Letter from CHILDESIGN’s Founder & President

How do I begin the letter I’ve waited for more than 17 years to write? With trepidation...surely. With excitement...ABSOLUTELY! Officially, our name is CHILDESIGN, The National Center on Design for Children. Yet, until now, we did not have a true Center, open to the public. The organization has lived up to its name in its national reach and focus, both in what it examines and whom it has served. But our lack of a central GATHERING PLACE has frustrated our growth and the delivery of CHILDESIGN’s vitally important efforts. It is with unbridled pleasure that I write now, on the launch of CHILDESIGN.org.

The internet has blessedly provided the affordable technology that finally enables CHILDESIGN, at long last, to put in place the foundation of a NATIONAL CENTER. Although, in this first phase, it is still in its infancy, very much a work-in-progress, this website is envisioned as CHILDESIGN’s online National Center on Design for Children, or as we often refer to it, our Cyber-Institute. A “place” which enables us to fulfill a long-held dream: to invite all our diverse constituents to visit us – the many groups and disciplines we have long struggled to reach and serve (see the ABOUT US page). And, most importantly, to invite people to participate more fully in this urgently needed dialogue that CHILDESIGN pioneered and initiated...and will be carrying forward here. I hope you will visit often and that, whenever you do, that you will actively engage: sharing your own experiences and designs, asking your questions, participating in a design competition, and more. For it is this collective participation that will best shape and inspire our direction as a unique community of design enthusiasts and child advocates.

In considering user needs for the designed environment, America puts children last -- when it considers children at all. America simply fails to understand the enormous role design plays in shaping children’s development + experience. In our view, it highlights a national disgrace.

CHILDESIGN believes that America can, and must, do better. Children’s lives depend upon it!

It is this vision of a safer, more inclusive and supportive world – for children and adults – that fuels my passion and efforts, even more today than 20 years ago when I was first motivated to found this organization.

I am proud of what CHILDESIGN has accomplished to date. It is my fervent hope that, with the online Center, we can do even more. What I do know is that this country cannot continue as is: with young lives being carelessly lost, with children’s real needs being ignored in the design process (of both products and places), and with design’s enormous potential to improve the lives and education of children being squandered. Design must not continue to “be the tool left out of the toolbox we bring to building a better world for children.”

But I need your help!

I admit that designing the website proved an arduous task. I admit it might have been easier if I were designing an actual built facility. Like my designs for CHILDESIGN’s Design Demonstration sites, I have very clear notions of what the design for CHILDESIGN’s future built center should be: it must reflect and communicate CHILDESIGN’s unique message and guiding principles. But translating this design philosophy into a virtual center, strangely, proved more of a challenge.

Still, I took the notion of conveying CHILDESIGN’s design philosophy to heart, most notably in the design of the HOME page, incorporating some CHILDESIGN recommendations for built spaces. For instance, color, that most misunderstood of “children’s design” principles, is not used randomly, or “decoratively,” but with purpose. The image of mother and child forms the important neutral-color foundation, communicating the core message of CHILDESIGN’s work – that, like a mother’s arms, good design can comfort, protect and support a child – while color is employed to emphasize a point or guide the user. In the same way that color, when used correctly, helps a child understand and negotiate his world: coloring the lever to turn, the button to push, the path to take.

And speaking of possible pathways...

A Center exists to serve the public, so please let us know what you think about our site. How it might be improved. Also, what we got right. Children learn best by positive reinforcement; so do we!

Finally, while this national online center is the fulfillment of a long-time dream, it also marks the beginning of a most exciting new phase in CHILDESIGN’s history. This future will be written by all of us, together.

Please join in, and give us your support...best of all, become a member. Because what we do here will positively impact the designed world we give to the children we love. Let us make this impact a BIG one.

Help us speak loudly on children’s behalf, so our voice can be heard above the din, the marketing hoopla and the empty rhetoric.

The CHILDREN’S WALL not only offers the opportunity to HONOR the special children in your life, but these collected names and faces will serve to remind us all that, while CHILDESIGN’s members are adults – for they are the ones who create the environments in which children must live and learn -- it is children who are the ultimate beneficiaries of CHILDESIGN’s work.

THANK YOU with all my heart to all who have brought CHILDESIGN to this exciting moment and WELCOME to all who join us now!