By Julie Blaustein

Photo by Chris Brennan

FairTrade USA is the leading certifier of fair trade products in the United State. They are responsible for auditing and certifiying transactions that take place between US companies and their international suppliers and most importantly, guarantee that farmers and workers that produce Fair Trade goods are paid fair prices and wages.

Nimisha Ambati of Club Dine In! who has a most sustainable blog about eating and being physically sustainable, provided the following recap of the event. “Fair Trade hosted a sustainable party to launch its new name and brand identity along with its kickoff of National Fair Trade Awareness Month. Appropriately, the double celebration was held at Temple Nightclub – one of the greenest nightclubs in the nation. Temple Nightclub was the perfect venue as it combines modern design with decor dating back to the 11th Century, has an extensive composting and recycling program, has an on-site garden for their restaurant and is energy efficient.”

Like so many other design-loving filmgoers, I was pulled into the intricate story and visuals in the 2007 documentary, Helvetica. Although a documentary about a font may not initially seem captivating, it is a beautifully crafted independent film that explores typography, graphic design and global visual culture. Helvetica as a typeface celebrated its 50th year in 2007 and had a surprising impact on design. After seeing the film, I couldn’t wait to see what came next for the director.

Gary Hustwit, the director of Helvetica, decided to look at design from another angle in his 2009 film, Objectified. The film was released in the theatres in March and made its television debut in November on PBS. Although similar to Helvetica, this film focuses on the origins and designs of objects. The term “objects” can cover almost anything: the focus of this documentary is on modern design. Something as simple as the grip on a vegetable peeler was a well thought out design created for each consumer by focusing on the needs of the weakest and strongest to find the perfect balance. The documentary examines our relationship with objects and by proxy, those that design those objects. Objectified opens viewers eyes to the process that takes place to create and perfect the products consumers us on a day-to-day basis.

On of the more interesting sections of the film was the discussion around sustainability and the future of design. Electronics in particular are designed for short-term consumption and are quickly discarded and end up in a landfill. Smart marketing makes the newest product old very quickly and leaves us craving the next new thing. The challenge for designers is to create products that are recyclable and/or reusable that also stand the test of time. The film features interview and commentary answering this question as well as many others tied to the history, present and future of design.

The documentary is smart and interesting. You may also find yourself rattling off random facts about design to your friends (which may or may not be appreciated depending on the setting). If you missed Objectified in theatres or on PBS, the film is available on DVD for rent or purchase.

By Miiko Mentz (@miikomentz)

Geeks on a Plane (GOAP) are at it again and this time they’re off to Hawaii for a week of fun in the sun and great talks and networking around technology, business, sustainability and life. The GOAP team and friends are part of [re]think Hawaii, which starts today and runs through November 5.

[re]think Hawaii is a week of events that is bringing together an international group of people — who might not otherwise meet — to rethink technology, business and sustainability. One of those events is Share Your Table’s Farm to Table Lunch that’s an invite-only luncheon of green, tech and business leaders who will feast on a lunch that’s 100 percent sourced from Hawaii, which is quite impressive given 85 percent of Hawaii’s food is imported. Sustainability is a critical issue that affects all of us, and I hope that [re]think Hawaii helps raise awareness not only in Hawaii’s own efforts to support its sustainability, but also globally.

[re]think Hawaii participants will attend a host of other events this week from Venture Capital Secrets and Startonomics Hawaii to BlogWorld’s Social Media Business Summit and the What They Don’t Teach You At Business School workshop that will be given by Duck9 CEO and Businessweek Blogger Larry Chiang (@larryChiang). Larry is also a guest writer at Bubblicious.

One lucky [re]think Hawaii participant is Mugasha CEO and Co-founder Akshay Dodeja (@dodeja) who we caught up with recently at the TechCrunch50 conference. Akshay was the lucky winner of the Girls in Tech [re]think Hawaii raffle giveaway that was conducted during TC50. Proceeds from the raffle went to Girls Inc., an organization celebrating girlhood and inspiring and supporting young girls to become tomorrow’s leaders.

Check out our interview with Adriana Gascoigne (@afgascoigne), GOAP co-organizer and Girls in Tech founder, talking about Girls in Tech, Girls Inc., GOAP and [re]think Hawaii; and at the end of the video we captured a few comments from lucky winner Akshay.

GOAP organizers are Dave McClure (@davemcclure) of Founders Fund and Startup2Startup, Brady Forrest (@brady) of O’Reilly, Adriana Gascoigne of SGN and Girls in Tech (GIT), and many others. Dave McClure, Larry Chiang, and Flowtown Co-founder Dan Martell (@danmartell) are the hosts of GOAP Hawaii. And [re]think Hawaii is organized by Christine Lu (@christinelu) and a unique group of people from around the world.

#rethink #GOAP