It was only a few months ago that the boozy reports from AIGA’s Design Legends Gala trickled in to our eager UnBeige ears. Although we seem to have forgotten most of the highlights, one in particular has stuck with us. Apparently, a certain Martha Stewart delivered the biggest hit of the night while accepting the Corporate Leadership Award for Martha Stewart Omnimedia. And now, we have the video (scroll down, mid-page, that’s it…click).

Although it’s a real treat to see Medalists Bruce Mau, Ellen Lupton and Ed Fella get their awards, along with Georg Olden Jr. accepting for his father, Georg Olden, the comedic trio of Kurt Andersen, Gael Towey and Martha Stewart are an unstoppable, wildly entertaining team. The video is over 18 minutes long but it includes some pretty pictures of Martha Stewart Living at the beginning and a hilarious, heartfelt story about how Andersen almost ruined Stewart’s life. She does say the j-word, too.

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A battle of the do-gooders and the do-nothings is raging in David Stairs‘ piece “Why Design Won’t Save the World” on Design Observer. As someone who’s clearly been there and done that when it comes to working with design in third world countries, Stairs skewers the Cooper-Hewitt exhibition “Design for the other 90%” as well as many of the products and initiatives featured in the show. We knew it was only a matter of time before Cooper-Hewitt curator Ellen Lupton chimed in, with one of the best labels we’ve ever seen slapped on an argument:

David Stairs has used his formidable knowledge and direct experience to slam the team who created “Design for the Other 90%.” I call this fallacy the smugness of the expert. I’m afraid that many people will read this critique of the exhibition and say, “What a relief. Now I don’t have to bother. Leave poverty to the poor people.”

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We couldn’t pass up this lovely new identity, seeing as it’s not only for great designers, it’s also by a great designer. The Maryland Institute College of Art got the update you see above courtesy of Abbott Miller. We especially love this version because these patterns remind us of a classy men’s suit, but there are all kinds of cool reasons behind Miller’s choices, which are rooted in the history of the Baltimore neighborhood. We’re sure at least one person at MICA loves it–Miller’s wife Ellen Lupton just so happens to be the director of the MFA program there.

See more of MICA in action on their website and at Pentagram’s blog.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

If you’ve already stopped being mad at Bruce Nussbaum let us reignite the fiery flames of fury by reminding you of his “designers are the enemy of design” speech (better known now as the Suck Manifesto, which was followed by the Spell Check Manifesto).

Okay, now calm down and listen. Editor GK VanPatter of NextD Journal has released a special issue called “Beautiful Diversion” wherein 50 designers have responded to the suckage. You can download the 60-page document, or watch as Nussbaum posts them one-by-one (it seems) on his site, which might get quite tedious, especially in another week when you’ve forgotten this completely. So, we pulled highlights for you. (Update: VanPatter has asked Nussbaum to stop posting and responding to his content, although we can’t really understand why. But we also can’t understand why anyone would make a 60-page PDF instead of making all the content readily linkable on a website. Or why anyone except us would be crazy enough to read the whole thing. But we digress.):

Tony Fry: Nussbaum reminds me of one of my grandmother’s favourite sayings–’empty vessels make the most noise.’ The guy sure is a dry pea in a tin can.

Tim Brown: While I applaud his personal efforts to champion Design Thinking perhaps the opening line for his next talk can be “design journalism sucks.”

John Thackara: Most of us suspect something unpleasant is about to happen, but we are confused over what to do about it. So–surprise surprise–we go into denial. But beating up on designers–or blubbing on a stage in Monterrey–is not going to move things forward one inch. So what to do? It’s simple: get out there and help the people who are already active.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Four big names were dropped into our mailbag late last night, the four names of the four people who will be receiving the AIGA Medal in 2007. Edward Fella, Ellen Lupton, Bruce Mau and Georg Olden will be honored at the Design Legends Gala in September. Read on about these four star designers.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.