African American Women have been on the rise in recent years. They have been reaching high and receiving considerable coverage on many important issues and movements. These are just a few of the amazing African American women of the 21st century that have made a name for themselves and served as a source of inspiration… via […]
Amazing African American Women Of The 21st Century — Society19 — ravenhawks’ magazine
Bringing back mangroves: Scientists in Mexico restore degraded ecosystems https://ift.tt/3clRBkS Latin America – “What was this area like three years ago?” I asked researcher Jorge Herrera as we dipped our feet into the warm waters swirling around the trunks of a stand of mangrove saplings in Ciénaga del Progreso, a 40 minute drive from the […] […]
Bringing back mangroves: Scientists in Mexico restore degraded ecosystems — — ravenhawks’ magazine
To mark International Women’s Day 2020, we’re celebrating seven female designers, artists and creative heroes changing the way we think about the world through their use of visual media.
There’s no shortage of inspirational women in the fields of illustration, graphic design and art, although sometimes they’re under-represented. In line with International Women’s Day, we’re showcasing some of the women who have helped to redefine female roles, shape how we see things and pave the way for female designers of the future. 
Yayoi Kusama ‘Infinitely Mirrored Room’ – Exhibition at Tate. Credit: Tate
Specialism: installations, sculpture, painting (and many more)
Career highlights: After training as an artist in Japan, Yayoi Kusama moved to New York and became part of the avant-garde and pop-art scenes in the 1960s. There she made waves with a before-its-time flashmob featuring naked people painted with polka dots. The dots are an all-consuming theme in her work. She is also known for ‘infinity installations’ which use mirrors to create a perception of never-ending colored spaces.
Why we love her: Yayoi Kusama is fearless, prolific, bold and brave, never afraid to challenge norms either in her native Japan or in the more permissive culture of the USA. She is also a powerful example of someone working and living with mental health issues. Her style is linked to visual and auditory hallucinations and she uses art as a means to express and understand her experiences. 
Paula Scher. Credit: John Madere
Specialism: Graphic design
Career highlights: After starting out in children’s publishing and designing album covers, Paula Scher became the first female principal at design consultancy Pentagram in 1991. She is responsible for iconic branding and visual identity work for companies like Microsoft, Coca-Cola and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which reflect her love for typography and its potential for expression. She is now a lecturer and educator in graphic design.
Why we love her: Paula Scher is one of the most influential designers of any gender. As well as producing an impressive body of commercial and fine art, she is committed to educating and paving the way for the next wave of creative talent and setting a shining example of what can be achieved for female illustrators and designers. 
Jessica Walsh. Credit: Dezeen.com
Specialism: graphic design, art direction
Career highlights: Jessica Walsh is already a titanic talent in the graphic design world despite being not yet 35. After studying graphic design she interned at design consultancy Pentagram under Paula Scher, and honed her illustration style working for Print Magazine. Teaming up with Stefan Sagmeister, she became principal partner at Sagmeister & Walsh in 2012, before founding her own agency &Walsh in 2019.
Why we love her: Jessica Walsh’s work blends the craft of design with a strong cultural thread that comments astutely on the world we live in. Projects like ‘40 days of dating’, for example, play with expectations of modern romance while showcasing talented illustrators. We especially love Jessica’s initiative ‘Ladies Wine & Design” which encourages women in design to collaborate rather than compete.
Bridget Riley. Credit: Telegraph
Specialism: Painting
Career highlights: Bridget Riley is one of the best-known practitioners of op-art – works which expand and manipulate the limits of optical perception. Trained as an artist, she graduated from a career as an educator to a full-time artistic practice beginning in the mid 1960s. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and she has won numerous awards for her visionary use of color, light and line.
Why we love her: Hypnotic, precise, pure and vivid, Riley’s work speaks for itself. As well as bending the brains and eyeballs of innumerable viewers, Riley has made an impact by carving out a space for art in her native London. She founded the SPACE artists collective which has been running since the 1960s, and was influential in creating the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery by fending off government plans to sell off the land where it now stands. 
Laetitia Ky. @laetitiaky
Specialism: Human hair
Career highlights: Ky hails from the Ivory Coast, and via Instagram has quickly become world-renowned for her playful yet political use of her hair as a sculpting medium. Ky uses a system of wires, wool and weave to turn her dreadlocks into images that augment, reflect or comment on the world around her.
Why we love her: Laetitia Ky is a fresh voice with a completely original approach to visual art and design. She uses her platform to comment on issues that matter to her including inclusivity and gender, with a special focus on uplifting other women. She recently launched her own clothing line and has signed a 2-year contract as part of the Elite Models World Digital Creator Award.
Margaret Calvert. Credit: London Design Festival
Specialism: Typography, design
Career highlights: While she may not be a household name, South African designer Margaret Calvert’s work is deeply familiar to anyone who has lived or travelled within the UK. Along with her colleague Jock Kinneir, she is responsible for the design style used on road and rail information signs, as well as the ‘Transport’ font found across the nation’s motorways.
Why we love her: When Margaret Calvert started out, female graphic designers were unheard of. Fortunately, she is steadfast and driven, even when working against the prevailing expectations of the times. Her approach, based on clarity and ease of reading at high speed, met with resistance from traditionalists but has been upheld as the official style for the UK transport system as well as the gov.uk website.
Camille Walala and LEGO collaboration, ‘House of Dots’. Credit: Arts & Collections
Specialism: Graphic design, murals
Career highlights: Calling to mind artists like Lichtenstein and Warhol, Camille Walala’s work is a riot of powerful lines and pure tones that set them startlingly apart from the street settings where they typically appear. After starting out as a textile artist, she began taking the UK capital by storm with distinctive murals, interior design projects and store frontage.
Why we love her: Camille Walala paints the world in bold blocks of color. Her ‘tribal pop’ style is fresh, directional and fun, and is rapidly gathering momentum. In January 2020 she launched ‘House of Dots’ a walk-in installation in collaboration with LEGO. We expect to see much more of her in the future.
Explore more stories from female designers. Louisa Cannell talks to us about celebrating strong women through illustration.
A new climate change initiative, ClimateVoice, has launched to help employees at big companies press their bosses for more aggressive policies to fight climate change.
The organisation, led by former Google and Facebook sustainability chief Bill Weihl, is designed to mobilise the workforce to urge companies to go “all in” on climate, both in business practices and policy advocacy.
Students preparing to enter the workforce and current employees will be invited to take the ClimateVoice Pledge, to leverage their influence to urge companies to go #AllinOnClimate. Those making the Pledge will get action updates and tools they can use to raise the climate issue with employers.
Launching the initiative at the ClimateCAP conference in Virginia last month, Bill Weihl said: “America’s corporate sector has the power to disrupt climate change and put us on a path of steep carbon reductions.
“Many companies are doing great sustainability work in their operations, and some are speaking up – but not enough of them, and not often enough. Silence is no longer an option. ClimateVoice is mobilising the power of the workforce to activate companies to raise their voice in climate policy battles.
“Unleashing the muscle of the corporate sector will be a climate game changer, tipping the balance on policy battles that are now stacked in favor of polluting industries. We invite all current and future employees to visit us at climatevoice.org and take the ClimateVoice Pledge.”
ClimateVoice has announced three policy focus areas for its launch. The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) would make Virginia a leader on climate, and ClimateVoice is urging action before the close of the legislative session in March. In Illinois, ClimateVoice is calling on workers and companies to back the state’s pending Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA). ClimateVoice will also focus on the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), a regional effort aimed at reducing transportation emissions in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.
Over the next few months, ClimateVoice will be engaging students and activists at a series of climate-related events across the US, including the GoGreen conference in Seattle next month.
Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com
Gaia Mission is a a Chrome extension and search engine that enables users to generate revenue towards the protection and preservation of natural resources and wildlife with every click. The Montreal-based search engine has partnered with Rainforest Trust to support the protection of rainforests, coral reefs, oceans, wildlife, tree planting, and animals. Gaia Mission has […]
Gaia Mission, a new Chrome extension and search engine, helping to restore Earth’s ecosystems one search at a time — Life & Soul Magazine — ravenhawks’ magazine
Chile-based ZeroCabin has created a collection of 100% self-sustaining and off-grid cabins for those who want a retreat in nature that leaves zero impact.
Developed by a small team of scientists with no architectural training, each cabin is built by the ZeroCabin team upon an elevated base of two-metre high wooden piles to maximise views in nature.
The timber-framed structures, which are built without using nails, use biodegradable insulation and thermally efficient glazing systems, which cut down on the use of active heating and cooling systems.
The “kit of parts” offered by ZeroCabin includes maintenance plans for photovoltaic panels, waste recycling and rainwater collection through reverse osmosis. These kits provide buyers with the tools and information to create a self-sustaining cabin with negative impact customised to function anywhere in the world.
ZeroCabin say: “The ZeroCabin is zero impact, it is a perfect symbiosis between you and nature. We build it wherever you want, we just leave a path, we don’t use a boom truck. 10% of our utility is invested in plans to preserve native forests and wildlife.”
Each cabin is oriented at a precise angle within its context for optimal exposure to the sun, making the most efficient use of solar panels for on-site generation of energy.
Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com
Artist and designer Sarina Mantle is helping women to reconnect to Mother Earth through a different medium – a self-care colouring book, Women + Patterns + Plants.
With a strong resonance for indigenous cultures, plant life, shamanic healing and the divine feminine, Sarina Mantle has created a beautiful book that takes the colourist on a mindful and engaging journey that is empowering.
Women + Patterns + Plants is made up of several of Sarina Mantle’s illustrations – black-and-white line drawings featuring women, patterns and plants.
The colouring book is as much a visual expression of Sarina Mantle’s journey of self-discovery. Prior to penning the book, Sarina Mantle travelled to Peru where she spent time with the indigenous women of Shipibo heritage, who are master embroiderers and painters. There she was surrounded by all the things that encompass her book – plants, textiles and women.
In an interview with Yellowzine, she said: “I felt deeply inspired by Mother Earth. I decided after my own self-discovery that I wanted to create visually through illustration; I wanted to make drawings of women reconnecting to Mother Earth. It has been my way of contributing to the collective consciousness that are returning to sustainability, nurturing plants, growing food and spending time in nature.”
Women + Patterns + Plants is a beautiful book which is a powerful way in which to nurture the connection with one’s self and one’s source, Mother Nature and her children.
Women + Patterns + Plants by Sarina Mantle is available from Amazon and independent bookstores
Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about sustainable lifestyle and green living for publications, and offers content services to planet-friendly businesses. Find out more at Rosamedea.com
Mexican entrepreneur Omar Sánchez Vázquez has devised a way to transform an invasive species of brown algae, known as sargassum, into building bricks. The brown algae, which traps turtles and fills the air with the smell of rotten eggs, is a threat to both the marine ecosystem and tourism.
The organic, thermal and functional construction material utilises the same technique used to make adobe bricks, although it costs 50% percent less than adobe bricks. The building bricks are also said to be resistant to hurricanes.
Omar Sánchez Vázquez first saw an opportunity in the brown sargassum seaweed to grow his gardening business in 2015, when he spotted that the sea began to dump vast amounts of the algae on beaches of the southeastern Mexican state of Quintana Roo.
Initially he used sargassum as fertiliser at his BlueGreen Nursery and sold small amounts to his customers. Yet at the same time the BlueGreen founder wanted a little adobe house, one that he would build with his own hands, and so took out all the permits needed to patent the first block of sargassum.
In 2018, Omar Sánchez Vázquez erected his first house in just 15 days using 2,000 bricks produced with 20 metric tons of sargassum. The rustic house, which is named “Angelita” in honour of Omar Sánchez Vázquez’s mother, is an exact replica of the house in which he grew up in Guadalajara in western Mexico.
Omar Sánchez Vázquez’s construction team is currently working on two building projects using sargassum. The first is a build of 10 residential homes which will be donated to poor familes, and the second, is a private project in Tulum, also on the Mexican Caribbean, where they are building 40 residential homes.
It is understood that the sargassum bricks could soon be used to build a new eco-hotel in Tulum.
Since the seaweed crisis began in the Mexican Caribbean, numerous projects have been launched to take advantage of the algae, from disposable dishes and cups and shoe soles to its use as a fine-foods ingredient and in exotic drinks.
It wasn’t long before people interested in replicating the sargassum-house model were getting in touch with Omar Vazquez, people from
Countries including Belize, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Malaysia and the United States have also been affected by sargassum, which has hit their shores with vast amounts of seaweed daily.
Images Credit: BlueGreen
Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyles including sustainable and green living. She also offers content services to businesses and individuals at Rosamedea.com
The range of our functional DELITHERM® fabrics is expanding. With two new articles the selection is widened. Delitherm® fabrics are energy savers both in the summer and in the winter. In the summer the drawn curtains reduce solar radiation by up to 55% and prevent the extreme heating up of rooms. Equally, in the winter Delitherm® prevents the loss of heat through the window and keeps the heating in the room. One can save up to 15% of heating cost.
The two-coloured melange yarn, which produces a horizontal pattern, gives Phos a warm look. Phos DELITHERM® is available in 4 neutral colours.
Eos DELITHERM® has a smooth, closed surface and is available in white.
For more information please email nisha@nishadesigns.com or call 702.622.8321
Brumunddal in forest-rich Norway is a rural town with a major forestry and wood processing industry, which now boasts the world’s tallest timber building – the 85.4m high Mjøstårnet (The Mjøsa Tower). The 18-storey mixed-use building, which overlooks Lake Mjøsa in Brumunddal, contains apartments, the Wood Hotel, swimming pool, office space, and a restaurant. Opened […]
Mjøstårnet: World’s tallest timber building symbolises “green shift” to carbon-absorbing sustainable design — Life & Soul Magazine
nishadesigns.com 