Let's Fix It: Fall 2013, GOOD Magazine's (Re)design Issue

During one particular late-night editorial meeting, when all of us here at GOOD HQ probably had a few too many, we came up with an idea to draft six briefs, each detailing a specific global problem (the toilet, automobile, standardized test, single family home, condom, and Big Mac), and send them to a bunch of creative people with one simple instruction: to design a solution to the problem in less than 30 minutes, a time frame that would make them think about the problem, but limit the extent to which its complexity might overwhelm them. 

The next morning, when we were no longer under the influence, we still liked the idea and the stir-crazy, logic-defying, head-spinning, half-hour, half-baked design challenge was born. It was the perfect centerpiece for an edition of the magazine dedicated to (re)design. When we sent out the briefs, we told each of our would-be designers (David Arquette, Robin Chase, Susie Essman, Mac Miller, Dana Goodyear, and Eric André, just to name a few) that it was okay if the solution they sent back to us was half-baked. Surprise, surprise: They were. Some were super-thoughtful. Some, to be perfectly frank, were mildly disturbing… But all of our challenges, in their own way, got their subject engaging creatively with a problem in search of a solution, and we think that's a good thing. 

The (Re)design Issue tells a DIO (do-it-ourselves) design story that not only chronicles the ways in which design thinking is being deployed all over the world, but also calls you, the GOOD community, to take part in its deployment. 

That DIO story is a thread that winds itself throughout the issue. It runs through Chelsea Roff's story about how you can redesign your well-being; it runs through our roundtable with GOOD's first-ever Global Exchange Fellows who are redesigning the way we think about neighborhoods; you hear it in Ralph Nader's recollections of the doomed Chevy Corvair on its 50th anniversary; you see it in Bethlehem Shoals' essay on the championship legacy of the NBA coaching collaboration of Phil Jackson and Tex Winter, who effectively redesigned teamwork; and we hope you will take part in it as you explore our 14-page feature on half-baked solutions. 

For the designers among you, we expect you'll notice the (Re)design Issue pushing against the boundaries of what constitutes a "design problem." Our hope is that all of you begin thinking a little bit more like designers. We think our planet needs it.