Director, Pratt Design Incubator and Chair, IDSA, New York

 

Debera Johnson, is the Director of the Pratt Design Incubator Sustainable/Social Enterprise. She served as chair of the Industrial Design program at Pratt Institute from 1997-2005. She founded the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable/Social Enterprise in 2005. The incubator sponsors environmental, social and cultural initiatives and brings together people who share a common goal – linking social entrepreneurship with design. The incubator is a creative collective of designers, artists, engineers, strategic planners, researchers, and business people working together on a diverse range of products, services and events that reflect the values of its members.

 

Debera is currently the Chair of the NYC chapter of the Industrial Designers Society of America and has also served the IDSA as the Northeast District educational representative. She has produced numerous national and regional conferences, workshops and exhibitions. She is also president of Greenmatter, LLC, a shared creative work environment for designers, artists and architects located at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Deb is also tenured professor of Pratt Institute and teaches Thesis and Drawing in the graduate industrial design program.

 

 

My experiences in India have left me wondrous to the role of designer as an agent of world benefit.

I have many questions. Are there inherent values that are lost in the global exchange? How can we as designers create a sustainable strategic advantage?

What happens to the environment when there is a furious global demand for products created by new (and huge) emerging markets? How does one improve life without disrupting the delicate environmental balance created by poverty’s inherent reuse of materials? Does design education have new responsibilities? Does the desire for westernism create a shadow over the sophisticated sensibilities and aesthetics that are unique to India? My hope is that by engaging the collective brain power of the participants of this event, we will begin to search for answers and start to create global strategies that respect culture, tradition, quality of life and the environment.