Diamonds and Donuts

Manny and I finally had a day away from the intense workshops, to visit some of the sites here in Copenhagen. First up - Rosenborg Slot, which was built in 1606 by Christian IV as his summer home. The museum opens three levels of the home, a basement, and the vault where the crown jewels were kept. I have never see diamonds so big, it was insane. 

All in all it has been an extremely fruitful trip. Grazing the King's Gardens while eating some sort of Danish pastry (they are to die for here), has been especially nice. Last night was also the official opening of the Index event. Lots of mingling with absolute strangers high on wine and really the whole night feels like some odd odd indie film with no actual plot, just awfully random scenarios. I guess thats life, and so far I'm loving it here. Copenhagen, adopt me!

Rethink Your Green at CODE Exhibition

Here are the fruits of our labor. Our work is displayed that the Bella Center in Copenhagen as a participant in the Code 09 Exhibition. Manny and I have worked so hard to get this project to be the best that it can be and we thank the rest of the team and our families for their help and support. 

Unfortunately we were not the winner of the project. I think we were both pretty heartbroken, yet I think we feel incredibly empowered to take this project all the way. I finally feel like we are both more equipped to develop our design for potential investment and implementation.

Bella Center, Copenhagen

The site of the 2009 Code exhibition. Once again the danish charm us with their amazing sense of design.

Loving every second of this place. 

I Heart Unicef

At the close of the Designing Water's Future workshop, the kind people at Unicef gave us a tour of their warehouse. It was incredible. Unicef is such a smart company and I would love to work for them someday. I truly truly believe in their work and it is done so beautifully.

During the tour we saw rows and rows of supplies ready to be shipped at a moments notice. They also showed these great kits, such as the "clean hands kit" or the "recreation kit" because they believe that playtime for a child is just as vital as having germ free hands. Amazing. 

Designing Water's Future - Day 2

Another day at the Unicef Copenhagen headquarters, working with the student finalists, Index, AIGA, Value web, and a whole slew of social investors, businessmen, and industry specialists. Needless to say, it was an exhausting day of collaborative workshops, but the group had an epiphany of ideas in the last few minutes of conversation. 

To sum up our ideas - I'll give a quick low-down:

1. The collaborative work between design students and business students is an important element that was not worked out in this design challenge. 
2. A design must be simultaneously designed for investment.
3. Producing design with the intention of success cannot work on a linear process. It must be a circular process of loops, in which rapid prototyping can result in "the best possible answer."

Designing Water's Future

The presentation and the the workshop area.

Manny doing a really great job presenting our campaign.

On-staff cartoonist to record all of the information.

We heart Unicef and the facilites.

Our Hotel Carlton.

Workshops so far have been as intense as the Aspen conference so far. A lot of business talk with some much needed and appreciated knowledgeable egg-heads. Gotta jet to the next workshop, will update on the winner later!!!