RSS feed3.13.08 Shop with a Conscience
As was our custom every other Friday, on a quiet day in December, the 3-person staff of designfarm came together for a brown-bag lunch meeting about design. The meetings addressed not the smaller issues of design: font choices and color palettes, even project budgets or concepts, but rather Design Issues with a capital D: Creativity, inspiration, meaningful work that is also socially responsible.
That particular week, designfarm’s tagline, Uncommon Solutions for the Common Good, was the theme of the meeting. Where might we locate exciting new ways to fulfill on this promise?
The answer came as we explored the internet, checking in with explosive DIY communities such as Etsy, where many of the shop-owners (including designfarm’s principal, Jodi Bloom) are professional designers by day and makers of other things by night. We visited the sites of other businesses where creativity ruled, where the boundaries were only as restrictive as the creator’s imaginations, and where people were carving out a reasonable living designing and making a contribution to society.
The seed for MyRight2Write.com was planted at that Friday meeting, was watered daily and grew during subsequent meetings on the beanbag chairs and around the tables at designfarm.
In just 3 short months, we went from a vague and rough concept, through lots of changes and reinventions, to the freshly launched web site you can visit today. The product–altered composition book journals–has been perfected, and let me tell you: these things are SWEET! Each is one of a kind, features recycled vintage wall paper, cool graphics (of course) and the best part: For each journal sold, designfarm donates an unadorned composition book to a public school in the DC Metro Area.
We’ll post more stuff about MyRight2Write.com in the future. For more information immediately (especially if you are media), download our Press Release.