In keeping with the theme for Design Currency: Icograda Design Week in Vancouver 2010, opening on World Graphics Day this year, you are invited to complete the sentence: "I value design because..."

When the Icograda Executive Board meets in Vancouver (Canada) from 26-27 April, it will review the current policy on design competitions. Icograda is inviting public input as part of the process.

The catastrophic events over the past two weeks in Haiti have shocked and saddened the world. The devastation has however brought together an enormous amount of support from around the globe, including the design community.

This latest blog post by Pasquale Volpe and Tommaso Minnetti, founders the competition Good 50x70, looks at why the competition chooses to focus on posters.

"With the world listening, the moment to propose a step change is about as good as it gets. May today be marked by the sharing of many such ideas, if not being noted for correct protocols in doing so."

27 April, Icograda's anniversary, was designated World Graphics Day in 1995. It is an opportunity to recognise communication design and its role in the world.

With Earth Day quickly approaching, it seems appropriate to highlight design for social and environmental change. Environmentally we are at a tipping point, if mankind proceeds the current rate, the consequences of our actions will be somber, to say the least. While standing at this crossroads, it begs the following questions: As a community, can design be a proponent for positive change? What is our role in the greater society?

Mr. Shigeo Fukuda passed away suddenly in Tokyo on Sunday, 11 January 2009. He was 76 years old. As one of the founding members and directors of the Japan Graphic Designers Association (JAGDA) since its establishment in 1978 (president since 2000), Mr. Fukuda contributed profoundly to the development of the JAGDA as an Association. The whole creative industry and society of Japan was struck with this sad and sudden news.

Icograda is pleased to present a blog entry originally posted on the New Views 2 Blog by Laura Chessin and Alex Bitterman, with the help of Teal Triggs. The story behind the question "design isn't dead?" and the ensuing discussion that the question raised is quite a heated one.

Reflecting on recent changes in the United States, Stuart Alden, a Lifetime Icograda Friend, began an interesting discussion through the Icograda Friends mailing list that brings some thought-provoking ideas to light.