Trendspotting

Canstruction® Designing to Make a Difference

  

What is Canstruction® you might ask?  In 1992 the Society for Design Administration(SDA) started a foundation called Canstruction®, which is a design/build competition among teams of architects, engineers and students across the country.  And you guessed it; they use canned food to create these wacky and all out amazing structures!  The New York Chapter of SDA, one of the founding members of Canstruction®, just celebrated the end of their competition where 40 of the top architectural firms teamed up to create these imaginative structures in just one night.   To celebrate its 16^th year, the

New York competition was held at the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden and Courtyard Gallery.  Out of the 40 competitors, only six were chosen on December 8, 2008 for categories like:  Best Use of Labels, Structural Integrity and Best Meal.  After the competition, all the food was donated to City Harvest.  What an innovative and wonderful way to help raise awareness of the many Americans without an adequate supply of food.  Since its inception, all across the country, Canstruction® has donated ten million pounds of food to help the fight against hunger.

Destee Nation and Nordstrom Support Local Landmark Businesses

T-shirts embellished with West Coat and Hawaiian imagery is the foundation of Destee Nation's mission to save local landmarks one t-shirt at a time. In an era of the big box chain stores, DesteeNation.com owner Matt Morgan has created a business model that capitalizes on the need to keep American small businesses alive and thriving. And he definitely is doing something right! Sales average 10,000 t-shirts a month and Nordstrom recently began selling this line. A win-win for everyone.

Mother's Day Mini Cakes: The Gift that Gives Back

Just in time for Mother's Day, a new line of mini cakes from Feed Your Soul, a company founded by former Wall Streeter Mya Jacobson.  Here's a gift that gives back to both the charity of your choice and to the environment by way of eco-friendly packaging.  Mya has made it her mission "to provide a quality product that embraces a concept, one which generates an appreciation for life, for living every day, for doing the simple things that truly feed your soul. Remind yourself or someone you love how good it feels to truly taste life: bite by bite."   See Mya recently  featured on the Donny Deutsch show The Big Idea.