Alice Bybee inspires women to find peace of mind through simplicity, organization, education and communication.

Alice Bybee is a passionate advocate for non-profits and social responsibility in the design world. With a combined education in sociology and graphic design, she has been able to move fluidly between various sectors, providing unique, strategic insight to both corporate and non-profit clients. She co-created AIGA San Francisco’s Social Impact Chair and Cause/Affect, the graphic design competition for do-gooders, with Matt Cooke in 2007.

ZENPLIFICATION:
Can you describe your idea of peace of mind?

ALICE:
For me, peace of mind is simplicity. Simplicity in my life. Why? Because I am not always good at simplicity. I strive for it. So, meaning when I go into my bedroom and I have a lot of stuff in there. It kind of makes me feel encroached upon. It would be overwhelming. I’ve been trying to get rid of stuff. And I don’t need everything that I have. So, getting rid of those things. And simplicity at work would be great, but that’s not always achievable. Like your interaction with your clients, you know, if things are really straightforward then it makes everything easy. But that’s not always the case. So, it’s trying to figure out how to achieve simplicity. Organization, I think helps, not having as much stuff, communication skills, I think helps. You get as much information as you can or as much right answers as you need. Being able to ask the right questions that sort of things, I think helps.

ZENPLIFICATION:
How do you think design can make this world a place a better place for women and girls?

ALICE:
I think anybody get behind graphic design as an initiative to educate, I think that could help. Sort of like the Girl Effect. I aspire to do something as meaningful and as well designed as that. It’s amazing and it’s an educational tool to let people know how women and girls can be helped in a way. I think graphic design can give women and girls a voice. So if there’s a program that’s working that’s successful and then those participants can somehow have a voice and graphic design can get that out there in the world. Educating and communicating, I think are the roles of graphic designers. And they should be used for good. I would definitely like to work on something related to this in the future if I had the opportunity. I think I’ve only planted a seed with them. I kind of want to do a guerilla do-good project. Kind of like the Fun Theory; the one project in the U.K. where they set up a camera and saw that people were all taking the escalator and they wanted to see if people wanted to take the stairs. So, they’ve turned the stairs into piano keys. They have like an 80% turn where people took the stairs. Is there a way to do a grow education thing like the Girl Effect.