San Diego, California

The Design Innovation Institute (Dii) has named Robert L. Peters as a member of its Advisory Board. Founded in San Diego in September 2004 and launched in conjunction with the ”Behind the Design Scenes” event at IKEA in Mission Valley (a showcase of IKEA’s design and marketing impact on consumer behavior worldwide), Dii provides a forum for interdisciplinary design. As stated by founder Calvin Woo, Dii is ”…a catalyst for sensible alliances in the design industry; a venue of experimentation; and a forum for intellectual dialogue.” Dii’s four divisions are comprised of the Design Education program, the Design Museum, Design Research, and the Design Foundation.

For more information, visit www.dii.design

Macau SAR

I felt privileged to be able to attend the gala Awards Ceremony of the 6th Macau Design Biennial (at the newly opened Fisherman’s Wharf) as a guest of the Macau Designers Association (MDA). I had been in Macau two months earlier as one of the international jurors of the well-orchestrated biennial, a successful event that drew more than 600 submissions, organized with the support of the Civil Administration Department Macau SAR, the Macau Art Museum and the Culture Department of Macau SAR.

I was particularly impressed with the quality of poster design and visual communications created for Macau’s venerable cultural organizations. The exhibition of selected and award-winning work is on display at the spectacular Handover Gifts Museum of Macau, and award-winning pieces become part of the permanent collection of the Macau Art Museum. A published catalogue is expected later in the year.

Jakarta, Indonesia

Robert L. Peters was one of the Canadian designers invited to contribute to “Light of Hope for Indonesia,” the biggest international poster exhibition held in that country within the last 16 years. The works were exhibited in several Indonesian cities, and involved 66 designers from 17 countries: Indonesia, USA, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, The Netherlands, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Iran, Germany, UK, Canada, Denmark and Hong Kong. The exhibition garnered enormous enthusiasm, recording a total of 40,000 attendees. The largest number of visitors took in the exhibit in Jakarta, in conjunction with FGD Expo 2005, the largest graphic exhibition in Southeast Asia.

Peters’ poster submission depicts the red/white Indonesian flag as a skewed, wave-crested horizon in combination with a hand-written prayer for wellbeing drawn from ancient runes.

Light of Hope for Indonesia—Exhibit Report (PDF download, 2.4 MB)