This is one in a series of documents that follow my UCLA winter 2010 course titled Cradle to Cradle: Closed Loop Systems. This interdisciplinary course contributes to the school's Certificate of Global Sustainability.

1. UCLAx class 2 1
UCLAx Cradle to Cradle: class 2
Our second night of class focused on the topic of community engagement and local
material cultivation. To give the issue context in relation to the need for transition from
industrial age to sustainable age thinking, we need to first look at how the industrial
revolution was the single largest migration from field to factory - from agrarian to industrial -
from suburban to urban - from harvest to assembly line. Two hundred years ago, the
majority of the world’s population lived in the country. It was rare to for the average person
to even visit a city. But today the opposite is true. Globally, more than half of all people live
in cities. In China alone there are thirty-one cities with a population larger than one million.
Never before have so many people moved from one type of landscape to another in so
short a time frame.
Prior to the industrial age, producer and consumer were much closer. In most cases they
lived in the same town or village. But mass produced goods manufactured in urban
factories sold to a wider audience meant greater distance between those who manufacture
goods and those who purchase them. Early on factories were located close to vital raw
materials, workforce labor, accessible energy, and prospective customers. Back then raw
materials hardly had to be extracted. As an example, early coal deposits stuck right out of
earth. It really didn’t require much mining. As resource supplies in one location dwindled or
were extinguished, and as labor costs rose with an increased standard of living, new
sources had to be found for both. Gradual economic globalization has dramatically
decreased the cost of transport and exponentially increased the distance traveled between
resource extraction point and store shelf. The average item on a grocery store shelf has
traveled 1,500 miles. And process that were once quite simple have increased in
complexity along the route.
At the same time, forms of communication have undergone a similar transformation
keeping pace with advances in technology. The invention of radio in the late 1800s was the
first mass media of significant scale. Although print - through books, newspapers, and
magazines - had been commonplace for hundreds of years, the radio was the first
dramatic step toward a one-size-fits-all approach in product design and promotion.
Manufactured goods lost their locational specificity. Once radio usage achieved wide-scale
acceptance, the race was on to create more generic products which appeal to as broad an
audience as possible. Television amplified those effects, and the internet today is radically
transforming long held marketing practices.
www.threadcollaborative.com
➜ threadcollaborative
11250 morrison street no. 201, north hollywood ca 91601

2. UCLAx class 2 2
To reach a broader audience, manufacturers have made their products more universal and
less specific. They have been quick to leverage new forms of communication and
promotion - through print, then radio, then television, and now the internet. There's hardly a
physical or digital surface in the world that hasn’t been considered for branded messages.
But this kind of brand building has led to heavy homogenization. Purchase a coffee at your
local Starbucks and you’ll discover a customer experience basically the same no matter
what part of the country, or world, you happen to be in. To be fair, Starbucks is
experimenting with new locally focused concepts - discussed here. Of course, consistent
brand message and experience is absolutely vital to retailers operating so many stores in
so many varied locations. Starbucks alone has more than 15,000 units and the top ten
U.S. retailers operate more than 31,000 domestic stores. But the physical places have
become indistinguishable and monotonous. Even though we acknowledge the importance
of a consistent brand experience, customers are no longer connected to the real brand but
instead only have relationships with their surrogates. Brand images, logo marks, and easily
recognized features are not the brand itself. Who wouldn’t be able to recognize the orange
roof of a Home Depot before they’ve even seen the sign? Who wouldn’t recognize the red
roof of a McDonald’s before seeing the double arches? Not only have consumers gotten
further disconnected from producers, but the physical places where any level of interaction
could occur is utterly removed from the community being served.
While the past two-hundred and fifty years have shown that the best and fastest way to an
elevated standard of living follows the path of industrialization, that same route leads to
human separation, alienation, and dislocation. New sustainable design strategies must
account for this unintended consequence and vigilantly bridge the growing gap between
ubiquitous place-making and apathetic participants.
To demonstrate a real world example, I invited my good friend Jason Panneton to join the
discussion and present some of his recent work. Jason and I worked together on a retail
design project for a client in Santa Cruz, CA where connection to place and local material
sourcing were both key elements of the design. Jason walked the students through the
design process and showed them how specific design attributes and attitudes can reflect
communal culture. As a quick example, surfing, sailing, and action sport lifestyles are a big
part of the region identity and have their own visual vocabulary, materials, language, and
graphic style. Jason and his team investigated how to tap into those in subtle ways that
wouldn’t be obvious or applied, yet would still be meaningful. He also showed how one
specific design solution has become a new side venture for himself and a colleague.
They’ve combined locally sourced salvaged sail cloth and the services of sewing company
www.threadcollaborative.com
➜ threadcollaborative
11250 morrison street no. 201, north hollywood ca 91601

3. UCLAx class 2 3
within the L.A. garment district to manufacturing beautiful pendant lamps based on those
originally designed for the store in Santa Cruz. Their idea is to locally source raw materials,
salvaged components, and local production to make products with appeal to coastal
communities.
The students grilled him with thoughtful questions and pressed him for greater detail than I
think any of us were expecting. It was an enjoyable night and hopefully we were all
exposed to new thinking that will lead to altered perspectives about what constitutes
original source material for any design or product.
www.threadcollaborative.com
➜ threadcollaborative
11250 morrison street no. 201, north hollywood ca 91601