Design was something that was important to me from the start of this blog, over different incarnations of the blog, I featured interesting design related news. Design is defined as a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, interfaces or other object before it is made.
But none of the definition really talks about what design really is in the way that Dieter Rams principles of good design do. His principles are:
It is innovative
It makes a product useful
It is aesthetic
It makes a product understandable
It is unobtrusive
It is honest
It is long-lasting
It is thorough down to the last detail
It is environmentally-friendly – it can and must maintain its contribution towards protecting and sustaining the environment.
It is as little design as possible
Bitcoin isn’t long lasting as a network, which is why people found the need to fork the blockchain and build other cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin uses 91 terawatts of energy annually or about the entire energy consumption of Finland.
The Bitcoin network relies on thousands of miners running energy intensive machines 24/7 to verify and add transactions to the blockchain. This system is known as “proof-of-work.” Bitcoin’s energy usage depends on how many miners are operating on its network at any given time. – So Bitcoin is environmentally unfriendly by design.
On the other hand, Apple products, which are often claimed to be also influenced by Dieter Rams also fail his principles. They aren’t necessarily environmentally friendly as some like AirPods are impossible to repair or recycle.
Adapt did a great guerrilla wrap for Metro newspapers during the December general election. In their own words:
We designed an alternative newspaper cover wrap for the Metro. On it, we imagined a different approach to the December 2019 election – where climate change was the main focus. From front page to the sports section, we turned every tiny detail of the newspaper into a lighthearted commentary on climate change and the urgent need for a Green New Deal. Once printed the paper cover was applied to Metro newspapers and distributed across London by a large team of volunteers.
I liked this Adapt project as it reminded me of people like Adbusters and the ethos behind much of the stuff on the Wooster Collective
Courtesy of Adapt
Courtesy of Adapt
Courtesy of Adapt
Scotty Allen of Strange Parts went to a wholesale market in Shenzhen, China that sells everything you need for a high tech factory. This eco-system is why industrialisation isn’t going to return to the UK any time soon.
Watch out for the vibrating pans in after 8:25 that tilt components up the right way. Such a simple design solution, each one is custom made for the part that they need to work with. Seeing it in action is almost like black magic.
It’s interesting to look back through concept videos at what people thought the future might hold. This one was done in 2001 and captures the ennui of modern life. It was originally made for a Teletext conference… More on the web-of-no-web here.
Brilliant bit of work on Cheetos based on the product flaw / design feature of flavouring that gets all over your fingers. Ride on 90s nostalgia with MC Hammer and you have a Super Bowl memorable experience.
It is right up there with the Steven Siegel ad from 2004 by BBDO New York that had Mountain Dew as the hero product also featured other PepsiCo brands including Cheetos.
Screen shot from the Louis Vuitton LinkedIn live stream
LinkedIn – Louis Vuitton menswear fall/winter 2020 lifestream – its odd to see a YouTube style lifestream on LinkedIn. Engagement seems to be relatively low given Louis Vuitton’s million-plus followers. And the user experience is really out of context on a business platform.
The Mercedes Benz 500E gets profiled by Doug DeMuro. It is the ultimate sleeper car with only mildly flared wheel arches give a hint for the vehicles performance. At the time of launch Mercedes called it the velvet hammer, the hammer bit of the sobriquet stuck with car fans. And the 500E and Hammer are used interchangeably. Even now, almost 30 years later, the performance is phenomenal, especially from a car with such understated looks.
Great talk by Shafi Goldwasser from the University of California, Berkeley on the relationship between algorithms and the law. It is a fascinating lecture. I believe that it was given in Tel Aviv
Algorithms have enormous power over our lives from health and finance to credit ratings or the ability to get criminal bail.
Academic Jack Goldsmith on the complex relationship between Jimmy Hoffa, the US trade union movement and the mob including its rise and fall. This is a good hour long interview but worth while having on in the background.
Ogilvy took over the reins from Mother a couple of years ago – Boots didn’t want to move but its owners did a Davos WPP deal – since when it’s been a bit iffy.
More About Advertising blog
Hair Love is an animated short that addresses the complex nature of Afro American hair. But its got as much attention for its sponsorship by Unilever brand Dove as its craft. Stylewise I was reminded a bit of some of Disney’s animation from the 1990s and 1990s. The Dove sponsored film is a move to try and change the relationship between art and advertising. Though that still won’t stop them doing lots of formulaic product marketing. I was reminded by Guinness Nigeria development of action films for the African market in the past.
Inside China’s Push to Turn Muslim Minorities Into an Army of Workers – The New York Times – wants to remake them into loyal blue collar workers. Where this gets interesting is with China’s belt and road neighbours like Kazakhstan who have families that span the borders. China’s muslim minorities push has a wider impact in the region. There is likely to be careful consideration of what is going on with the muslim minorities by Mongolia and South Korea in particular. As they will be concerned with their ethnic brethren across the border.
‘Social Mentality’ Report Reveals Telling Trends in Happiness | Sixth Tone – Chinese people are fed up with what they perceive as a reckless lack of concern for their privacy. Over 90% of nearly 3,200 people surveyed last year said they were worried about third-party companies leaking their personal data, while just 10% said they were “very optimistic” when it came to trusting such companies
China’s impending Minsky moment | Financial Times – China’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio is more than 300 per cent and continues on a dangerously upward trajectory. The Chinese authorities are aware of the situation and the risks but they continually refrain from acting with the necessary force. They are concerned that actions to confront rising domestic debt will constrain economic growth. They are wrong in believing there will ever be a good time to curb financial excesses, as they fail to comprehend that delay now will make action in the future harder and costlier
Great video that explains Chinese boomers quite nicely
Volkswagen Beatle – after seven decades Volkswagen is finally saying goodbye to its most iconic vehicle. It seems the Beatle won’t make it into the electric future of Volkswagen.
Visual Futurist – Syd Mead
We lost visual futurist Syd Mead at the end of 2019. Mead was best known now as the stylist on Blade Runner, but had worked for a number of US corporates including Ford and US Steel. He’d also done work for NASA.
Even if you don’t know Mead, you’ve likely seen his work. Or the stuff influenced by his work.
My first reaction on hearing the news is that fate is cruel. Mead has left us, but in his place we have Elon Musk.
Animal thoughts
Ze Frank for Audible on animals thoughts for Christmas. Animal thoughts for Christmas reminds you of how alien our rituals must seem to our pets. The random associations that they will likely form with things like tinsel. The cat going on about tree torture is the best part of it. But the inner trips of cats on cat nip comes a close second.
Connected restaurant
Three Ireland have executed on an idea I investigated back in 2005 for Motorola. Back then it was a lot harder to get the bandwidth and screens to do it. We were also thinking on a bigger scale, connecting Trafalgar Square with public spaces around the world. Three Ireland made the venue more intimate. It was a lovely to see the creative wrapper that Three Ireland put around it that resonates with Irish households around the world.
Sesame Street
Sesame Street characters do impressions of each other. I know that some characters might be voiced by the same actors and wonder if that what was going on here. I am constantly amazed by the timelessness of the Sesame Street franchise.
China Inc. goes global. Transnational and national networks of China’s globalizing business elite: Review of International Political Economy: Vol 0, No 0 – The article finds substantial transnational linkages between the globalizing Chinese business elite and the corporate elite networks of Western globalized capitalism – through corporate affiliations and policy-planning affiliations. At the same time the analysis reveals the strong ties of the Chinese state-business elites to the party-state. Rather than presenting an outright threat to the liberal order and the corporate elite networks at its core, or indicating a co-optation scenario, the article finds evidence for a more hybrid scenario in which China as a corporate actor within the liberal world reveals its two faces: partially and pragmatically integrating and adapting to the liberal modes of networking, while simultaneously holding on to its distinctive state-directed capitalism and the (Party) direction this entails – China Inc. challenges the meaning of what the private sector means. Even private enterprises have a communist party cell who take direction from the state. This direction may be against their shareholders interests. Combine this with the lack of transparent audits for China Inc. companies with foreign listings and you have a toxic brew. More business related content here.
Impostor Syndrome from Luxury Consumption | Journal of Consumer Research – research proposes that luxury consumption can be a double-edged sword: while luxury consumption yields status benefits, it can also make consumers feel inauthentic, producing what we call the impostor syndrome from luxury consumption. As a result, paradoxically, luxury consumption may backfire and lead consumers to behave less confidently due to their undermined feelings of self-authenticity. Feelings of inauthenticity from luxury consumption may arise because consumers perceive luxury as an undue privilege. These feelings are less pronounced among consumers with high levels of chronic psychological entitlement, and they are reduced when consumers’ sense of entitlement is temporarily boosted. The effects are robust across studies conducted in the lab and in field settings such as the Metropolitan Opera, Martha’s Vineyard, a luxury shopping center, and the Upper East Side in New York, featuring relevant participant populations including luxury target segments and consumption contexts including consumers’ reflections on their actual past luxury purchase
How Much Are Cars Spying On Their Owners? – Slashdot – On a recent drive, a 2017 Chevrolet collected my precise location. It stored my phone’s ID and the people I called. It judged my acceleration and braking style, beaming back reports to its maker General Motors over an always-on Internet connection… Modern vehicles don’t just have one computer. There are multiple, interconnected brains that can generate up to 25 gigabytes of data per hour from sensors all over the car… Most hide what they’re collecting and sharing behind privacy policies written in the kind of language only a lawyer’s mother could love… The Tesla Model 3 can collect video snippets from the car’s many cameras. Coming next: face data, used to personalize the vehicle and track driver attention… Coming 5G cellular networks promise to link cars to the Internet with ultra-fast, ultra-high-capacity connections. As wireless connections get cheaper and data becomes more valuable, anything the car knows about you is fair game. GM’s view, echoed by many other automakers, is that we gave them permission for all of this… Five years ago, 20 automakers signed on to volunteer privacy standards, pledging to “provide customers with clear, meaningful information about the types of information collected and how it is used,” as well as “ways for customers to manage their data.” But when I called eight of the largest automakers, not even one offered a dashboard for customers to look at, download and control their data…. GM’s privacy policy, which the company says it will update before the end of 2019, says it may “use anonymized information or share it with third parties for any legitimate business purpose.” Such as whom? “The details of those third-party relationships are confidential,” said GM spokesman David Caldwell.
Catalyst and Cohesion – Worms and Viruses – If there is one word I would use to describe what makes an Apple-like experience, it’s “cohesion”. Any Apple enthusiast is aware of the company’s Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). The Macintosh has had one since 1984. iOS has had one since the launch of the App Store in 2008. Even WatchOS and tvOS have their own versions. Apple has had opinions about building cohesive user experiences for as long as Apple has been building user experiences – the context dependence of each platform is what makes ‘building once, running many places’ so hard for all but the simplest widgets
China’s $1.3tn global spending spree will collapse, says top US official | Financial Times – China’s international investments were “100 per cent” like a house of cards because of “debt overload, poor infrastructure, bribes [and] lack of transparency”. “Everything comes around, it’s only a matter of time. It was only a matter of time before WeWork came around, right?,” Mr Boehler said, referring to the distressed office rental start-up that unravelled this year. “We have to be there as an alternative because I could see China take down a whole bunch of emerging countries . . . there will be more and more cracks and then the glass will break,” he added – but who will be carrying the can for China Inc. if this happens?
Debenhams sparks fears as it seeks fresh rent cuts | Business | The Sunday Times – The retail chain is said to be targeting a further 25% reduction on about 20 stores in exchange for scrapping break clauses in the leases. The move has sparked panic among some property owners, who have sounded out rival Mike Ashley about taking on the sites when the break clauses become active
