Congo Comics and Photos. “In our attempt to bring this story [about the war in eastern Congo to access gold deposits] to the attention of these international gold traders, Human Rights Watch and I worked together to create an exhibit of my mining photographs in Geneva, Switzerland, where Metalor Technologies, one of the leading gold mining companies, has its corporate offices. We invited to the exhibit’s opening night gold buyers and mining company executives as well as financiers, stockholders and journalists. Immediately after seeing this exhibit, Metalor Technologies halted its purchases of Congolese gold.…

At about the time I was teaching these young students, I was collaborating with a comic artist, Paul O’Connell, on an article for Ctrl.Alt.Shift. Our partnership revolved around the idea of us combining our various skills to create new ways of delivering messages. What this meant is that Paul took my photographs from places like the Congo and transformed them into a comic strip to tell the story to a different audience.” (via)  ¶

High street 'revived' by fake shop front. “Fake businesses are to be used to lessen the impact of the recession on high streets in North Tyneside. With 140 empty shops in the borough, council bosses think they have come up with a unique way of ensuring shopping areas remain as vibrant as possible. The first empty shop unit to be given a makeover with a ‘flat pack’ shop front is in Whitley Bay.” (via)

Update 5/25/10: BLGDBLOG has more on fake storefronts and dummy houses in Paris, London, and Brooklyn.  ¶

China Bans Roman-Letter Acronyms. More on typography and nationalism: Victor Mair looks at implications of the memo, possibily orginating in the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television, advising to broadcasters in the PRC to stop using popular English-based acronyms such as NBA, WTO and GDP.

Related: see his fascinating post on the invasion of China and Taiwan by the roman letter Q.  ¶

re:Active Magazine. A nonprofit arts-education program introducing underserved youth in Portland, OR to the power of design and storytelling by publishing a theme-based, expressive magazine about issues affecting youth worldwide. Youth are given on-the-job training in writing, art and graphic design.

Another great project for my list of design non-profits.  ¶