When it comes to changing attitudes about the environment, apparently ‘No!’ is not the answer we were looking for. Getting hit with a green stick has had little effect.
So how do we convince six-billion-plus people that changing the way they live is important? Think carrot, not stick. Seduction, not sacrifice. ‘Yes!’ not ‘No!’We must reimagine everything we do. But we must do so in a way that allows people to experience beauty, exhilaration, love, pleasure and delight.
There is only one way to make this happen: use design to make the things we love more intelligent. Embrace the revolution of possibility to radically reduce the material and energy consumed, while increasing the positive impact of the things we use. Make sustainable more compelling, more attractive, more exciting and more delightful than the destructive, short-term ways. Compete with beauty and make smart things sexy.
Bruce Mau on going green
the five secrets of innovation plus one
CNN have published the results of a study by Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University into the secrets of innovation. According to the study the five keys are Associating, Questioning, Observing, Experimenting and Networking.
These are certainly critical skills but the key skill they left out was Selling. While networking sort of covers selling, the definition used “innovators go out of their way to meet people with different ideas and perspectives” doesn’t hit the mark.
Good ideas die everyday not because they are worthless but because no one is willing to buy into them. Successful innovators need to know how to connect with an audience and sell them an idea. Steve Jobs isn’t necessarily the most creative or innovative person but as a salesman he has few equals and that’s why he’s successful.
Idle thought: car tax
It’s January so for the past few years that’s meant taxing and insuring my car. I need valid insurance to get road tax and my insurance isn’t valid without road tax. My question is why is this two separate processes? Why don’t we just get rid of road tax and combine it with insurance?
The insurance companies benefit by handling the extra cash from road tax and may even be paid a fee for managing the process. The government reduces costs by removing or at least reducing a bureaucratic process. The police are able to verify the status of a vehicle in one step. The consumer only needs to go through one process. Everybody wins.
I admit that I’m probably over simplifying the problem and that there will be exceptions to the need to tax and insurance together. But surely the overall efficiencies and benefits would outweigh the problems caused by processing a few special cases.
Some of my favourites from 2009
Like everybody else I thought I’d list some of my favourite bits and pieces of media from 2009
Books
Neither of my favourite books in 2009 were written or even published this year but since I first came across them this year they should be on the list
Lives of The Artists (Giorgio Vasari) A classic insight into the creative processes and lives of the most influential artists from the most creative period in history.
Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller) A funny, moving and inspirational insight into how Christian ideals have informed the life of one man and made him a better human being
Music
Pomplamoose. Two talented musicians, a brilliantly quirky instrumentalist and pretty girl with the voice of an angel. What more do you want? Their covers of classics are fresh and original whilst their own compositions are refreshingly different but catchy.
Creedence Clearwater Revival Not exactly 2009 more 1969 but I rediscovered them this year so they’re on the list.
TV
As usual the BBC proves that it’s the best broadcaster in the world.
The Thick of It. Brilliant satire on the role of spin in modern politics. Worth watching just for Peter Capaldi’s performance as the foul mouthed Malcolm Tucker whose swearing outbursts have a poetry that almost justifies the license fee.
Life David Attenborough has done again, revealing the beauty and wonder that is the natural world. It’s hard to pick out a highlight but opening sequence of the episode on plants, where the work of parasitic plants is speeded up, is some of the most entertainingly creepy television I’ve seen in ages. As a side note the camera teams who capture the stories in near impossible conditions are heroes.
Alan Fletcher on creativity
In my last post I listed some bit ’n’ pieces from The Art of Looking Sideways but I thought this one was important so I’ve lifted it out separately. In the book Fletcher points out some attributes of creativity.
- challenging assumptions
- being receptive to new ideas
- recognising similarities or differences
- making unlikely connections
- taking risks
- building on ideas to make better ideas
- looking at things in new ways
- taking advantage of the unexpected
- taking chances
As a checklist for developing your creativity pretty much covers all the bases.
Book: the art of looking sideways
Alan Fletcher was graphic designer who described himself as a visual jackdaw but in his book The Art of Looking Sideways he proved that he was no jackdaw but a very discerning observer and collector.
The book is a collection of facts, thoughts, quotes and images which cover almost every subject imaginable. This might sound vague but when the table of contents covers the areas below it seems reasonable to say everything.
culture; tools; creativity; wit; improvisation; colour; dreaming; ideas; synchronicity; mutation; learning; noise; paradigms; automaton; intelligence; brain; mind; senses; thinking; problems; chance; imagination; visualizing; alphabet; seeing; places; perception; stereotypes; value; illusion; paradox; figure ground; symmetry; reflections; pattern; camouflage; economy; proportion; composition; leys & lines; aesthetics; taste; style; perfection; meanings; symbols; numbers; typography; skill; perspective; space-time; figuring; language; rhetoric; design; process; copying; words; imaging; picture play; wordplay; handedness; pictograms; scripts; letters; identity; names; signatures; insignia; trademarks; writing;
At about 500 pages it’s physically impressive and the care that has been taken with its design is a reflection on the quality of Fletcher’s other work. Without inspiring content this would be meaningless but in this case the content is better than the presentation.
To describe it as the best bathroom book I’ve read sounds like an insult but this isn’t a book to read in long sessions but one that’s best enjoyed in small bursts so that you have time to absorb and consider what you’ve read. Ignore the pretentious language and comments about designers in the Amazon reviews, it’s a book for anyone who wants to be inspired. Over time it will become a source of enjoyment and creativity which you will turn to time and time again.
Below are just a few snippets of the literally dozens of fascinating items in the book.
"the unlike is joined together and from differences results the most beautiful harmony" Heraclitus
"…apparently unrelated things become interesting when you start fitting them together…" John Kowenhoven Mathematician
Imagination is the active ingredient of thinking. Imagination jumps from present facts to future possibilities. Imagination forms the mental pictures of things not present. Imagination conceives of situations not yet in existence. Imagination conjures up correspondences and analogies
"what is now proved was once only imagined" William Blake
"simple is better than complicated. quiet is better than noisy. what is close at hand is better than what has to be sought" Dieter Rams
A Wombat is not only an Australian marsupial but also an acronym for Waste Of Money, Brains and Time
"There is nothing more difficult to take in, more perilous to conduct, more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in introducing a new order of things because the innovator will have for enemies all who have done well under the old conditions and luke warm defenders who do well under the new" Machiavelli
Eero Saarinen got the idea for the design of the Kennedy TWA Terminal when after eating grapefruit for breakfast he turned the grapefruit over and squeezed it with one hand to form the indentations.
" you have to give a letter of the alphabet the dignity it deserves. this becomes clear when you don’t know the language. think of Arabic or Chinese. It is beautiful by itself, an art apart." Franco Maria Ricci
There 37 letters in the alphabet. 26 lower case and 11 capitals that don’t resemble their lowercase pairs. A,B,D,E,G,H,LN,Q,R,T.
Seeing Les Demoiselles d’Avignon at an exhibition, a man approached Picasso (who happened to be at the exhibition) and asked why he didn’t paint people the way they looked. "Well, how do they look?" asked Picasso. The man took a photograph of his wife from his wallet and handed it over. Picasso looked at it, then handing it back said "She is small, isn’t she. And flat too"
"A metaphor is a leap that unites two worlds" Garcia Lorca
An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications
"no object can be tied down to any one sort of reality; a stone may be part of a wall, a piece of sculpture, a lethal weapon, a pebble on a beach or anything else you like, just as this file in my hand can be metamorphosed into a shoehorn or a spoon, according to the way in which I use it. The first time this phenomenon struck me was in the trenches during the First World War when my batman turned a bucket into a brazier by poking a few holes in it with his bayonet and filling it with coke. for me this commonplace incident had a poetic significance: I began to see things in a new way" Georges Braque
A scientist, an engineer and a designer were arguing about the height of a church steeple. As luck would have it a man walked by with a barometer and joined the debate. To resolve the argument he challenged them to solve the problem using barometer. The scientist measured the barometric pressure on the ground and then at the top of the steeple and calculated the height using the difference. The engineer dismissed this method as too cumbersome and took the barometer to the top of the steeple and drop it and worked out the height by timing the fall. The designer popped into the church and offered the barometer to the verger in exchange for a look at the plans. The simplest route to solution is usually the best.
The sea squirt roams around looking for rock, when it finds one it sticks to it for the rest of its life and since it no longer needs its brain, it eats it.
An antique three legged stool was made that way so it could stand on uneven floors. Simple no further development required
Marty Neumeier "Problem + fresh perspective X intuition = concept" e.g. Gutenberg could not figure out how to simultaneously press a large number of letter seals onto a single sheet of paper. At a wine festival he examined a wine press and suddenly realised that a wine press with a few alterations, plus letter seals would result in the printing press.”
Degas on creativity
“No art was ever less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and study; of inspiration, spontaneity, temperament, I know nothing.”
Seems like a pretty good description of the creative elements in any field. Only after the hard work of studying and cogitating on the problem, will the blinding flash of inspiration come.
Quote via QI.com
Post office: They’re wrong or we’re stupid
I was in the post office today and saw a poster proudly proclaim "4 out of 10 of customers are using the wrong service. Ask a member of staff for help."
A 40% error rate is not a problem with customers. Either staff have allowed customers to use the wrong service and / or the services on offer are too complicated for the target customer.
In either case why would you point the finger at the customer and say they are using the wrong service? Surely a positive approach to the situation would yield a better response. "We’ve made our service simpler", "We can save you money", "We’ve improved our service". Anything but declaring 40% of our customers are wrong.
The same is true of any situation where you’ve identified a problem.
- Never accuse the customer.
- Be honest but try to position the solution as a positive.
- Always remember it doesn’t matter how elegant you think a product / service / solution is, if it doesn’t work for the customer it doesn’t work.
Ukraine’s Definitely got talent
I was trying to find out more about the artist (Ilana Yahav) behind the Twinings Lady Grey advert and I came across this video of artist Kseniya Simonova who won Ukraine’s Got Talent. Using just a light box covered with sand and awesome skills Kseniya manages to depict the Ukraine’s experiences during World War Two.
I don’t know what to admire more the artistry, the skill, the planning or the emotion conveyed using such a simple medium. In any case watch it and be amazed.
There’s an app for that
From the file marked unbelievable but true comes the iPhone app that you can use to disguise the sounds of nature that emanate from bathrooms. Presented on-screen as makeup kit it certainly gives a new meaning to the name Cover Girl.