Here are the donations you have received via Paypal 12/1 - 12/19:
12/7/08 Tamara Mcelroy
12/5/08 Carla Ramos
12/4/08 Donna Bergh
12/4/08 hillary safarik
12/14/08 Jon Jerome
12/8/08 Kristin Meyer

You are off to a great start - $280!
Be sure to blast your URL and mission statement to your list of friends and family, post it to your facebook, myspace, etc., and let everyone you know that what you are up to! We have found that it generally takes a few emails to get the donations started :) Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or if I may be of any assistance. Thanks so much for all you are doing to support charity: water.

We'd be delighted to receive a chandelier for the provost office. It's installation may have to wait though until we move into our new location next June. I just made the donation on line. Best wishes on your class project and thank you for your commitment to our students and our global community. Donna

Lukas, your page is ready : www.charitywater.org/pages/lukasbertus
Please share this URL with your friends or family! You will receive an email for every donation that comes in. Your donors will receive formal acknowledgement letters and tax receipts within 2-weeks of their donation.
Thanks,
Carrie

Toilets and Taps: Leading Organisations Commit to Improve the Lives of Millions Around the World
New York (September 25, 2008) - Today, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) announced a "Water and Sanitation Mega-Commitment" which will help millions of people to gain two of life's most fundamental necessities: clean water to drink and a safe, private toilet to use.

The announcement, made at CGI's 2008 Annual Meeting, included commitments to action by an alliance which includes the Global Water Challenge (GWC), WaterPartners, and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC). Collectively, the $60 million in commitments in which they are involved will improve the quality of life for some 6 million of the world's poorest people.

The scale of the challenge is huge, as nearly 900 million people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.5 billion to safe sanitation, with disastrous health, social, economic and environmental consequences. The alliance believes that the new, specific and measurable approaches embodied in their commitments can both deliver results and generate momentum for even greater progress.

The $25 million commitment from Global Water Challenge will help fund new innovative projects, found through the Changemakers.net competition. This online, global, collaborative competition co-hosted by Ashoka inspired 254 local entrepreneurs and organizations working in the developing world to send in proposals to provide safe drinking water and sanitation for their communities.

“We believe that these projects will start a ripple effect in their communities and around the world to create scalable, replicable and sustainable models that address the global water and sanitation crisis,” said Paul Faeth, Executive Director of Global Water Challenge.

GWC (www.globalwaterchallenge.org) is a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of 22 companies, non-profits, health organizations, and foundations, who are committed to reaching the goal of universal access to clean drinking water and safe sanitation. read on

ok everybody, tonight is the last night. we'll finish the chandeliers, they look just great. i'm bringing money to pay you for all the receipts. i want to talk about process, we'll send off our online fundraising campaign, and we'll hopefully stencil some cards, enough to know the process of cheap duplication.

you have untill the 10th of december to write your paper, and i want an email from everybody evaluating the group process of the group you were in.
i'll try to bring in coffee tonight too!
luke

Lukas,
Leuk van je te horen. I had read the Vanguard article and wondered what it's all about. I'm not available to attend the design crit, but am certainly curious to know what you are coming up with; my assistant, Terri Meaney, will contact you to schedule a time for us to chat.
(I have to tell you, though, that providing funding for other not-for-profit organizations is very tough for the university to do; we are getting state and philanthropic funds to support our students, not to pass it on to others, no matter how worthy).
I look forward to meeting you,
Wim Wiemel

The design department at Portland State University is working with charity: water.org to build a $20.000 well in a school in Africa. To help us donate some money towards the well this xmas you can go to www.charitywater.org/pages/lukasbertus/

Right now, 1.1 billion people on the planet don't have access to safe, clean drinking water. That's one in six of us.
Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick. Those hours are crucial, preventing many from working or attending school. Additionally, collecting water puts them at greater risk of sexual harassment and assault. Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water. Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old.

charity: water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. We give 100% of the money raised to direct project costs, funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need.

We are so grateful for your support!

so i decided to fundraise for a $20.000 clean water well in a school, build by charity water. If we reach the goal (over time to come) we can run a special class and document the process (i'll keep track meanwhile) and make a design publication about it. I'll keep the campaign going after the class finishes and you can stay involved if you like, we'll make it an ongoing design department project.
luke

Luke, Thanks so much for all you are doing to support charity: water. Your page will be up and running in 5-7 days .
Your page will be LIVE in 5-7 days. The URL will be:
http://www.charitywater.org/pages/lukasbertus/

I will let you know when it is ready. We are so grateful for your support!
Many thanks,
Carrie
--
Carrie Sanders
Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships
150 Varick Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10013
646-688-2323 (office)
646-229-7426 (mobile)
carrie.sanders@charitywater.org

***********************
Join us and 1,500 others for the 3rd annual charity: ball gala
Monday, December 15th – New York City
tickets: http://www.charitywater.org/charityball

Dear Lucas, We will be delighted to make a modest contribution to your project. provost Roy Koch is not able to attend on December 3 but we'll see if we can get someone else to represent our office. Thank you for the invitation and the creative approach you have taken for your class.

Please send an invoice for $100 for the chandelier and be sure to let me know who the check should be payable to. Donna

Dear Wim Wiemel,

I am a faculty member in the design department at PSU and I am writing on behalf of my students to you to invite you to our final design crit on dec 3rd at 18.30 hrs in de art annex classroom 160. As you might have read in the vanguard last week, in our intro to design class we are designing chandeliers for the presidents office as part of a design project looking at a socially conscious design practice, with a focus on the charity water campaign.

The students are working with an almost 0 budget to develop an awareness campaign and a fundraiser for the charity water foundation, who in turn builds wells for safe and clean drinking water in developing countries.

We want to see if the university can make a donation in exchange for the chandeliers. What the vanguard did not print is, I'm a Dutchy, just like you. I'm new too, maybe we can talk about making it a Dutch thing we do here at PSU, wouldn't it be a great thing to celebrate our new jobs and build a well together? We could document it, post it online in the open source network of architects for humanity, let the marketing people play with it, it could be a good thing for PSU. To support sustainability is to make it a part of your world, it starts with how we design our own office spaces, it's the "be the change you want to create attitude we need".

We fully understand if you would not be able to make it to our class, but it seems to silly not to try to invite you and see what we can do. The budget to build a well is $30.000, and i would gladly take half of that as my challenge.

sincerely,
Lukas Bertus

ps, i included the larger write-up for the vanguard article below

Hi Prof. Bertus,

We are writing a news story in the Vanguard about your fund raising efforts for Charity Water, as well as the water-bottle chandelier project. We are running the story on Thursday of this week, so it would be great if you could respond as soon as possible to the following questions:

1. Why did you choose to support the Charity Water organization?

The question is how graphic designers can work towards a sustainable future. Because designers still depend on clients who pay money, graphic design is usually directly connected with the corporate world, pushing more and more products to 10% of the world who already have everything we could possibly want, ignoring the 90% who don't have clean water, housing, education, transport etc. What we're doing in the beginning design class is looking at a socially conscious design practice. Charity water has a nice answer to our question on their site, "When we started charity; water, the first thing we did was build a well, and take a picture of it. Then we told the story of the lives changed in that community to everyone back home. We've been doing that ever since. We want to show the immense need for clean water, and how that looks, really, not through statistics, but by looking at individual lives it affects. We've found this is our most powerful tool." I think graphic designers can articulate projects, visualize ideas & solutions, present opportunities, connect possibilities, open source networks online, fundraising campaigns. We can tell & show the stories of peoples lives better than anybody else.

So we'll look at charitywater.org as an example of how design can work towards a sustainable world, there are many other examples but this is just the pick of the month for kicks. Charity water has a great use of design for their campaign, they tell the stories very well, give 100% of the money to building wells, and they show that fundraising is possible.

2. Are the cups/mugs for sale made in your class or purchased/donated from a local vendor?

It's not official yet, but the students a're talking with food for thought in the smith basement to see if they will be a venue for the class to present the campaign. We want to make it a fundraiser, it seems such a good opportunity to not only look at the project but support the goal of clean and safe drinking water too. We need more wells.

3. What do you and your class hope to accomplish from this project?

We want everybody to donate some money to charitywater.org to build wells. Really. Check them out online, there are so many stories. There is so much need.

4. How does this project fit into the curriculum for your course?

PSU has sustainability as one of it's core values, I think the design curriculum should take the opportunity to step up to the plate, there are so many amazing projects out there that can use our help. We're designing a postcard campaign, both real world and digital, to ask people to consider a donation to charitywater.org for xmas.

5. Why are you creating a water bottle chandelier for President Wim Wiewel?

We're also designing chandeliers for the provost or presidents office, or the design office, we want to see if the university can make a donation in exchange for the chandeliers. I'm a Dutchy, like the new President Wim Wiewel. I'm new too, maybe we can talk about making it a Dutch thing we do here at PSU., wouldn't it be a great thing to celebrate our new jobs and build a well together? We could document it, post it online in the open source network of architects for humanity, let the marketing people play with it, it could be a good thing for PSU. To support sustainability is to make it a part of your world, it starts with how we design our own office spaces, it's the be the change you want to create attitude we need.

6. What do you and your class hope to accomplish by creating such a piece?

I want my design students to see that there is an alternative to a corporate design job. Part of this class touches on creative thinking.

7. What personal event (if any) inspired you to support this cause?

Dr. Aimée and Mark H. Bessire started a foundation an NGO engaged in providing humanitarian assistance and educational opportunities in remote areas of Africa. They are currently doing a project in Ntulya, in the Sukuma region of northwestern Tanzania, four hours west of the Serengeti National Reserve. They drilled a well for clean water, and are building a primary school with 15 classrooms, teacher housing, a kitchen, and a medical dispensary. I have collaborated with both for some years on design projects, they just started their foundation out of nothing and i admire them for it. They are online at www.africaschoolhouse.org.

8. Do you, as a professor, have a history of activism in your classes as projects?

Yes, I do. To believe in grass roots is to believe in humanity. People have a voice and a lot of us have incredible stories to tell.

Lindsay, if you want to come to class to make a pic of us that would be great, even though our classroom looks horrible. we can't show you the chandelier designs yet, they are still being developed and presented. Maybe in your next issue. Maybe Wim Wiemel can show them to you -

Luke

the charity water project

"When we started charity; water, the first thing we did was build a well, and take a picture of it. Then we told the story of the lives changed in that community to everyone back home. We've been doing that ever since. We want to show the immense need for clean water, and how that looks, really, not through statistics, but by looking at individual lives it affects. We've found this is our most powerful tool."

The idea for this class project is to look at ways how graphic design can play an active role developing a sustainable future. because we still depend on clients who pay money, graphic design is usually directly connected with the corporate world, pushing more and more products to 10% of the world who already have everything we could possibly want, ignoring the 90% who don't have clean water, housing, education, transport etc.

So what can graphic design do for sustainability? articulate projects, visualize ideas & solutions, present opportunities, connect possibilities, open source networks online, fundraising campaigns. We can tell & show the stories of peoples lives better than anybody else.

So we'll look at charitywater.org as an example of how design can work towards a sustainable world, there are many other examples (see the list on the right) but this is just the pick of the month for kicks. Charity water has a great use of design for their campaign, they tell the stories very well, give 100% of the money to building wells, and they show that fundraising is possible.

After our whole list of possible things to make, we decided to design a postcard /poster campaign, both virtual and stenciled cards, to go viral and ask people to change their xmas present into a donation to charitywater.org for clean drinking water. 

And we'll design chandeliers for the provost or presidents office, or the design office if we can get them to give a nice donation -

and we'll look at all the other examples of design opportunities, because there are a whole lot of stories to tell and projects to be articulated better. there really is a different design career out there if you are interested.

we want comic book stock!

the book should flow like life > with time comes corruption, beauty & understanding

>> nothing
>> something (we suffer trying to know what beauty is)
>> everything (becomes beauty)

we'll make a reversible book, either cover is the front, both black & white are defined as nothing
cover <> white <> something <> everything <>something <> black <> cover

innocence
nature
natural
pleasure
consumption
portraits
sustainability
grief
exploitation
food
jalousy
money
poverty
greed
politics
power
love
sex
violence
education
shelter
serenity
self affirmation > you are beautiful

class concept discussion notes monday october 20

* TIME - once you understand beauty it means it is lost - it is not about superficial/supervisual beauty
as opposed to:
* things that become more beautiful with age & understanding
* growth vs deteriation vs emergence of beauty
* threats to the beauty of youth
* important role of nature for O.W.
* pattern pages more 'like life flows'?

* flip-book in corner?
* pop-up book?
* progressive pages? YES - i contacted lis who contacted the print department for access to the printshop

create sketches at home for more discussion by tomorrow
please update your blogs on thoughts regarding the book

Youth
by Oscar Wilde

'BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE MOST MARVELOUS YOUTH, AND YOUTH IS THE ONE THING WORTH HAVING.'

...Someday, when you are old and wrinkled and ugly, when thought has seared your forehead with its lines, and passion branded your lips with it hideous fire, you will feel it terribly. Now, wherever you go, you charm the world.

Will it always be so? ...You have a wonderfully beautiful face. Don't frown. You have.

And Beauty is a form of Genius -- is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.

You smile? Ah! when you have lost it you won't smile ... People say sometimes that Beauty is only superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible...Yes, the gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away.

You only have a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats.

Every month as it wanes brings you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses. You will become sallow, and hollow-cheeked, and dull-eyed. You will suffer horribly...

Ah! realize your youth while you have it. Don't squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age.

Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing...A new Hedonism --that is what your century wants. You might be its visible symbol. With your personality there is nothing you could not do. The world belongs to you for a season...For there is such a little time that your youth will last -- such a little time.

The common hill-flowers wither, but they blossom again. The laburnum will be as yellow next June as it is now. In a month there will be purple stars on the clematis, and year after year the green night of its leaves will hold its purple stars. But we never get back our youth. The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty, becomes sluggish.

Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memories of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to. Youth! Youth! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!'

- Oscar Wilde -

design compositions > 10 type "posters" 8.5X11, 1 color, 2 color, 3 color, 4 color, 1 poster of choice in 22x17

ART 118 Intro to Design
Luke bertus
Office located in AB125
e-mail: luke.bertus@gmail.com
luckytrunks
Appointments by arrangement
MW 1830-2120

'BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE MOST MARVELOUS YOUTH, AND YOUTH IS THE ONE THING WORTH HAVING.'
Oscar Wilde

This course is an introduction to design. It exposes the student to lectures/discussions, studio projects and lab time.
Prerequisites: Art 115, 116 and hopefully 120

Course overview:
Through the development of personal projects, guests & ongoing class discussions the students develop a shared understanding of formal layout sytems, grid, composition, linear sequence, type classification, Image & text, creative thinking, mapping, design incentives, paper specific, books, binding, lulu press. Students develop a practical understanding of design.

Sept 29 introduction
design compositions > 10 type "posters" 8.5X11, 1 color, 2 color, 3 color, 4 color, 1 poster of choice in 22x17
Oct 1
Oct 6 + Oct 8
Oct 13 + Oct 15

Oct 20 design a lulu book, sequencing, rhythm, pattern, Oscar Wilde poetry
Oct 22
Oct 27 + Oct 29
Nov 3

Nov 5 project water
Nov 10 + Nov 13
Nov 17 + Nov 19
Nov 24

Nov 26 Thanksgiving

Dec 1 project water action day
Dec 3 final crit

Attendance Policy:
Attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class.
Do not miss more than 3 classes total.
Your final semester grade will be lowered if you do:
- by 1 letter grade for 4 absences
- by 2 letter grades for 5 absences
- to an automatic “F” for 6 or more absences.

Grading Policy:
Grade Scale
A Excellent 4.0
B Above Average 3.0
C Average 2.0
D Below Average 1.0
F Fail 0.0

Projects will be passed in and grades will be given based on:
- Process as presented in discussion & process books
- Development of ideas and concepts
- Completion of the work
- Participation in discussions & critiques;
- Responsiveness to new ideas, suggestions, criticism;

Product
- Craft: use of tools and materials
- Attention to detail, follow-through
- Inventiveness, originality, deeper exploration & understanding