Try this: Practice viewing the world as a child, seeing things as they might be, exploring your creative potential. For example, find the letters of the alphabet in everyday objects, such as a cloud that forms a C. Now for the final exam: Using design and creative problem-solving, describe how to turn those images into a tool for social change.

At Cornell University, the answers to that undergraduate exam question were so strong that Sheila Danko, associate professor of design and environmental analysis in the College of Human Ecology, challenged her students to forge ahead and make their creative visions a reality. With no previous experience, no sales or marketing force and no startup money, the students have produced a full-color, 2-by-3-foot commercially printed ABC poster -- with the majority of the images photographed on the Cornell campus -- that goes on sale graduation weekend May 24 and 25. The posters also will be donated to Cooper-Hewett National Design Museum Smithsonian Institution and the Arts Connection, both in New York City, and to the OMNI Program/Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell, which teaches children and art teachers about youth art education. They will be sold by these institutions to benefit their youth education arts programs, which nurture the creative potential in our nation's youth.

Roots of the project began when Danko developed a new introductory course on design called Making a Difference: By Design (DEA 111). "Rather than merely teaching elementary design concepts, I wanted to show how design can be a tool for change for biologists, lawyers, community activists or business CEOs," Danko said.

"And I wanted to inspire students, showing them how leaders use design to make change, take risks, view the world imaginatively and solve problems creatively." Thus, the course explored how design affects daily life, the impact of design from the individual to the global level and how design has been used to make positive social changes; it also examined creative problem- solving, risk-taking and leadership in using design to promote change.

In one assignment last year, 140 Cornell students had to capture the letters of the alphabet in ordinary objects -- such as railings, doors, shadows, fire escapes, clouds and vegetation -- on color film. In a final exam question, they were asked how to overcome the multitude of hurdles involved in transforming those images into a printed poster to promote social change.

This semester, 10 of those students formed the "ABC team" and undertook an independent study project to produce the poster. They used strategies from the final and sought regular input from the course "alumni" who, by this time, were scattered around the globe. The ABC team, for example, canvassed the "alumni" to select the best of those 3,900 images, collected negatives and copyright releases, researched printing costs, raised the money, sought donated services, designed the poster and had 3,000 of them printed.

"This was a real problem that we were responsible for. We've been dealing with real money, real deadlines and real buyers and sellers," said Candice Bonnamour, a junior in textiles and apparel from Warwick, N.Y., who worked on the financial and communications committees of the team. "I have had to learn the ins and outs of real problem-solving. We've had to work as a team, divide the tasks, budget our time and coordinate our efforts to reach the common goal."

Creative vision requires searching beyond the obvious, Danko said, to discover latent potentials in people, materials, objects and strategy. "Children look at a twisted branch, for example, and see a dragon; a set of keys is a musical toy; a chair is a fort," she said. "The world and all the things in it hold infinite potential, yet as adults, we've lost our ability to think flexibly and use our creative vision to search beyond the obvious."

The poster project not only puts into practice the principles taught in the previous semester's course, but perhaps even more importantly, "shows students firsthand that they can make a difference now using design to inform, educate, raise awareness and make change happen," Danko said.

"These students are actually contributing to the growth of the Smithsonian and the Arts Connection, organizations we believe in, without waiting to make millions of excess income," she added. "And they're learning that by focusing on being leaders -- not necessarily on making a lot money -- they can use design to trigger social change."

"It has been a rewarding experience to take an abstract idea that seemed to be just one more noble statement of intention and make it a reality," says Aaron Tax, an economics major in the College of Human Ecology from Rydal, Pa. and member of the ABC team. "Instead of just talking about it, we have finally made a difference."

The special Cornell limited edition of the poster will be available during graduation weekend, May 24 and 25, at Willard Straight Hall, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art and at the Triangle Bookstore for $20. The poster will go on sale at the Cooper-Hewett National Design Museum Smithsonian Institution after May 26. For more information, contact The Education Department at (212) 860-6977 and ask for the ABC Poster.

The poster project was supported by many friends, family and professionals, both within the Cornell community and outside it. "Without the generous support of Susan Milmoe, a Cornell alumna who believed in the power of design so much she funded the balance of the project in the eleventh hour, this project may never have become a reality," Danko said.