The 212 Green Team Recommends: Interface

Last month we focused on Seventh Generation's innovative methods for reducing the environmental impact of their household cleaning products. This month we are highlighting Interface, a modular carpet manufacturer that is raising industry standards for sustainable research and product design. 

Unlike many so-called New Age companies, Interface is not a "born-green" business. In 1994, Interface founder Ray Anderson transformed the Interface brand and mission, challenging the 21-year-old company to adopt a new business model that would reinforce the value of sustainability-based commerce. His vision was to empower clients, fabricators and community members to ask for more transparent production methods, such that Interface would change the prevalence of green products in the marketplace.

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02/12/2012

Two Twelve Day 2012 marks our thirty-second anniversary as a design business. For the numerologically inclined among us, this milestone offers a uniquely entertaining chance to celebrate where we are today, the events that brought us to this point, and where we are headed for the next 32 years. 

Our journey began in 1980 at 212 York Street in New Haven, the old Zeta Psi fraternity house where Yale's graduate program in Graphic Design was then housed. We began small, just three designers, three desks and a few tools. Sylvia Harris, Juanita Dugdale and I had big ideas and big dreams for a design business built around public information design.

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From Verona to Vegas: The Success of an International Design Collaboration

Some of the greatest rewards of our work come from collaborating with specialized consultant teams, as well as from being challenged to find solutions to new design problems.

A recently completed project, The Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, has proved to be rewarding on both fronts. Designed by David M. Schwartz Architects, the Smith Center's grand public spaces are finished, floors and walls, in hues of polished marble from Testi Fratelli, one of Italy's best known stone wholesalers. The Testi family founded the company in the 1920's, when ox-drawn carts were used to transport the marble blocks hewn from its two quarries in the Verona province. Today Testi Fratelli offers a wider and more modern variety of stone products and services, several of which were put to the test on the Smith Center project.

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Assessing The Design Concept: The Importance of Prototyping

More often than not, we design environmental graphics in front of a desktop computer and in relation to architectural elevations drawn to scale. Our specifications for materials are derived from previous experience and what we have samples of in the studio. But we all know that what looks good on paper may not always look good in the space. If we are able to stay on the design path long enough, and the project budget allows for it, we can do what's truly most useful to assess the quality of a design concept:  prototyping. 

In environmental graphic design, prototyping is producing one or more samples of a sign or structural design concept at actual size, often using specified materials and production methods, and ideally conducting an on-site evaluation of its design attributes. Through prototyping, we can accurately tell if we've designed something to the right size, if the words are legible, if the material functions as anticipated, the colors work well in the lighting conditions, and so forth.

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New Signage Program Opens at Bayhealth Medical Center Expansion

Our environmental graphic design team recently had the pleasure of attending the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Bayhealth Kent General Phase II Expansion in Dover, Delaware. For me, the Senior Designer of the new wayfinding system for this hospital addition project, the opening represented the culmination of three years of dedicated work, enjoyable professional relationships, and steadfast collaboration among project partners. There was a sense of excitement in the air as we got our first glimpses of newly installed exterior and interior signs simultaneously.

As we toured the impressive new space, it was fulfilling to see the seamless integration of our signs in to the new environment. The design elements of our sign system took a cue from aspects of the patient-centered architecture by the Philadelphia-based architects, EwingCole, featuring curved forms and translucent finishes. Our custom-designed directional and room signs, formed from compressed acrylic, create a luminous effect and complement the building aesthetic.

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App Design Helps Connect People at SEGD XLab Event

I'm Leslie Wolke, an independent wayfinding technology specialist based in Austin, Texas. Last summer, while working on projects with Two Twelve, I was asked to co-chair xlab, a new SEGD event focused on design, technology and the built environment. While we were in the planning stages, my xlab colleagues and I discussed the idea of creating an app to help participants navigate and network during the event. We didn’t know if we could identify, design and develop enough useful features to make the app helpful in time for the event which premiered atEyebeam Art+Technology Center in New York on November 3, 2011.

David Gibson offered Two Twelve’s design resources pro bono, and through partnering with them and Rubenstein Technology Group we were able to develop the app, XLab 2011: Design of Location  on time and at minimal cost. The app featured up-to-the-minute schedule and programming information and a dynamic participant directory. We blended the speakers and attendees into one browsable list of profiles through which users could tag people they met and link directly to their websites and apps. About 60% of participants downloaded the app, and, of those surveyed, 70% used it prior to or during the xlab event. We also got some great feedback to incorporate into the next release of the app for xlab 2012, planned for this coming November here in Austin.

The 212 Green Team Recommends: Seventh Generation

Last month we explored Patagonia’s sustainability mission and methods to produce better products to reduce how much customers consume. This month, we focus on household products manufacturer Seventh Generation.

The name "Seventh Generation" comes from the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy that states, “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." With this message in mind, Seventh Generation finds ways to inspire their customers and retailers to think about sustainability.

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