiment in generosity. Run by volunteers, their meals are cooked and served with love, and offered to guests as a genuine gift. Location: Taste of Himalayas Restaurant 1700 Shattuck Ave, Berkley CA.

Other Pay-as-you-like Restaurants: There are an increasing number of pay-as-you-wish restaurant sightings around the globe!

• Better World Cafe: a community kitchen in New Jersey.
• Gift-Economy Cab: in Vermont, a cab driver steps it up!
• Honesty Cafes: 7,456 of them across Indonesia!
• Cafe Kafee Kucch, Chandigarh, India
• One World Spokane: no menu, no prices in Washington.
• City Cafe Bakery (Kitchener, Ontario, Canada)
• Wine Bar (Berlin, Germany)
• No Food Restaurant (King City)
• Annalakshmi (Singapore, Malaysia, India)
• Lentil As Anything (many branches in Australia)
• One World Everybody Eats (Salt Lake City, Utah)
• SAME ("So All May Eat" -- Denver, Colorado)
• TerraBite (Seattle)
• Made with Love Cafe (New Orleans)
• Mother's Kitchen (Across USA)
• Krishnan (Madurai, India)
• Seva Cafe (Ahmedabad, India, also in LA for six months)
• Wednesdays (Santa Clara, CA)
• Vimala Cooks, Everybody Eats (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)

HELP BRING CLEAN WATER TO PEOPLE IN NEED

Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us. Mycharity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. They use 100% of public donations to directly fund sustainable water solutions in areas of greatest need. Go to the mycharity: water store http://www.charitywater.org/shop/index.php to purchase products: tshirts, wristbands, greeting cards, neckties…. The proceeds will help support charity: water operating costs and fund sustainable clean water solutions in developing nations. Alternatively you can create your own fundraising campaign http://mycharitywater.org/p/signin and collect donations to support the mycharity: water.

Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren't strong enough to fight diarrhea, dysentery and other illnesses.

90% of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are to children under five years old. Many of these diseases are preventable. The UN predicts that one tenth of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply and sanitation.

In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking for water. Women and children usually bear the burden of water collection, walking miles to the nearest source, which is unprotected and likely to make them sick. 

DESIGN WITH A CONSCIENCE

I wanted to blog about design with a social conscience and how as designers we can make a difference in people's lives. This is something I have been trying to figure out on my own and what as I designer that I can do. I participated in the "Haiti Poster Project" and designed a poster to help raise money to rebuild Haiti, but my feeling is that this is just the tip of the ice burg in what I could be doing in between my freelance business and selling my designs on merchandise. Anyway I came across a few websites that promote design to do good and I wanted to share. I am sure there are many more out there and I just have to find them... If you find more please share and let me know...

DESIGN IS LOVE is a movement where your participation & support help to shape a community around the idea of “do good”. It's a heartful place where you're encouraged to develop real relationships with other members through three active areas: Helping Hand, the Design Fund and inwords. Design is love wants to provide stimulating opportunities for our members to explore their creativity through funded projects and engaging communication, along with a match-making system that brings creatives and non-profit organizations together—taking the positive energy promoted here and sharing it with the world at-large. As stewards of our profession, you can count on DESIGN IS LOVE to lead by example and uphold standards in work practice that are beneficial to both creatives and their clients.

A BETTER WORLD THROUGH CREATIVITY - Since 1995, DESIGN INDABA has been committed to a vision that is built on the belief that creativity will fuel an economic revolution in South Africa. As such, Design Indaba is a celebration of design in a country iconic of the triumph of the human spirit. Proof that even the most intractable problem can be neutralised by the will of the people, resurgent South Africa is a beacon to the world. Design Indaba typifies this can-do spirit through its belief in design and how it can help solve the problems faced by an emerging economy. With the right support, a better future can be designed. By attracting the world’s brightest talent, Design Indaba has become a respected institution on the creative landscape and one of the few global events that celebrates all the creative sectors - graphic design, advertising, film, music, fashion design, industrial design, architecture, craft, visual art, new media, publishing, broadcasting and performing arts sector. Besides the flagship conference and expo,Design Indaba has grown into a multitiered experience that incorporates an extensive range of elements such as events, publications, education, training, business, development and community initiatives.

THE WORKING PROOF seeks to promote art and social responsibility. Prints by artists are paired with a charity of the artist's choice, to which they donate 15% of the sale of each print - creating what they believe to be a product with not just aesthetic, but social value. Besides showcasing emerging artists and great artwork, the intent of the Working Proof is to promote a variety of charities and to expose them to new supporters through the appreciation of art and creativity. THE WORKING PROOF releases a new print once a week, on Tuesdays at 1:30 pm, EST. seek to give our artists full creative control of their work by having them produce and sign the work themselves. Most of the artists create, print (by whatever method they choose - screenprint, letterpress, linocut, giclee, to name a few), sign and number a limited-edition print run that is exclusive to the Working Proof. 

SOCIAL DESIGN SITE 

Is a non-profit organisation that aims to foster a discourse on social design through our international online platform and the organization of and participation in projects, exhibitions, conferences, lectures, etc.  

MY WORK: Poster for Haiti Poster Project

My poster design: "HANDS OF HOPE" for the Haiti Poster Project is up to $50. It started at $25, so that means it must be selling! Yeah! Yippee!!! It says the media is digital, but I hand silkscreened/printed it on archival 140lb coldpressed watercolor paper... The Haiti Poster Project is a collaboration of artists and designers from around the world, benefitting victims of the earthquake in Haiti...

ABOUT THE POSTER: The poster was inspired by the unwavering faith and hope of the Haitian people in the face of unimaginable hardship. The hands are raised up in supplication - and the prayers are being answered in a shower of hope. The texture at the bottom is a representation of the cracked ground of Port-au-Prince.