The term Global Village was popularized by media guru Marshall McLuhan in the early 60s — before our obsession with social media, and well before even the invention of the internet!

In an interview, McLuhan said that it never occurred to him that uniformity and tranquility were the properties of the Global Village. He argued that the Global Village ensures maximal disagreement on all points because it creates more discontinuity and division and diversity under the increase of the village conditions. The Global Village is far more diverse.

How does the ‘global village’ concept apply to us in the 2010’s?
With twitter, facebook and other social media avenues, does it put us closer to our clients/users/customers or farther away? How does this effect our local sense of social consciousness? Are we a better, stronger design community or are we all lost in our own thoughts amongst all the noise out there in the social sphere?

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In honour of McLuhan’s centenary, listen, discuss, and share your thoughts with us when Design Meets Social Consciousness in Toronto on June 15th. Beginning at 6:30pm enjoy hors d’oeuvres and good company amongst designers from all disciplines and listen to a few speakers from the industry as they share 5-ideas and 5-images in 5ish-minutes.

Hope to see you there! RSVP here.

Venue:
The Spoke Club, (please register on the 4th floor)
600 King Street West
Toronto, Ontario M5V 1M3

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Speakers include:

Dr. Dominique Scheffel-Dunand
Director, UofT McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology

Dominique has been involved for the past five years with the Knowledge Media Design Institute of the University of Toronto as a member of the Steering Committee and has been invited to the Board of Directors of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto to share knowledge and expertise in the design, development and evaluation of media and communication technologies. She is also the co-chair of McLuhan100, a year-long collaboration of the University of Toronto, City of Toronto and Mozilla to celebrate the 100th Centenary of the birth of Marshall McLuhan. Dominique has a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Lyon III (France) and currently holds a teaching position at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Cassie McDaniel
Artist, Writer, Illustrator

Cassie’s experience in web design spans London, Florida and Toronto. She has contributed articles to various publications including A List Apart, FreelanceSwitch, Design Edge Canada, Six Revisions and Smashing Magazine. She is a social media junkie, and you can find her on Twitter, Facebook, Forrst, Dribbble, Vimeo, Flickr, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Behance, and more! With interests spread so far and wide there is really only one thing that makes all of her projects tick: she wants to be really, really good — good at what she does and good for her community. Check out her website at cassiemcdaniel.com and say hi on Twitter: @cassiemc.

Andrew Ballenthin
President, EM3

Andrew’s passion is research, integrated marketing and thinking outside of the box. With 20 years of marketing experience, and work spanning 15 countries, Andrew’s focus as President of EM3 is asking one question, “how does your audience want to engage with you in today’s complex media environment?” Andrew’s career client list includes the University of Guelph, Dalhousie University, Ryerson University, Sheridan College, The Schulich School of Law, The Ministry of Environment, Harley Davidson, Molson, Labatt, Volvo Group, Quebecor, Canadian Tire, Gateway Newstands, UPS and Texaco. For more information find him on LinkedIn.

Hamid Samad
Principle Designer, Commute

Commute Home Inc. is a multi disciplinary design company. They have been producing custom , locally made, furniture, lighting and art installations for their showroom and for international and local clients for a decade. Hamid’s unique sense of style in mixing industrial materials with a classical sense, shows through in all of Commute’s interior design projects. Praised by the New York Times, Colborne Lane, Nyood, Cinqo1 and Terroni’s are just a few of Commute’s designed spaces.

Check back soon for updates on our speakers list…

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