THE MAGAZINE’S mission is to provide inspiration to professionals about how to live design lives centered around positive change. The focus of the magazine will be providing American designers with realistic examples of what they can do to make a difference. All examples are ideas that can be completed from where they live and with what they have. Only necessary is the intelligence of design, a little time commitment, and the passion of heart.

In Latin, the word “fulsi” means to flash, to shine, to beam. Likewise, the proposed magazine Fulsi inspires designers to shine for our environment, our society, and our economy.

If I were to create a “Dream Team” of articles for a magazine centered on how designers can influence change, and I could use any article previously written, here would be my Table of Contents:

Feature

 p. 1-4
The Social Role of the Graphic Designer
By Pierre Bernard
The graphic designer’s social responsibility is based on the wish to take part in the creation of a better world. As both artists and technicians, graphic designers have unique opportunities to affect the messages that exist in society. 

Environment

 p. 4-8
The Designer’s Dilemma: Changing the Way We Think About Design to Better Tackle the Challenges of Environmentalism
By Valerie Casey
If the designer’s role is to drive innovation on a large scale, they must resolve to incrementally improve today’s increasingly complex culture.                     

p. 9-10
The Designers Accord: An Industrywide Coalition to Promote Sustainability
By Tim Leberecht
By collectively committing to sustainability, the designer’s client base will be compelled to evaluate sustainability as a key vector in decision making around the products and services they create for the global consuming audience.

p. 11-14
The Urban Forest Project: Companies Fund Public Art, Which Funds Non-Profits
By Alissa Walker
As a popular awareness campaign, the Urban Forest Project connects corporate sponsors with local causes and engages artists with their city government.

p. 15-16
Climate Change Chocolate
By Ernest Beck
While environmentalists debate the ethics and effectiveness of carbon offsets, designers work on their appeal.

Feature

 p. 17-22
Design Ignites Change: Design as a Social Educator
 By Mark Randall
Designers can go beyond the traditional approaches to social responsibility in their work and become entrepreneurs, developing and executing their own solutions to social problems. The article presents several case studies of projects implemented by designers that set precedent for creating a sustainable market for socially responsible design.

Society

 p. 23-26
In Search of Ethics in Graphic Design
By Paul Nini
Designers can contribute to society by creating communications that are useful to their intended audiences. Here’s how.  

 p. 27-30
The Designer/Citizen
By Milton Glaser
As citizens of our world, designers have a responsibility to inform the public and inspire them to enact change.      

p. 31-34
How Design Can Help Farmer’s Markets Feed a Growing Demand
By Alissa Walker
The traditional farmer’s market is in drastic need of a redesign that will provide year-round direct marketing opportunities for farmers and create vibrant public spaces with food at its core.

p. 35-36
Can Designers Stamp Out Rural Poverty?
By Michael Cannell
Plans for a national design center to help alleviate rural poverty will be solidified when 60 designers, corporate leaders, foundation heads, and journalists meet next month for the 2009 Aspen Design Summit.

Feature

 p. 37-40
Innovation Starts with Empathy: The Importance of Developing Deep Connections with the People you Serve
By Dev Patnaik
Companies driven by empathy stay focused on what’s important to their customers in the face of overwhelming pressures. People are wired to care. Isn’t it time our companies were, too?

Economy

 p. 41-42
A New Era of Meaning
By Tim Leberecht
The convergence of design-driven innovation and social responsibility is creating a new business model. The economic recession is predicted to turn around as long as capital can be redefined as the value of human, natural, social, and cultural interaction.      

p. 43-46
Design with Intent: How Designers Influence Behavior
By Robert Fabricant
New design practices, such as persuasion design, catalyst design, and performance design, have the ability to influence business value associated with meaningful behavior change.

p. 47-50
Enlightened Capitalism: Building a New Corporate Consciousness
By Rachel Botsman
The business model is currently is currently transforming into a model of “enlightened capitalism;” one in which value is derived from a company’s ability for sustainability and innovation.

p. 51-54
The Coming Right-Brain Economy
By John Harney
In this exclusive Fulsi interview, Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, explains the growing importance of the arts to the economy.

Feature

 p. 55-64
Wanted: Chief Meaning Officer: How the New Social Power of Marketing Can Transform Business
By Tim Leberecht
The modern consumer seeks brands that enable meaning. By producing marketing through compelling narratives, affection, empathy, and imagination, collective desire can be converted it into action.