Location: Columbus, Ohio
Year: 2012

From the Center for Architecture and Design:

The Ideabook project, which recently won an Excellence Award from the American Institute of Architects (download our submission), was a collectively produced exhibition and signature event of Columbus Design Week 2012, a festival with the three-fold mission of fostering appreciation for the power of creative “design thinking,” elevating expectations for good design, and raising awareness of the importance of design industries to our local economy.

500 Ideabooks were printed and distributed to central Ohio community and business leaders, designers, architects, artists, educators and others. Recipients were charged with revealing their views about Columbus today and in the future. There were no limits regarding how they wanted to express their interpretations.

As a collection, the books gave a wonderful snapshot of cultural zeitgeist, a diverse array of hopes and dreams for our future, observations ranging from poignant to comical, and managed to both celebrate who we are and look forward to what could be. Some submissions were beautifully artistic expressions while others were pithy critiques. Every participant started with an identical canvas, but not two books were alike and the result was a great reflection of the diversity of our community and our participants.

The 4-inch by 6-inch books revealing central Ohioans’ vision’s about Columbus’ future were exhibited at various Design Week events.