DESIGN 21: Social Design Network encourages design students and professionals to address social concerns and create smart solutions through design. In partnership with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the Network seeks to explore, share and discuss aspects of “social design” – design that responds specifically to social, humanitarian and environmental needs to improve the quality of life of all communities and how we inhabit our planet. The first three challenges of this ongoing contest series explore themes relating to the Environment, Children and Emergency: HEATED ISSUE The competition series begins with an immediate call to create an awareness campaign to educate the public on the issue of GLOBAL WARMING. This competition asks participants to create an educational campaign to raise public awareness of the problem of global warming and the contribution of our daily lifestyle and activities to this phenomenon. The aim of the campaign is to provoke people to think about the issue and how their individual consumer choices and energy consumption play into the equation.

Deadline for entries: Sunday June 17, 2007 at midnight local time. 1st prize: $5,000 CHILD’S PLAY The second competition focuses on CHILDREN and asks designers to create an affordable object (or objects) that encourage children to cultivate their own imagination and creativity. The function is open to interpretation and the objective of the design should be to encourage exploration and to inspire a child to derive his/her own associations and invent their own interaction or way of playing with the object.

Deadline for entries: Sunday June 17, 2007 at midnight local time. 1st prize: $5,000 SHELTER ME The subject of the third competition is EMERGENCY RELIEF and asks designers to design a temporary emergency shelter for deployment in a natural disaster. Shelter Me challenges designers to present a cost-effective short-term shelter that is affordable, lightweight, strong and easily deployed. Deadline for entries: Sunday June 17, 2007 at midnight local time. 1st prize: $5,000

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