Project H Lecture at NCSU
Design Revolution Road Show and Lecture
Monday, March 1, 1:30PM
NCSU, Burns Auditorium
Project H Design connects the power of design to the people who need it most, and the places where it can make a real and lasting difference.
We are a team of designers and builders engaging locally to improve the quality of life for the socially overlooked. Our five-tenet design process (There is no design without (critical) action; We design WITH, not FOR; We document, share and measure; We start locally and scale globally, We design systems, not stuff) results in simple and effective design solutions for those without access to creative capital.
Our long-term initiatives focus on improving environments, products, and experiences for K-12 education institutions in the US through systems- level design thinking and deep community engagements.
Project H is a tax exempt 501c3 nonprofit based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Bertie County, North Carolina. We believe design can change the world.
Emily Pilloton is the Founder and Executive Director of Project H Design. Trained in architecture at UC Berkeley and product design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she started Project H to provide a conduit and catalyst for need-based product design that empowers individuals, communities, and economies. Former Managing Editor of Inhabitat.com, writer, California girl and unwavering optimist, she has written for ID, GOOD, ReadyMade, taught design theory, and lectures worldwide about new social impact imperatives for the product design industry. Her book, “Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People,” is a compendium of and call-to-action for product design for social impact. When she isn’t traveling or emailing, Emily enjoys trivia games and baking (and eating) cupcakes.
about 1 year ago
First of all I want to say, and I doubt too many would disagree, but Project H is incredible. Everything they are doing all over the world with design is inspiring, amazing, and truly hit a spot with education that I find admirable and along the lines of a really interesting direction to take in the design community.
I’m pretty sure I agreed with everything said throughout the entire lecture, but a few things in particular stood out in my mind. Emily Pilloton mentioned that a lot of design today has become more about being an accessory or something neat to look at, rather than something that could actually be used. I had always considered the aspect of design being useful, especially after taking an industrial design studio, but I did not really understand the true impact of this until seeing their examples of what they have done. It became very clear that although architecture and industrial design may be the ideal concentrations to construct actual facilities or products that could help people, but also that graphic designers can make just as much of a difference, but in alternative ways. Everyone in this class is doing it now by designing a mobile application that will teach a particular group of people something. We have been researching over and over about the user and their needs, which is modeled similarly after Project H’s model for designing, but at a much smaller impact of course. No matter the size of the impact however, I believe it all counts, and I hope that design in the future will take a more user driven path, especially in unexpected places like Bertie or Uganda.
I think a lot of people were inspired after seeing the lecture, which I think is for the better. Whether or not some of us take a similar route of designing towards a social impact, I think it is important to always take extra consideration of the user and their needs, in hopes that a designer is able to solve even the smallest or simplest of problems for them.