A student publication that ran from 1967 to 1971, the Scandinavian Designstudents Organization journal (SDO) captured the zeitgeist that would give birth to a design conference held in Suomenlinna in 1968 - the predecessor to Helsinki Design Lab. With a mix of passionate essays, editorial, comics, and diagrams, SDO #2 laid the groundwork for an integrated, systemic design practice which would be capable of addressing the calamities of the day. In SDO #2 international luminaries such as Buckminster Fuller, Victor Papanek, and John McHale, in addition to Swedish and Finnish authors, broaden the scope of "design" to include the systems and strategic thinking that effect the more typical output of the designer such as products, objects, and buildings. Only by considering these larger ecological and societal issues in addition to cultural concerns can designers make a truly meaningful contribution to society. If anything, SDO was a victim of being too forward-thinking; The moment of opportunity that it crystalized forty years ago is just now being realized. With luck, we won't have to wait another forty years to see these changes start to take hold.

This copy of the journal appears compliments of Yrjö Sotamaa. HDL hopes to publish the complete document in an online format soon.