Recommended Products: Books

Personally chosen by the Viridian Pope-Emperor, the Viridian recommended books span a variegated array of cross-pollinating topics: Industrial/digital design, sociology of design, bohemians, consumerism, engineering, globalism, architecture, ubicomp, demographics, artists and biographies.

Plus readers' suggestions for books on ecology, history, futurism, the media, nature/culture, and more.

Recommended Products: Furniture

The Viridian Furniture List is compiled by designer and architect David Bergman. David's comments grace this large directory of online resources. It's grouped into categories:

• General sites;
• The organic-y stuff -- what most people think of when you say eco-furniture;
• "What if Green Design Were Just Good Design;"
• Down 'n dirty -- Found object designs, dumpster diving for dollars;
• Universal & Ergonomic design;
• Temporary/emergency/catastrophe;
• Thinking out of the box;
• Used;
• In development or conceptual design.
  
  

A Few Words On Viridian Products

Feature Number Twelve. We have a name, and a coherent look . Art movements that aren't designed in cold blood have a problem, which is that moron critics name them. That's how you get stuck with a name like the "Fauves." We've already got a name. We're Viridian Greens, the Viridian movement.

That's because we're green, but there's something electrical and unnatural about our tinge of green. We're an art movement that looks like a mailing list, an ad campaign, a design team, an oppo research organization, a laboratory, and, perhaps most of all, we resemble a small feudal theocracy ruled with an iron hand by a Pope-Emperor. We have our own logo -- or we will. We have our own font and our own typography. And we have an entire list of favorite Viridian-approved tie-in products: T-shirts, chrome stickers, socks, solar panels, ultrasonic sterilizers, and so on.... We're going to be spending a lot of time picking bits and pieces out of the background clutter, and assembling them, and placing our stamp of ideological approval upon them. The future is already here. It just hasn't been assembled as a cultural ensemble.

— Viridian Note 00001: The Viridian Design Speech