Life in Hell

Image via andy

Design For Life - Philippe Starck's new reality show is an odd thing being more like "Hell's Kitchen" or "The Apprentice" than say. "Project Runway". Why can't industrial design be treated like fashion or the culinary arts? No reason I guess. Except maybe that the product design cycle is very slow compared to a night in a kitchen or making an item of clothing over a few days. In fact, my colleagues in software are usually stunned by the timelines necessary for even the simplest bauble.

The show has been criticized for a number of reasons, mostly about squeezing this concept into the reality show model. Part of the problem for me is the contestants who are an odd bunch with many of them having little or no actual design experience outside of school (here Project Runway seems to have better contestants). Are these designers unemployed due to Britain's loss of industry and current economy or did they simply lose out to sharper colleagues? It's surprising too how Starck chose the young designers based on a thin portfolio of sketches or that the show is framed as improving the state of British design (which hardly seems to need a "Starck Shake-up").

While the program holds the promise of both educating the average viewer about the design process and revealing Starck's own process to curious designers it also has the possibility of doing the exact opposite. Starck's broken English and self-mocking tone along with his, well, "Frenchness" could really obscure both his thinking and the process of how products are conceived and realized. Additionally, Starck is caught in the same dichotomy all designers face — knowing we should produce less, consume less and live our lives more simply but no one pays a designer to remove product from the shelf, only to add to the pile. Today's coveted goods will be tomorrow's trash heap (unless every piece you design is a collectible future antique).

Still, I'll keep watching when I can because I remain fascinated by the man and enjoy this glimpse into his "tribe". Too bad, Dieter Rams never had a reality show.

Labels: designers, media

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It's Tomorrow in Japan

posted by Peter at 12:42 PM 0 Comments

The Future Was Then

posted by Peter at 1:40 PM 0 Comments

Da(y)tum

posted by Peter at 5:45 PM 0 Comments

Not Stephen Harper

image via the New York Times

As if we need any more reminders of how we're different from Americans, I think this photo says a lot. I've seen Stephen Harper at hockey games (apparently he's a nut for it and has considered writing a history on it) and he looks pretty much as he does in the House - in a suit and tie, soberly staring blankly into the middle distance.

Labels: media, politik

posted by Peter at 9:16 PM 0 Comments

Talk in Public. Sold in Private.

You know those people who are always yakking on their phone in public. Don't worry. They'll get what's coming to 'em. They'll get it good. Perhaps they'll get it on layaway or by ordering through the new J. Crew Catalog. Why? You know that feeling that you're being watched? Well, the good news is you're not a paranoid schizophrenic. The bad news is you're right. Funny thing is you're being watched on your cell phone. By advertisers. They know when you're sleeping. They know when you're awake. They also know what articles you've read and how long you looked at a certain Web page.

From The New York Times:

Advertisers Get a Trove of Clues in Smartphones
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Cellphones have a high potential for personalized ads, and advertisers place great value on the possibility....

Labels: media, technology

posted by Peter at 9:40 AM 0 Comments

eBook-ish

Andrew Joyner via The Jacky Winter Group

Learning lots about eBook readers this week. More than I need to know really. I just had me a birthday and as is tradition 'round these parts I received several books — 4 to be exact. Real books:4, digital books:0.

Digital books are harder to wrap I guess.

Labels: books, media, technology

posted by Peter at 8:57 PM 0 Comments

Softcovers, Hardcovers, Shortcovers

Shortcovers is getting a nice chunk of press. A pretty fair review showed up on the Wired blog and there's a mention in the New York Times.

I can only assume this means we're getting our money's worth from our PR firm.

Labels: books, media

posted by Peter at 1:27 PM 0 Comments

Vox Populi Paparazzi

We're all paparazzi now... does that mean we all killed Diana?

Via Soup

By the way, this is why I never take photos in public anymore - someone else is already taking one for me.

Labels: media, politik

posted by Peter at 9:26 AM 0 Comments

Be Bold

President Obama will use e-mail. Does it follow, he'll have a Blackberry? An Obamaberry? A Barackberry?



Or perhaps it would look like this.

Labels: media, politik, technology

posted by Peter at 7:23 PM 0 Comments

When I Grow Up

When I grow up, I'd like to work for the good people at Criterion.

Thank You.

Labels: design, film, media

posted by Peter at 9:00 PM 0 Comments

List of Lists

As inevitable as a New Year's hangover, December is a time when every form of media; radio, television, print or Internet, feel the need to compile their list of the year's best, worst and most-something-or-other. But why bother with the Top Albums/Songs/Movies/News Stories/News Makers/Movies etc. when all you really have to do is simply point to this decade's most significant list of lists: Google Zeitgeist. And how can they create such a list? Let's just say, they "know when you're sleeping, they know when you're awake." thus it's a much more accurate list of lists than say what a group of editors might make. Which also makes it a little more depressing when you see the Jonas Bros. at or near the top. No one ever lost money "misunderestimating" the buying public.

Labels: Holidays, media

posted by Peter at 8:55 AM 0 Comments

By Gosh

posted by Peter at 6:27 AM 0 Comments

Shaking the Tree

Like Yussou N'Dour, Montreal artist Peter Flemming is shaking the tree in his kinetic art piece "Reject". Unlike N'Dour, Flemming's work "emphasizes the absurdity of the life cycle of an Xmas tree".

I think for many people who grew up enjoying Christmas, there's nothing quite as depressing as seeing a discarded pine or spruce tree, dying in a dirty January snow bank. The last sad shreds of tinsel clinging to the branches while reddened, dried needles pile below are all reminders of a post-holiday consumer hangover. It's been said the best way to avoid a hangover is to never sober up. Maybe instead, before the Christmas ads go into hyperdrive in a wild thrashing attempt to save our economy (like a drowning man), we could have a pre-holiday hangover. At the very least it will gird us against the painful crash to come.

With that in mind, it's only fitting that this piece which underscores our throw-away consumerism is being exhibited this November, merely weeks after the collapse of our credit-driven markets, and weeks before our annual orgy of spending.

Exhibition Details:
Harbourfront Centre,
235 Queens Quay West.

November 15 2008 to January 4 2009.

Labels: art, media, Montreal, technology

posted by Peter at 1:40 PM

Decontaminate

Arnaud Maggs
Contamination 2007
As part of Toronto's Contact Photography Festival, Susan Hobbs Gallery is displaying a new collection of photos by Arnaud Maggs called, "Contamination". Maggs is well known for his serial pieces (grid-like arrangements of black & white portraits, such as his "48 Views Series" – a "9-foot-high, 31-foot-long collection of photo-booth-type pictures of 162 people, each photographed 48 times") and this show continues to build on his earlier work. Arnaud Maggs came to fine art relatively late in life. While having a successful career as a graphic designer working in advertising and typography, Maggs, at the age of 40 decided to pursue art instead. It's this background that informs so much of his photography. Perhaps it's his designer's eye applied to his artistic pursuit or the other way around, his artistic eye guiding a highly skilled and meticulous technique yet whatever the case, the images seem to have particular interest to designers. There's something in the process of contemporary artists that fascinates and more crassly put, something from which we hope to glean insight and put in our own work. In this latest exhibit, a collection of images of empty mouldy sheets from a Gold Rush era ledger, each image forms a sectional view of the three-dimensional mould as it spread through the stack of pages, not unlike tree rings of a cut log. There's also more than a hint of sadness that accompanies the beauty of these images; as if someone's story was left untold and neglected through all those years. If you are in Toronto, then visit the gallery and see for yourself. For additional information listen to Julie Glick from the Mass Art Guide interview Arnaud Maggs from February, 2008 (run time: 22 minutes):

Click here to listen.

In this post:
Toronto's Contact Photography Festival
Susan Hobbs Gallery
Arnaud Maggs
Mass Art Guide

Labels: art, media, Toronto

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Resistance is Useless

posted by Peter at 9:03 PM 0 Comments

Some Yahoo

Just one morning — just one morning, I'd like to wake up and hear that one of America's top companies wanted to buy Creative Leap for $44.6 Billion. Of course, CL doesn't employ over 11,000 people with $6.4 Billion in ad revenue. Maybe I should re-consider putting AdSense on this blog.

Labels: media, technology

posted by Peter at 6:37 PM 0 Comments

Thout's Old School Table

Every week or so I consider canceling my Saturday subscription to the Globe and Mail. It's become a collection of sections and columnists that I don't enjoy that much. Particularly galling is the cursory treatment design gets in the thin, superficial and paltry "Style" section. This Saturday was different. The Globe article and interview with Thout Design's Patrick Turner and Andrea Pearson shows a willingness to explore design that is about more than just condo interiors or the latest shiny tchotchke. Plus Andrea and Patrick are friends of ours and deserve the attention. I guess I can keep my subscription for another week.

Labels: design, media, Toronto

posted by Peter at 6:43 PM 0 Comments

If Gore Were in da' House

I've noticed Bush's White House desk seems fairly clear of paper. Perhaps this is indicative of a clear and focussed mind. I do know Bush rarely uses email. Perhaps having a computer on the White House desk would be unseemly. Yet, after seeing a photo of Al Gore's (rather incredible) computer set up, here's what I imagine a Gore White House might look like.



See a larger image here.

Labels: media, politik, technology

posted by Peter at 8:53 AM 0 Comments

Connecting the Dots

I've been doing a project with Carla of Evolution Design recently which has involved creating images using a dot pattern. We've all seen some very sophisticated versions of this kind of thing over the years (particularly using half-tone patterns on glass etc.) and I'm generally mystified over how the results are achieved - not the fabrication but the artwork. My usual assumption has been someone had created a unique software solution rather than doing it by hand or with brute force. Faced with the same dilemma, I've ended up using a very non-innovative nor intuitive series of steps in Adobe Illustrator which caused me to wonder whether I should either learn how to code a solution or abandon it. Then Carla sent me this link, to an art project by Frédéric Eyl and Gunnar Green whereby they are using a wall of motorized camera shutters (apertures) connected to light sensors to generate what is essentially an interactive version of the still images we are creating. Interestingly, the principle is the same - "darkness" is a small opening, "lightness" is a large opening - though it the sensor that makes this conclusion in their case. Their highly technical implementation, made me feel as though my own attempt, which used an Illustrator filter combined with a lot of hand revision, was a quaint though equally effective method.

Enjoy this short film from their site:

Labels: art, design, media

posted by Peter at 9:22 AM 0 Comments

It's the Bill and Steve Show

posted by Peter at 2:35 PM 0 Comments

iNotes

Last autumn, some friends of ours gave a public presentation of one of their projects using Apple's Keynote. For whatever reason, they couldn't find how to see their on-screen presentation notes. They wound up using a second laptop in Keynote's edit mode just to see their notes, while the first one ran the presentation. Recently, my own version of Powerpoint had decided to by unruly and collapse every few minutes, so out of necessity, I converted to Keynote. Thankfully, Keynote exports effortlessly to Powerpoint, which is what I primarily do to send files to clients, but eventually came the day when I used it for a presentation and had no problems finding how to display my presentation notes to my laptop screen while the external projector/monitor hid them. I suspect for our friends, it was in a moment of panic or lack of familiarity or preparedness that they couldn't discern this functionality (it certainly wasn't obvious). Yet, watching Steve Jobs' latest Keynote address, I did wonder, how Apple produces these marvelous demonstrations that Jobs conducts with such aplomb? He's obviously using a remote device to prompt changes in the Nuremburg-scaled screen, thus not having a laptop to work from, how does he see any notes? Surely, he hasn't committed his routine to memory like some Roman Senator, has he? Of course not. He slyly uses a small, ultra-thin, infinitely powered, super-tech gadget called, "Notepad". From the picture below, you can see this amazing new device in action. Incroyable! Formibable! Or maybe Mr. Jobs just hasn't figured out how to see his presentation notes in Keynote yet.



PS. Ultimate geek alert. He could just use a Bluetooth enabled phone to run the presentation AND see his notes, but that might be asking a bit much.

Labels: media, technology

posted by Peter at 9:25 AM 0 Comments