On the occasion of its 60 anniversary, Designers Society of Slovenia share their views and goals as a mature design organisation along with key developments in the history of the society.

Víctor García seeks a positive definition for type families composed of pictograms, symbols and other elements beyond language representation. He explores current terms, which fail to represent the whole category and proposes more descriptive terms.

Robert L. Peters reviewed Maggie Macnab's new book Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design. The book examines the versatility of nature, describing how it can inspire beautiful and compelling designed communications.

As Apple marks the first sales of the iPhone 4S on 14 October 2011, a day that has become a tribute to founder Steve Jobs, Icograda President Russell Kennedy reflects on Jobs' legacy - the impact of his vision and innovation on the communication design profession.

Communication design starts historically from book design. Today editorial design (books, magazines, e-publications, online journals, etc.) is still core to the profession of communication design. This editorial by Victor Margolin regards the evolution of the Editorial industry and commerce, knowledge transfer culture, intellectual property, publication design and many other issues that influence our profession intimately.

In this interview by Bhavani Prakash, Vandana Shiva discusses her work in seed collection and returning to traditional, organic farming to reverse the detrimental effects of genetic engineering on farming and farmers, in India and worldwide. Vandana Shiva will expand on this during her keynote speech, "The Green Revolution and Genetic Engineering: A Design for Hunger and Ecological Disruption" at the 2011 IDA Congress. A moderated panel including Anthony Dunne (United Kingdom), Cory Kidd (United States/Hong Kong) and Susan Szenasy (United States) will respond to her address, exploring the edges between design and biotechnology from their respective disciplines.

Jennie Fourie discovers the development process for the Rio Summer Olympics 2016 brand identity. She compares the positive reception of Rio's official identity to previous Olympic events and explores what makes the brand so successful. Fred Gelli, Tátil partner and creative director, will be a panellist at the Urbanism Keynote at the 2011 IDA Congress in Taipei, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei).

Véronique Vienne interviewed Omar Vulpinari for DESIGN>EDUCATION Magazine in their February 2011 edition. Omar explained how he tries to create memorable and artful campaigns that address the most pressing social issues.

In an interview conducted by Curve magazine editor Belinda Stening, Tatjana Dzambazova shares her views on current trends toward more demanding, design-aware consumers and the more prominent role of designers in product development. She also observes the democratisation of design, the rising DIY (do-it-yourself) movement and wonders after the resultant future of the design profession.

Uday Dandavate cautions against the current direction of establishing new National Institutes of Design campuses without a coherent direction for the future of design. Uday is a core member of 'Vision First,' an initiative to develop a vision for creating design competencies in India.