Cover Controversy

Holy scandal! TIME magazine is in hot water over this issue's cover design. For only the second time in the magazine's history, TIME abandoned its usual red border for a green hue to support the cause of global warming. But the Photoshopped image on the cover may have spawned more negative publicity for the magazine than positive change, as Iwo Jima Vets are up in arms over what they feel was a "sacrilegious" re appropriation of the iconic WWII photo by Joe Rosenthal.

Says one Iwo Jima Vet, Donald Mates, "It's an absolute disgrace. Whoever did it is going to hell. That's a mortal sin. God forbid he runs into a Marine that was an Iwo Jima survivor." Harsh words, and a sticky situation!— was TIME disrespectful when it correlated WWII with the fight against global warming? Or is this an overreaction?

Read more and more and more and more and more and more. ••••

Happy Earth Day!

I love this enviornmental poster from 1980. In the spirit of the day, I thought I would share a few tips about how to be a green designer.

1. Use recycled materials: This is very simple to do. More and more printers now days have recycled paper as an option.

2. Use a minimum of material: Think about diminsions, required strength, and production techinque when you are designing something. You can reduce unneccessary paper waste by considering the smallest paper size for each product.

3. Printing and Proofing: When designing, do as much proofing on the computer screen as possible. When you need to print, print double sided. Email PDF proofs to clients, rather then sending a hard copy.

4. Increase a product's life: For example, make a product durable, reusable, or upgradable. Think about it this way...when you are designing a product, ask youself, "will someone throw this away or hang on to it?"

5. No emissions: When possible, produce items that operate free of emission.

Learn more at the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design ••••