I imagine that most creatives are like myself when it comes to awareness of what we do, and... how we do it.

We observe and dissect the lives and thoughts of our clients and audiences with practiced expertise. Yet, somehow, we too easily neglect ourselves in the picture.

As we live our lives as designers/explorers/thinkers, we must be our own documentary photographers, too. Whether by yourself, with a friend, or via hired pro: be sure to capture the process and special moments of creativity as it happens.

A single photograph taken in the heat of a creative session can mean so much in the present and even more in the future.

It's a discipline that must be learned. Yet, its returns are exponential. Buy a disposable camera and always have one ready to take a snapshot. Whatever makes it happen in the moment. Informality is the rule. Just do it.

The United Nations sponsored another web-based video game to teach people the harsh reality of low-income areas in the world. Like other “UN-certified” games, Stop Disasters allows you to be the leader of a village somewhere in an emerging country and depending on your ability to conduct a project, you would save a bunch of lives or leave the area barren.

Each game is played in two times. The first episode is the improvement time. You as the ‘SimCity’ mayor of the village, have a rather comfortable budget to build housings, improve the village equipment, build a school and a hospital if needed. So far so good, pretty much all your actions raise the standard of the small town. Then comes the other episode: the disaster, the hard one. If you’ve provided the required equipment to the village, casualties will stay low. Otherwise, you’re dead — and your score keeps falling when the game is over.

Stop Disasters provides a set of five scenarios, corresponding to five major disasters (fire, earthquake, flood, tsunami and hurricane.) Up to now, we play three times and definitively suck at almost all the scenarios. But it was interesting to discover and rediscover some common sense tips like in the fire scenario, building a house close to the river or close to low-inflammable trees is preferable to arid areas. If you consider you could beat us at this game, drop a comment with your high-score. Ours was a mere 7,500.

We accept by now that chic products are something in grey zinc color. After all, Apple sells laptops in white, black and somewhat grey metal tint. But the grey color also corresponds to the aluminum, that can easily be found in can, especially in soda can.

Columbian designer Carlos Alberto Montana Hoyos has grabbed some 1700 can tabs to create the seating of a chair. He’s not the only one; Brazilian accessories maker Escama also took the idea of turning can tabs into shiny women handbags.

All handbags are made in “post-consumer” reused aluminum. They don’t need any special care, not like leather handbags, are water-resistant and come in different colors. A group of 50 women create them from their cooperative located in a low-income neighborhood close to Brasilia, Brasil. That’s the last but not the least good aspect of those ethic, eco-conscious and nicely made handbags. (via inhabitat)

We accept by now that chic products are something in grey zinc color. After all, Apple sells laptops in white, black and somewhat grey metal tint. But the grey color also corresponds to the aluminum, that can easily be found in can, especially in soda can.

Columbian designer Carlos Alberto Montana Hoyos has grabbed some 1700 can tabs to create the seating of a chair. He’s not the only one; Brazilian accessories maker Escama also took the idea of turning can tabs into shiny women handbags.

All handbags are made in “post-consumer” reused aluminum. They don’t need any special care, not like leather handbags, are water-resistant and come in different colors. A group of 50 women create them from their cooperative located in a low-income neighborhood close to Brasilia, Brasil. That’s the last but not the least good aspect of those ethic, eco-conscious and nicely made handbags. (via inhabitat)