Message Journal, Issue 5: COVID-19 SPECIAL ISSUE Capturing visual insights, thoughts and reflections on 2020/21 and beyond...

If there is a theme running through the Message Covid-19 special issue, it is one of caring. Of our own and others’ resilience and wellbeing, of friendship and community, of students, practitioners and their futures, of social justice, equality and of doing the right thing. The veins of designing with care run through the edition, wide and deep. It captures, not designers as heroes, but those with humble views, exposing the need to understand a diversity of perspectives when trying to comprehend the complexity that Covid-19 continues to generate. As graphic designers, illustrators and visual communicators, contributors have created, documented, written, visualised, reflected, shared, connected and co-created, designed for good causes and re-defined what it is to be a student, an academic and a designer during the pandemic. This poignant period in time has driven us, through isolation, towards new rules of living, and new ways of working; to see and map the world in a different light. A light that is uncertain, disjointed, and constantly being redefined. This Message issue captures responses from the graphic communication design community in their raw state, to allow contributors to communicate their experiences through both their written and visual voice. Thus, the reader can discern as much from the words as the design and visualisations. Through this issue a substantial number of contributions have focused on personal reflection, isolation, fear, anxiety and wellbeing, as well as reaching out to community, making connections and collaborating. This was not surprising in a world in which connection with others has often been remote, and where ‘normal’ social structures of support and care have been broken down. We also gain insight into those who are using graphic communication design to inspire and capture new ways of teaching and learning, developing themselves as designers, educators, and activists, responding to social justice and to do good; gaining greater insight into society, government actions and conspiracy. Introduction: Victoria Squire - Coping with Covid: Community, connection and collaboration: James Alexander & Carole Evans, Meg Davies, Matthew Frame, Chae Ho Lee, Alma Hoffmann, Holly K. Kaufman-Hill, Joshua Korenblat, Warren Lehrer, Christine Lhowe, Sara Nesteruk, Cat Normoyle & Jessica Teague, Kyuha Shim. - Coping with Covid: Isolation, wellbeing and hope: Sadia Abdisalam, Tom Ayling, Jessica Barness, Megan Culliford, Stephanie Cunningham, Sofija Gvozdeva, Hedzlynn Kamaruzzaman, Merle Karp, Erica V. P. Lewis, Kelly Salchow Macarthur, Steven McCarthy, Shelly Mayers, Elizabeth Shefrin, Angelica Sibrian, David Smart, Ane Thon Knutsen, Isobel Thomas, Darryl Westley. - Coping with Covid: Pedagogy, teaching and learning: Bernard J Canniffe, Subir Dey, Aaron Ganci, Elizabeth Herrmann, John Kilburn, Paul Nini, Emily Osborne, Gianni Sinni & Irene Sgarro, Dave Wood, Helena Gregory, Colin Raeburn & Jackie Malcolm. - Coping with Covid: Social justice, activism and doing good: Class Action Collective, Xinyi Li, Matt Soar, Junie Tang, Lisa Winstanley. - Coping with Covid: Society, control and conspiracy: Diana Bîrhală, Maria Borțoi, Patti Capaldi, Tânia A. Cardoso, Peter Gibbons, Bianca Milea, Rebecca Tegtmeyer, Danne Wo

Design 10. : dieci anni di design a San Marino con uno sguardo ai prossimi cento

Sono dieci gli anni di attivit\ue0 dei Corsi di laurea in Design dell\u2019Universit\ue0 degli Studi della Repubblica di San Marino. Un traguardo importante, ma ancora pi\uf9 importante \u2014 per un ateneo dedicato al progetto \u2014 \ue8 rivolgere lo sguardo agli anni a venire. Un\u2019occasione per interrogarsi sul futuro del design. Territorio incognito per antonomasia, il futuro, non solo della professione, dipender\ue0 da come lo sapremo costruire oggi

The Italian Government Interface. From the Spoils System to the Guidelines

In 1998, the year Macromedia Flash went mainstream and in which internet users were about 3.6% of the world population, the web presence of the Italian Government began. In the evolution of the Government website, a first period from 1998 to 2014 can be identified, which sees the site as an integral part of that spoils system that has often accompanied the numerous changes of the political majority in Italy and the related Governments in office. We can then identify a second period, from 2015 to today, which begins with the publication of the Design Guidelines for PA Websites that sees instead the establishment of some general principles of interface design based on the usability and accessibility of the contents. These principles have allowed the Government website to become a super partes communication structure, independent from the political expression of the Government in office and part of a digital transformation strategy that sees the introduction, for the first time in Italy, of a centralized governance based on technical skills. Thanks to documentary material and direct testimonies, the contribution intends to highlight both the evolution of the Government website from a political communication tool to an institutional communication site and the very idea of institutional communication in Italy in relation to the growing digitization and the need for an active online presence

Design for citizeship

Processi di innovazione nella comunicazione di pubblica utilità per il progetto dei servizi. Con il numero 10 di MD Journal si intende analizzare il contesto e i confini del progetto dove si incontrano la componente visiva dell’identità e il design di servizi di pubblica utilità, invitando alla ricerca e riflessione – teorica quanto sperimentale – il settore dei ricercatori della disciplina del design italiani e internazionali. L’indagine ha come obiettivo l’esplorazione delle potenzialità di aggiornamento e attualizzazione degli obiettivi della comunicazione di “pubblica utilità”, nel progetto di sistemi e servizi attraverso cui istituzioni, enti, organizzazioni, con fini di pubblico interesse raggiungono le persone, i cittadini.Issue 10 of MD Journal aims to analyse the context and boundaries of design, where the visual component of identity and the design of public services come together, encouraging research and reflection – both theoretical as well as experimental – on the part of researchers in the discipline of Italian and international design. The aim of the investigation is to explore the potential for updating and refreshing the objectives of “public service” communication, in the design of systems and services through which institutions, bodies, organisations, of public interest, reach people and citizens

Design for citizenship. Processi di innovazione nella comunicazione di pubblica utilità per il progetto dei servizi

“Design for citizenship” nasce dalla volontà di svolgere un’indagine sull’attualità del tema “pubblica utilità”, proposito convergente – con sincronia – con uno dei mo-menti di maggiore crisi del Paese e condizione – è già stato detto in altre occasioni [1] – che invita le categorie professionali dedicate al progetto, a riflettere sulla propria responsabilità etica, sociale e politica. Una prima riflessione ex-ante l’invito alla scrittura rivolto alla comunità accademica, è dipartita dal tema della comunicazione identitaria dei servizi, per poi ampliarsi a comprendere le pratiche progettuali rivolte alla comunità e al settore pubblico che contraddistinguono il Design for social innovation – service design, design thinking, human centred design, participatory design – mobilitate, senza dubbio, dalla complessità del progetto contemporaneo