With a spontaneous appearance, David Berman filled the empty slot at 1pm today at the stage. His talk was titled ‘How to make the planet your client’ and showed the crowd the good, the bad and the ugly that design and the world around us currently are.

David started his own quest for better design as a typographer when he suddenly asked himself:

“If the message I put out in the big world isn’t contributing to a better world, than why am I doing it?”

With the mass’ discovery of the fact that our ecosystem is dying (thanks to Al Gore amongst others) David’s prying question suddenly found an audience. Ever since that moment he has been talking on the topic of Sustainable Design thoughout the world.

In his passionate talk he confronted us with the ethical question that goes with the design profession.
And if that wasn’t enough, with one fell passionate swoop he attested that we, as a Design community, now (more than ever) have the responsibility and the power to make the world a better place to live.

So how does one make the planet your client? Through showing the crowd inspirational examples of actual ‘Sustainable Design’ projects, David illustrated that doing something ‘sustainable’ doesn’t have to be complicated and isn’t limited to creating solar energy solutions and windmills. He didn’t however, go as far as to actually show us how to do properly. (With the exception of doing the ‘do good pledge).

In short David Bermann’s presentation was a passionate wake-up call and an inspirational moment for many. Reminding us once again that living in harmony in our planet and environment is the only way for us to survive.