Basic Human Needs

On this episode, Jessica and Michael discuss how IKEA is designing shelters for refugees, and Facebook wants to provide refugees with Wi-Fi from flying drones. Michael observes:

Private companies are stepping into the breach to launch initiatives that I think fifty years ago, sixty years ago would’ve been thought to have been the purview of governments or international organizations.

Also mentioned:

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, amended

Craig Mod, Future Reading

John Seabrook, The Song Machine

Patti Smith, M Train

New York Times Adrian Frutiger obituary

Molly Heintz remembers Phil Patton

Phil Patton, The Coffee Lids Story

Thanks to Blurb for sponsoring this episode.

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By Michael Bierut & Jessica Helfand

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer and a former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines. A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame, Helfand received her B.A. and her M.F.A. from Yale University where she has taught since 1994.