Srikanth Jalasutram, a graduate ID student at Georgia Tech, sends in this link from the Boston Globe's Big Picture, called At Work. This from the Globe:

"When the economy makes big news, many photographs of people at work come across the wires, usually to help illustrate a particular story or event. By collecting these disparate photos over the past few months, I found that a global portrait emerged of we humans producing things. People assembling, generating, and building items small and large, mundane and expensive, trivial and important. I hope you enjoy this look into some people's work lives around the world"

And this from Srikanth: Any product designer who has seen Ed Burtynsky's Manufactured Landscapes Documentary or has attended Allan Chochinov's talk on the social impact of design professions ("We are in the consequence business") will appreciate taking a look at this slideshow of people "producing" or being involved in manufacture of physical objects across the world.

It should prompt designers to think where their problem solving skills are really required--creating new and novel things just for the sake of "design," or really helping people lead better and more fruitful lives by uplifting their living conditions. Contrary to the opinion of some superstar designers who proclaim that problem solving is dead and what the world truly needs is more "beautiful things" (made of translucent plastic), the world urgently needs designers who can bring social equity to the masses through their work.

Image above from the site (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki). [Allan is humbled to mentioned in the same sentence as Edward Burtynsky.]