Graphic designer and social entrepreneur Mark Randall will give a lecture on how to use art and design to promote social change on Friday, March 11.
Randall is the principal of New York City’s marketing and design agency Worldstudio. The award-winning agency is focused on social responsibility. Randall, along with his firm, promote a style of marketing and design that inspires changes in social problems, including the environment and spreading tolerance.
Randall is also the president of the nonprofit Worldstudio Foundation, which offers scholarships and mentoring programs for marketing and design. He co-founded Impact! Design for Social Change, which is a summer intensive program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Brice Tuttle is an art and design senior and president of the student chapter of Professional Association for Design, formerly known as American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). AIGA raised the money to invite Randall through the AIGA Valentine Grams. Tuttle said he is grateful Randall responded to their requests, since they feel the art and design programs at Cal Poly are often overshadowed by other schools.
Tuttle said he expects the lecture to be inspirational, informative and concise about making socially-minded projects.
“A lot of times, people see graphic design as making things look nice,” Tuttle said. “Mark Randall is a quality example of how it’s more than that.”
A socially-minded project Randall has participated in is Design Ignites Change, which is for college student interested in design and architecture and professionals collaborating with high school students creating projects with social themes. Another project Create! Don’t hate, designs billboards that deal with intolerance. The organizations provide participating students with the tools they need to send their message.
“You can get something more than just utilitarian,” Tuttle said. “It has a purpose.”
Another program is the Urban Forest Project. Designers, artists and students create banners for a city with designs that use the tree as a symbol. At the end of the exhibition, the banners are recycled into totebags and auctioned. The money raised goes toward local environmental and urban forestry projects.
Art and design senior and officer of AIGA Jazmine Kohl said she likes this project not just for its visual appeal.
“When (Randall) thinks about design, he thinks about the greater picture and not of the visual aspects,” Kohl said. “His lecture is sure to inspire and to make (the audience) think outside the box and how their thinking can impact social change.”
Art and design senior Allie Harold worked with Urban Forest Project, a global initiative by Randall’s design firm, and will attend his lecture and workshop. She said Randall’s presentation will be important for students studying graphic design to attend so they can learn to use their design abilities to make a difference.
“I think it will help us get a better idea about design for social change,” Harold said.
Harold also said students who attend Randall’s lecture and workshop can help improve Cal Poly.
“It can help us to look better as a university if we can do things that will affect others,” she said.
The Friday workshop will be from 5 to 6 p.m. in the BioResource and Agriculture Engineering building, Room 123.
There will also be a workshop on the following Saturday from 8:45 to 11 a.m. Space is limited and priority will be given to the members of AIGA. Students who wish to participate can contact Jaclyn DeMartini at jdemarti@calpoly.edu.