We thought we should take this time to give a shout out to the individual entities who have deemed us worthy of featuring us on their sites. Thanks a lot everyone. We really appreciate all of the buzz.

Peace,

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

Okay, so this is actually kind of old news, but I figure better late than never. About 7 months ago we submitted the Colorcubic business card to “the best of Business Card Design 8″ competition, published by Rockport publishing. About three weeks ago we received a letter in the mail stating that we were chosen to be featured in the book. I have to say, we were both completely blown away that they considered us at all. If you get a chance, you should definitely pick this up. Honestly, we’re still scratching our heads, trying to comprehend why they chose the design we submitted, but either way, Thank You Rockport!

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

There is nothing better than designing on a Sunday evening in Portland, Oregon with the sun setting, all while listening to a down-tempo compilation that helps ease my day towards its expiration. This is one compilation I never grow tired of listening to. I can actually listen to this comp from start to finish, (and it’s a double disc, which is even more amazing to me). The compilation is titled: “Putting the Morr back in Morrissey“, and is released on the Morr Music label. Each track on this compilation was influenced in one way or another by an existing Morrissey song. One track that really stands out to me over all others on this compilation is a track titled: “Delc:R” by Arovane. I’ve always been a really big fan of Arovane, and how he manages to make any time of day beautiful when you listen to his work. I would highly suggest picking this up if you can find it. The design and layout are pretty dope as well. I really love how simple it is, and how it’s so complimentary to the music. The credit for the design direction goes to: Jan Kruse from o8 Design.

Anyway, be sure to give it a listen.

Peace

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

We finally finished an 11 x 20 print motif for Nueva Formaâ„¢ musica internacional, an electronic music label of Colorcubic. Once we’re finished redeveloping colorcubic.com, and nuevaforma.com we’re planning on releasing this print for sale.

We’ll be sure to post the release of when this is officially on sale and ready to ship out.

Hope you enjoy.

Peace,

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

Last year, I became fascinated with the Grameen Bank, an organization founded by Muhammad Yunus that provides microcredit to the poor to fund small businesses to pull their families out of poverty. Since Grameen’s inception, microloans have been provided to more than 7 million borrowers all over the world (97 percent of whom are women), all without collateral, based purely on mutual trust.

I was having a conversation about microcredit with an accountant friend a couple weeks ago and she said something about how they must have a low rate of repayment since they are giving out loans to the poor. Amazingly enough, they have a loan-repayment rate of over 95 percent (according to the Grameen web site)! The poor have a better track record of repayment than the wealthy because they have so much more to lose if they don’t repay. Of course, nothing is ever perfect, and Grameen occasionally encounters periods of repayment difficulties but continually proves to rebound from such delinquencies.

RESOURCES

Yunus’ 1997 autobiography Banker to the Poor is a great resource if you’d like to learn more about Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen Bank and microcredit. Yunus also recently wrote a new book called “Creating a World Without Poverty” which I’m looking forward to reading.

Another amazing microcredit organization is called Kiva. Kiva allows you to lend to entrepreneuers featured on the Kiva site, as little as $25 at a time. Once your Kiva loan is repaid, you can choose to withdraw your funds, or give it to a new entrepreneur.

United Colors of Benetton just launched their own microcredit organization called Africa Works. You can find a special collection of Africa Works t-shirts designed for the campaign in select Benetton stores.

- c / Colorcubicâ„¢

Well, unfortunately we had some unexpected downtime. Our site was showing up as “expired.” Fortunately it was not, and we have resolved the issue now.

I was supposed to have a tutorial posted over the weekend, but instead I’ll be posting it in a couple hours.

Peace,

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

Hey everyone,

sorry it’s been a while since we’ve updated our site with posts.

We’ve been so slammed with projects, it’s hard to find time to update this on a regular basis. We’ve also moved offices, (which was very time consuming, but definitely worth it).
We’re catching up with a lot of topics that we feel are relevant not only to the design / development community, but also to people that are concerned with sustainability, and social entrepreneurship.

Anyway, we hope that you find the coming topics useful for your own personal, and professional growth.

Feel free to contact us with any questions that you may have regarding the content of our posts.

Ciao,

- m / Colorcubicâ„¢

The original article is from June’s issue of Vanity Fair, which is titled, “The Africa Issue.” You may read the original article on Vanity Fair online.

Letter from Uganda

Sachs speaking at a school in the village of Ruhiira, Uganda, January 2007. Ruhiira is participating in Sachs’s Millennium Villages Project. Photograph by Guillaume Bonn.

Jeffrey Sachs’s $200 Billion Dream

Jeffrey Sachs—visionary economist, savior of Bolivia, Poland, and other struggling nations, adviser to the U.N. and movie stars—won’t settle for less than the global eradication of extreme poverty. And he hasn’t got a second to waste.

by Nina Munk July 2007

In the respected opinion of Jeffrey David Sachs—distinguished Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia University, director of the Earth Institute, and special adviser to the secretary-general of the United Nations—the problem of extreme poverty can be solved. In fact, the problem can be solved “easily.” “We have enough on the planet to make sure, easily, that people aren’t dying of their poverty. That’s the basic truth,” he tells me firmly, without a doubt.

It’s November 2006, and Sachs has just addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations. His message is straightforward: “Millions of people die every year for the stupid reason they are too poor to stay alive.… That is a plight we can end.” Afterward, as the two of us have lunch in the crowded U.N. cafeteria, overlooking New York’s East River, he continues: “The basic truth is that for less than a percent of the income of the rich world nobody has to die of poverty on the planet. That’s really a powerful truth.”

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