Redesign design.

Dear Studio 360,
I love what @Hyperakt has done with redesigning the teacher, but keep going! Redesign the nurse! A Google images search of "Nurse" found a sickening amount of "sexy" and "slutty" nurse costumes and a few clip art nurses. A new concept is needed to help transform the way some of society depicts nurses. Do a Google search of "doctor" "teacher" or "lawyer" aside from a few cartoons, you have to search quite a bit to get a derogatory image. Please help! We are facilitators of healing, educators, counselors, and scientists and our redesign should translate this!

-Robin Pietrobono BSN, RN

Redesign the pole that supports Stop signs to support community hazard awareness. Use it to come up with:
Easy, intuitive, colors, markings, iconography for public safety: evacuation zones and routes, flood risk / high water marks, safe havens, neighborhood watch. First partner could be the Emergency Management office of a large proactive municipality: New York, Santa Monica, etc. Partner with paint companies and scouting organizations to get it done.

in the new Mac OS, Tiger, the address book and calendar applications both look like
hideous leatherette versions of those things. these need to be redesigned in a modern way. by me. now.

laurie rosenwald

www.rosenworld.com

Some interesting ideas here, but few have much to do with popular culture. But how about redesigning the fabulous dollar! US Currency bills are indeed works of art and in spite of the Bureau of Engravings latest improvements they still are mere enhancements of last year's model.

In this age of Google wallet and Near Field Communications where your credit/debit cards are on your mobile phone AND in a world where counterfeiters are becoming more and more savvy, why not rethink our entire currency system.

This isn't about moving to a "credit card" system - that debate has run its course. It's more about the convergence of paper currency with electronic. How 'bout it Kurt? What's (going to be) in your wallet?

Parenting education needs to be re-branded. Some services for parents are presented as remedial, a consequence of parents’ failings, or are actually punitive, imposed because parents have neglected or abused their children. Some services for parents focus not on the parents’ knowledge, skills and behaviors, but on those of the children. School achievement is hardly the only measure of the life success we all want for our youth.

“Parenting resources” should become the standard phrase.

Note that this focuses on the process, parenting. While parents are primary, other people in children’s lives provide the nurture and guidance that they need to thrive. Also, special efforts must be made to involve fathers (e.g. Oct.15 London conference “Fathers Matter’ co-sponsored by Working with Men).

Many agencies are already involved in this effort: NPEN - the National Parenting Education Network (US), FIEP - the International Federation for Parenting Education (Paris) and Parents Forum. Full disclosure: I serve on the NPEN and FIEP boards and am founder of Parents Forum.

Much current research and reporting on children’s issues ignores parenting issues and concerns, although the tide may be turning, see Thomas Friedman’s Nov.20 NY Times op-ed ‘How about better parents?’ and The Lancet Dec.3 (in press) letter ‘Parenting Resources Matter’ which I wrote with four other leaders in the field of parenting education and support, and World Day of Prayer and Action for Children panel discussion Nov.18, at the UN in NYC on positive parenting.

Thank you for the opportunity to raise this important issue.

Please redesign the American political parties. The current two-party system polarizes topics and discourages nuanced discussion of serious issues. Perhaps, with multiple perspectives, DC may cease to be quite as much a farce. So, what dividing lines can be found to fragment the current system and bring some sanity?

Redesign public health. All the big money flows to the next high tech solution, pharmaceutical, or to declare pizza a vegetable. We need the help to move resources and the discussion to prevention.

Redesign suburbia and the consumer lifestyle.

Redesign highway entrance and exit ramps to be safer and more fuel efficient:

Entrance Ramps: Cause highway traffic to move into the left lane prior to approaching entrance ramps, to make entering safer and more fuel efficient, since the entering vehicles can come up to highway speeds more gradually and without competition.

Exit Ramps: Make exit ramps longer so that fuel-efficiency minded drivers can begin slowing down further back on the highway, requiring them to brake less actively, thereby saving fuel and brake pads at each highway exit.

Redesign voting ballots. Need I say more?

I think it could be time to redesign the traffic light. Although the basic color scheme is deeply entrenched in our psyche, improvements could be made in presentation. If a light happens to seem unnecessarily long I begin to feel a great deal of existential angst. I wonder if it's indeed going to change or if it has broken. To relieve this, something similar to the "Loading" indicators on computers might be a nice touch. I am also a fan of the yellow light coming just before the green so that you have a moment to get ready. We all need a little warning before springing into action on most things.

Why not have a go at redesigning the disabled/accessible symbol? We're not all in wheelchairs. Some of us even have personalities and working genitalia and everything...

How about an audio redesign? The sounds of the Emergency Alert System (formerly Emergency Broadcast System) have freaked me out since I was a kid! I realize there's a lot of coding that goes into the sounds, but we should be able to come up with something at least a little less creepy. The screech! The squeal! The horror-movie-like voice that emanates forth from the crypt! I get chills just thinking about it. I live in the mid-west, where tornado threats are common, so I'm subjected to this threatening threat system frequently. HELP me, Studio 360! Please find some creative sound engineer or musician or multi-disciplinary artist to rectify the situation.

Reference, with audio samples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Alert_System#System_test

Redesign the Post Office! The lines, the drabness, the financial struggles... I honestly don't think 'snail mail' is ready to go away yet, but the lack of modern design and asthetics and fun in the US Postal Service is taking it down faster and faster.

I vote with others to redesign the American system of government and the Constitution - from the ground up. This is a completely failed system. Absolutely the most important thing to redesign. Forget all the trivial ideas. So, redesign American government, including the Constitution, and then send the ideas to every corrupt member of Congress, every corrupt member of the SCOTUS, and the President and all members of his cabinet.

I work in a public library, and would love to hear your take on redesigning the image of the public library for the twenty-first century. In the library world, we frequently talk about what libraries and librarians need to do to keep ourselves relevant, but I'd be curious to hear what non-librarians think - do you think of us for ebooks, movies, meeting space, answers to questions? We have all of that and more, but I don't have an answer to "how does the public library fit into modern life."

We need to redesign the Statue of Liberty, we clearly do not believe that stuff about welcoming huddled masses of poor immigrants.

Re-design the printed newspaper. Here's a formidable task, challenged by current trends and loaded with conflicts!

The medium is not going away over night. My door step is testament to that. The form factor is still better than laptops, tablets and, certainly, mobile devices.

When USA Today debuted, its color image based approach was a revolution of sorts, in that it increased newspaper consumption. It did not, however necessarily improve on the quality of content.

There should be a hybrid that is as convenient, vibrant and tactile as a printed physical object, that also allows for deeper and immediate access via QR Codes or... well that's the challenge.

Admittedly, I teeter on the old/new media bridge, but I'm sure I'm not alone. I like my newspaper. I like content far superior to crowd-sourced, unedited Huff-Po bulk. I like the jobs it provides to create, print and deliver this daily product. I like recycling my paper and getting it back a couple of months later with all new information.

The Federal Reserve is overdue for a deep deep redesign. Forget about those calls to "abolish" it. Let's analyze this thing from the bottom up and synthesize a whole new solution. What's wrong with the current model? For one thing it charges us interest just to create the money we use. Then banks keep the interest as it mounts and mounts. How should it really work? Should the new version pay us back? Hmmm. Why isn't it the people's money? Next what about the "decor"? Out with the opaque, shadowy, labyrnthine design. How about some transparent simplicity. Speaking of transparency the entire language of the Federal Reserve needs redesigning, starting with its own name, if it isn't federal, and there are hardly any reserves. Then who should do the redesign? We could put some good people (wink!) on this for a change. This is the perfect project. The final results could be presented at OWS. Any ideas? Think conceptually people. It's a chance to think big.

I think the entire notion of "Socialism" should be repackaged and redesigned! I expecting to get negative feedback from someone, but let's face it, Socialism, while being an "ism", is not as evil as it is lambasted to be. The U.S. government provides business' incentives, subsides, and welfare that for all intents and purposes makes us Socialistic. It's like the way the word "liberal" was turned into a dirty word. So, I'm waiting to get lambasted myself. But my comment would be to you, "Take a deep breath and relax".

I would love to see a redesign of the common stoplight.

Please, for the love of God, redesign the the image of "teachers"! I have been teaching for 15+ years and have enough of what I deem "Apple Crapple" to last me a life time. Teaching isn't, and hasn't been, about chalkboards, apples, abc's and 123's or summer off for many, many years. Teachers tend to be high tech with classroom interactive white boards, tablet computers and Twitter accounts. We don't all wear horrible primary colored cardigan's with alphabet blocks on them. We are highly educated, in many states, including mine, a teacher must have a dual degree in their area of specialty and teaching - plus a master's degree. In most states we gather 150 hours plus of professional development (and this isn't like MD's who fly to Cabo for a seminar, this is classes where we must produce a product to prove we have increased our skills). Part of the reason why we can be scapegoated and thrown under the truck so easily is our branding is atrocious. Please, please redesign "teachers".

I think we need a redesign of American democracy and the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution is a magnificent document that also happens to be very deeply flawed. As a result, our democracy is not what it should be. We have no mechanism for a national referendum on any issue at all. We are burdened by the astonishingly senseless "electoral college" system. We have gridlock in our legislature because we have allowed the mere threat of a filibuster to hamstring any legislation that a radical and vocal minority of elected officials opposes. We are stuck [through no fault of the Constitution, but rather through an apparent flaw in the American psyche that seems to want to always institutionalize false dichotomies] with a two party system that doesn't really do much of anyone very much good. We are [and I'm not sure who's to blame for this one] trapped in a system that ensures that only rich people will ever be elected to national office instead of one that tries to ensure that smart people will. We have a protection against government intruding on religion but no corresponding protection against religion intruding on government. As a result, we are increasingly being governed by radical fundamentalists who favor their twisted and nonsensical interpretations of Holy Bible and other fantasy stories over honest and sensible interpretations of scientific evidence and reality. We have clearly rabid partisans in charge of redistricting, which pretty much ensures obvious gerrymandering every ten years. There is, of course, plenty more reason for this redesign, but I'm trying to keep my comment fairly brief.

I would like to see a redesign of "jealousy". I realize that jealousy is a feeling but this is an art project and thinking outside of the box is appropriate.

Jealousy was the first thing that came to mind when the question was posed. I have considered the "how to do that" before submitting my request and I think if I explain a bit more my request might be considered.

I see jealousy as a negative feeling that people can learn from if it were served to us different or redesigned. If the stigma of having the feeling were spun a bit different and the benefits of admitting to having the feeling were pointed out we would live in much nicer place. I had already started to notice a change in the bit younger generation than my own with regard to using expletives and having negative feelings about others. For example instead of using the word SH*T we now say "shut the front door". It's funny and more polite. Another observation I made in the same vein is the use of "my bad" replacing a simple I'm sorry. "I'm sorry" could be viewed as weakness by some so we changed the words and made it easier for ourselves to apologize. Apologies are important for successful relationships and not often given. I recently heard someone use the words "jelly belly" instead of using the word jealousy. Here is a brief synopsis of the conditions that jelly belly was used. One friend felt that the other might be jealous of a new and exciting offer he had just received because of the lack of enthusiasm he felt from that friend and said to them "don't be a jelly belly and be happy for me". By using a different word it made it easier for the friend to cop to the feeling and show their feelings. As a result of admitting jealousy the friend realized that they would also like to have something just as exciting happen to them and started up with a hobby that they always wanted to try. It's easy to see where I'm going with this. If we could get more people to use the words "jelly belly" in replace of jealousy we would be removing the stigma of having a personality defect when feeling jealous is a normal emotion. The redesign would also have to include that if we do feel jealous to examine why and work on getting in our life what our friend or whomever has in theirs that we admire. It may not be that book deal it maybe just a feeling of excitement for a job well done. This really ranges.

Anyway, I thought this was a good idea. I have a lot more ideas on the redesign of Jealousy but we were asked to be brief. It almost feels like if we redesign Jealousy it is the equivalent of having had classes in compassion and manners as a child.

Michele in NJ

We need to redesign WORK in America. The 40 hour workweek is a sacred cow that needs to be shot and/or redesigned. Some people want to work 25 hours, some 30, some some 40, some 60. People waste time at work, they are bored and disenchanted, and if they had more time living their lives they would be happier and less resentful and disenfranchised. Moms and Dads can hang with their kids. Not just "work from home" -- I mean completely redesigned.

Rebrand: War
I think American War should be re-branded. I know we have an all volunteer military, and a bit of propaganda goes into keeping the ranks full. But we should ditch the concept that war is a very patriotic thing we're doing to benefit the whole country, and somehow all soldiers are heroes, and serving all the rest of us here at home. We should tell the truth about war, how it's bankrupting our government, how one half of all tax dollars are being spent on the military. How the outcome of the war really has no effect on our lives here half way around the world. How some people involved in war are sociopaths who love the excitement of doing things they could never get away with here in America. How it tears families apart, and leaves people with permanent disability, that they are never compensated for while living the rest of their life. Portray it as the tremendous sacrifice it really is, and instead of being a way of life for America, it's something we want to finish as soon as possible, and spend all that money on government programs that we don't seem to be able to afford without huge debt to third world countries.

I would like you to do a redesign of the inland river barge industry. We are vital to the economy and no one knows about us.

Sports. I know that it’s OK to tolerate cheating, drug abuse, and wife beating in the name of an individual who happens to perform well some particular action with some particular device in an arbitrary demonstration of point accumulation between two arbitrary groups of people. But I really thought that serious and credible allegations of child rape might trump fandom. I was wrong. We need to redesign the very notion of sports and the way they relate to society.

Redesign national service: right now it's guns & headstones; shaved heads & boo ya; camo & medals. Patriotism is to die for your country. So redesign patriotism and national service, so everyone gets to live & love their country, and enemies aren't people, but principles like greed, poverty, classism, illiteracy....

Let's redesign Studio 360. It's old and tired, much like Kurt Andersen.

Redesign the recycling symbol.

Over 40 years old, the "chasing arrows" recycling symbol desperately needs a refresher. According to a survey this year, "an overwhelming majority of municipality and state recycling officials ... say the current codes are 'confusing to the public and hinder recycling efforts.'" The mobius-strip symbol suggests recyclability, but the huge volume and variety of materials makes it nearly impossible to know what to do with a particular kind of item. The variety of plastics alone is overwhelmingly daunting. Clarity and consistency, please!

http://www.petcore.org/content/recycling-officials-say-resin-codes-are-confusing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycling_symbol

Redesign the confederate flag/symbol for the south.

Full disclosure, I'm a northerner who just moved to Richmond three weeks ago. I work at an institution that has had protesters outside for the past three weeks dressed in confederate soldier garb and waving confederate flags protesting the decision to remove the confederate flag from a historic site that used to belong to the daughters of the confederacy. Since we are a public institution I don't think I need to explain why the flag was removed over 3 years ago. I do not think that these people are racist (I don't know them personally) and I can understand the idea of preserving your family's history. However, the confederate flag is such a negative symbol for so many it just breeds so much contempt any time its waved.

This might be a bit ambitious, but I think a redesign of the southern image that incorporates all sides of the story and one that is sympathetic to the negative connotations of southern pride could help us remember, honor, and be proud of our ancestors while never forgetting the some of the worst mistakes in america's past.

I think "Too Big to Fail" tops everything in contemporary American political and economic discourse. And it needs a new design. Maybe something along the lines of the satire Gulliver's Travels. Or maybe like the old film "The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant" with bankers selling their souls to Mephistopheles. Or maybe a snappy Broadway musical kind of a cross between Springtime for Hitler and Gilbert & Sullivan. Think of the great cast of characters: An Occupy Wall Street Greek chorus; corporations buying politicians; healthcare; free markets vs. socialism; etc. How would Ionesco portray Rush & Fox News?

I would be a lot more interested in Studio 360's redesign segments if they paid attention to how the current design schemes came about instead of just working from a snapshot of how we currently experience these "designs". A lot of the re-designs seem to focus on objects, events and experiences that have a significant organic element in their creation. When we take the growth and history of an entity, such as Christmas, out of the equation, we cut it off from the complexity of its meaning and identity. You didn't redesign Christmas, you designed a Christmas event. It could've been a holiday design scheme for Target.
Your redesign of Monopoly made more sense because, while it has some organic elements in our cultural relationship with the game, Monopoly is largely a designed object, not an organic entity. This is largely true of the rainbow flag as well--except for the fact that you ignored the importance the importance of its very 70s-ness as placing the rise of gay pride and the demand for rights historically
Things I'd like to see redesigned include the NYC subway system, the US government and house cats. Nonetheless, in all of these--with the possible exception of cats--attention must be paid to the history of its growth in order to create better design that will last into the future.

Since Kurt included countries in the redesign request, I think Canada needs a redesign, or at least a makeover. I'm curious to know what an American design firm would do with it. Would it embrace the stereotypes (Mounties, maple syrup, politeness) or completely avoid them? C'mon USA give your nerdy shy (yet polite) little sibling a makeover!