Fiction that Matters

The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice
http://srilankacampaign.org

My article: Open Source Design Tools for Human Rights Activists

The world’s premier human rights organizations often have entire communications teams with dedicated graphic designers to celebrate their work. But not every organization can afford to have a designer. Even those organizations that do have design gurus may decide, for strategic reasons, to keep tight control over their workflow so that they are not bombarded with too many requests. Not to worry! There are several open source design tools that allow anyone to create killer flyers, posters, icons, or campaign — the only limit is your imagination. More importantly, learning basic design allows you to approach your human rights work more creatively and reach audiences with more diverse forms of storytelling.

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My new article in Huffington Post on the amazing new school for young leaders in Africa.

Johannesburg — On a dry, sunny morning in Honeydew, the air laced with smoke from distant bush fires, I stopped at a sprawling central lawn at the African Leadership Academy. About a hundred uniformed students in Gryffindor colors energetically sang anthems, smiled and hopped and egged on their rivals. Instead of Hufflepuff or Slytherin, however, each group belonged to a house named after an African river: Tana, Nile, Niger, Congo, Zambezi and Volta. These were young wizards of a different stripe, with math geeks and business mavens among their ranks. Instead of wands, they wielded calculators and laptops.

This was the African Leadership Academy, a finishing school for future leaders from across the continent. Over 2,900 students applied for 100 spots in 2012, a lower admission rate than Harvard. Admissions are need-blind, with 90 percent of the student body receiving partial or full financial aid awards. But financial hardship is not a criterion for admission; rather, the school screens applicants for leadership potential, entrepreneurial spirit, a commitment to service, a passion for Africa, and academic achievement.

The Academy was founded by Stanford Business graduates Fred Swaniker and Chris Bradford in 2008, and has since embarked on an ambitious program to prepare burgeoning young African minds for success. The students study for international admissions tests such as the SATs and A-levels and over 95 percent of the 2012 graduating class were admitted to universities around the world, including Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and leading African universities. Of these students, 80 percent received adequate aid or scholarship packages and the remaining 20 percent will reapply this year for better funding.

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penamerican:

My brother Laate put this image together. Dope.

lottydotty:

To those who are curious: After Mr. Romney’s comments at the first debate, I put this image together to commemorate Shepard Fairey’s wonderful nod to now-President Obama. Enjoy.

stargazeonafullmoonnight:

orbitingasupernova:

dnlfn:

Dowling Duncan and redesigning the American Dollar:

Why the size?
We have kept the width the same as the existing dollars. However we have changed the size of the note so that the one dollar is shorter and the 100 dollar is the longest. When stacked on top of each other it is easy to see how much money you have. It also makes it easier for the visually impaired to distinguish between notes.

Why a vertical format?
When we researched how notes are used we realized people tend to handle and deal with money vertically rather than horizontally. You tend to hold a wallet or purse vertically when searching for notes. The majority of people hand over notes vertically when making purchases. All machines accept notes vertically. Therefore a vertical note makes more sense.

Why different colors?
It’s one of the strongest ways graphically to distinguish one note from another.

Why these designs?
We wanted a concept behind the imagery so that the image directly relates to the value of each note. We also wanted the notes to be educational, not only for those living in America but visitors as well. Each note uses a black and white image depicting a particular aspect of American history and culture. They are then overprinted with informational graphics or a pattern relating to that particular image.

$1 – The first African American president
$5 – The five biggest native American tribes
$10 – The bill of rights, the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution
$20 – 20th Century America
$50 – The 50 States of America
$100 – The first 100 days of President Franklin Roosevelt. During this time he led the congress to pass more important legislations than most presidents pass in their entire term. This helped fight the economic crises at the time of the great depression. Ever since, every new president has been judged on how well they have done during the first 100 days of their term.

omg

immediately in favor of chucking the poo-stained green shit

Not laughing so much at our monopoly money now, EH?!

The vertical format is actually an awesome idea.