Ged Carroll

Category: design | 設計 | 예술과 디자인 | デザイン

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:

  1. It is innovative
  2. It makes a product useful
  3. It is aesthetic
  4. It makes a product understandable
  5. It is unobtrusive
  6. It is honest
  7. It is long-lasting
  8. It is thorough down to the last detail
  9. It is environmentally-friendly – it can and must maintain its contribution towards protecting and sustaining the environment.
  10. 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.

  • Robots demoralise coworkers

    Faster Robots Demoralise Coworkers | Careers | Communications of the ACM – If you get the pace wrong would the effect of robots demoralise coworkers limit productivity? Is the future not robots augmenting coworkers, but replacing coworkers a more productive alternative. A Cornell-led team has found that when robots are beating humans in contests for cash prizes, people consider themselves less competent and expend slightly less effort—and they tend to dislike the robots – to be fair I’d expect to see something similar if the same person kept winning employee of the week. I know that workers on the line at Vauxhall in Ellesmere Port used to sabotage the robots on the line on a regular basis. This might phenomenon of robots demoralise coworkers be part of their motivation (along with laziness and malice)

    Flickr Cofounder Questions Tech’s Impact on Humans – WIRED – it’s easier to ask the big questions when you’ve made it and can reflect in the tech industry. These weren’t questions that we asked back in the day. More on Caterina Fake here.

    Marbridge Consulting – China’s February 2019 Domestic Handset Shipments Down 20% YoY – 14.51 mln mobile handsets were shipped in China in February 2019, down 19.9% YoY and 57.4% MoM, according to new figures released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a department of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The significant month-on-month drop can be explained in part by the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday towards the beginning of February. Of total shipments in February, 13.98 mln were 4G handsets, down 20.2% YoY, 37,000 were 3G handsets, and 0.49 mln were 2G handsets

    A Witch-Hunt on Instagram | Quilette – western PC culture seems to have more and more cases of it eating their own

    Aging Millennials Soothe Themselves With Childlike Fashions – WWD – to try and hang on to youth. The attenuation of youthfulness is a cross generational phenomenon. For instance middle aged dads the still buy streetwear rather than Superdry, skate and go to gigs.

    SXSW 2019: Virtual Cinema – JWT Intelligence – culture is still trying to adapt AR and VR. Whilst it has the energy of an early SIGGRAPH demo reel, I still think the storytelling aspect of things is struggling to find its legs

    Patrick Pruniaux: “There Truly is an E-commerce Potential for Horology” | Luxury Society – Kering haven’t been particularly good at using Ulysse Nardin as a brand in China, but they are rectifying it now. Kering are looking to tap into ‘new’ watch consumers who can’t spend Rolex money on a watch, this position now looks more tenable since Apple has stopped going for the luxury sector with the Apple Watch

    How to Create an Authentic Luxury Experience for Millennials | Jing Daily – if a luxury brand wants to entice today’s consumers, whether it’s in China or beyond, it needs to underscore its authenticity and relevancy. Powerful words, to be sure, but what does it mean to be authentic and relevant? For the moment, let’s start with the opposite. During many of my brand strategy sessions, I often hear the expression “they feel staged” when people describe brands that they would never buy. Needless to say, when brand feels staged, it is neither authentic nor relevant. The synonyms unnatural, deceived, cheated, and faked come to mind. In other words, a staged brand is bullshitt*ng their consumers.

    Louis Vuitton Has a Michael Jackson Problem | Intelligence | BoF – LVMH invested significantly in Virgil Abloh to elevate its menswear line. However, the potential failure of Abloh’s Michael Jackson-inspired collection—whether due to pulled items or lack of consumer interest—is unlikely to significantly impact Louis Vuitton’s overall revenue, as men’s ready-to-wear is a small part of their business. The real concern for Louis Vuitton is protecting its brand reputation, which remains strong unlike some competitors who have faced recent social media backlash. This is especially crucial now, as consumers are quick to criticize any perceived missteps.

    How What Goes Around Comes Around Is Attracting Millennials To Buy Vintage – US chain channels aesthetic of Japanese vintage shops

    You May Have Forgotten Foursquare, but It Didn’t Forget You | WIRED – interesting how Foursquare went from being useful (I use it as spatial bookmarking, so that I can return to new places that I like) to where 2.0 middleware with a bit of ad tech creepiness thrown in for good measure (paywall)

    Pinterest Files for an IPO: What Investors Need to Know | The Motley Fool – interesting for intent driven visual search if they can monetise it effectively on a global scale

    Great video of a Black Hat conference presentation on biometric identifiers.

  • Geothermal energy + more things

    Swedish technology could make geothermal energy as mainstream as wind and solar | Quartz – interesting because it deals with the lumpy supply issue of wind and solar in the energy mix. Geothermal energy is closer to the steady production of nuclear or coal fired power stations operated in an optimal manner. Although geothermal energy has been well understood for decades, a key problem has been keeping the fissures open that geothermal energy relies on to create steam.

    UK cash system ‘on the verge of collapse’, report finds | Money | The Guardian – putting the Queen on debit cards anyone?

    Rone artist takeover of hotel site | ABC – right strategic approach to build buzz but wrong vision

    Audi hasn’t forgotten about fuel cells – Roadshow – which makes a lot more infrastructure sense than electric charging due to energy density benefits

    Jibo Is Probably Totally Dead Now – IEEE Spectrum – The servers for Jibo the social robot are apparently shutting down. Multiple owners report that Jibo himself has been delivering the news: “Maybe someday when robots are way more advanced than today, and everyone has them in their homes, you can tell yours that I said hello.” – that’s probably the saddest thing I’ve heard in robotics since I learned about Sony Aibo Mk ! device owners having Shinto funerals for them when they gave up the ghost. It also shows the flaw in cloud connected consumer products

    Europe’s AI start-ups often do not use AI, study finds | Financial Times – Two-fifths of Europe’s artificial intelligence start-ups do not use any AI programs in their products, according to a report that highlights the hype around the technology. The research by London-based investment firm MMC Ventures could not find any evidence, based on public information and interviews with executives, of artificial intelligence applications at 40 per cent of 2,830 AI start-ups in Europe (paywall)

    The Aldi effect: how one discount supermarket transformed the way Britain shops | Business | The Guardian – The checkout assistants, who had been trained to memorise the price of every item in the store, were so fast that shoppers experienced what some would come to call “Aldi panic” – the fear that you cannot pack your goods quickly enough.

    Flickr dumps despised Yahoo login system – CNET – gosh when I remember how controversial the move to Yahoo! ID was for flickr users back in March 2007. It was a defining moment in the community and its obvious that grudge has continued to be held by old skool users

    Huawei Said to Be Preparing to Sue the U.S. Government – The New York Times – interesting move to try and get the US government to show its hand, on the other hand the US government can just go over case studies like T-Mobile and the African Union hacking as evidence

    Revealed: Facebook’s global lobbying against data privacy laws | Technology | The Guardian – Shock horror Facebook lobbyists aren’t just bag carriers but actually do their job

    Bollinger Motors: a Refreshingly Traditional 4×4 Company • Gear Patrol – While other manufacturers fetishize connectivity, Bollinger Motors plans to sever the digital connection. The B1 and B2 won’t offer autonomous capability. There are no current plans for a digital cloud infrastructure. The trucks will have manual windows and door locks. Driving a B1 or B2 won’t be a pure ascetic throwback. You’ll be able to connect your phone to the stereo. But, the goal is to offer an escape. That reads to me like a new definition of automotive luxury.

    UK unicorn Revolut is fighting back after its week from hell | Business Insider – I expect to see many more exposes like this

    Read Pornhub Launches Safe for Work Category that Features Videos without Nudity | Pornhub – interesting that PornHub is branching into SFW (suitable for work) content and that this move seems to be inspired by Starbucks putting a porn filter on its free wifi. Unfortunately Pornhub’s ad vendor Traffic Junky keeps showing NSFW material on the page and you have to wonder about brand safety with Pornhub relying on a creator submitted SFW tag which doesn’t police NSFW content within it. More media related content here.

  • Aeron chair + more things

    Why the Aeron Is Still the Most Coveted Seat in the Office | WIRED – love my Aeron chair. The Herman Miller Aeron was an icon during the dot com era. When Enron and at lot of internet startups went bust thousands came on the secondhand market. I picked up my own Aeron on the tail end of the dot com bust from a German reseller. More design related content here

    China’s social credit system shows its teeth, banning millions from taking flights, trains | South China Morning Post – Over 3.59 million Chinese enterprises were added to the official creditworthiness blacklist last year, banning them from a series of activities, including bidding on projects, accessing security markets, taking part in land auctions, issuing corporate bonds, according to the 2018 annual report released by the National Public Credit Information Centre.

    Return of the audio format wars and other money-making scams • The Register – I’d also put it down to dissatisfaction with Spotify et al

    Salesforce’s Marc Benioff speaks about sexual harassment and equal pay – Business Insider – this isn’t about being good but being smart – the value in the business would walk out the door otherwise

    China’s most popular app is a propaganda tool teaching Xi Jinping Thought | South China Morning Post – I wonder if it has been optimised for learning the content?

    AAAS: Machine learning ‘causing science crisis’ – BBC News – high propensity of bullshit results

    Spintronics by ‘straintronics’ | Electroniq – possibility of new hybrid ferro-magnetic semiconductor composite devices

    Amazon HQ2: Leaving New York proves all of Amazon’s critics right – Recode – interesting analysis of Amazon going beyond HQ2. Big tech can now expect a can of whoop-ass to come its way as the Amazon New York debacle showed its vulnerability. When Amazon threw in the towel on the New York City HQ2, it showed the rest of the world how to beat Silicon Valley (AMZN)

    Inside China’s crackdown on young Marxists | Financial Times – Interesting article that posits China’s governmental changes are due to potential societal disruption due to very high Gini score. The Gini score is a measure of inequality. With rising inequality goes potential questions around the Communist Party’s exclusive legitimacy. The 1989 protests where workers joined students came out of inflation, growing inequality, corruption and inflation. This year marks sensitive anniversaries – 30 years since 1989 and 100 years since the founding of the republic.

    China is worried that left leaning student activists will further inflame this. An academic research paper by Yuyu Chen et al at Peking University indicates social mobility fell in the post-Mao era of economic reforms to pre-civil war levels, as measured by the dependence of children’s educational attainment on their fathers’. The money quote: “China is now sufficiently capitalist to make Marxist categories perfectly suited to social analysis,” from Rebecca Karl, professor of Chinese history at New York University. – (paywall)

  • Pioneer Axe + more things

    Pioneer Axe was an old-time US manufacturing company. The company used skilled labour and machine tools to manufacture axes. The Pioneer Axe plant didn’t seem to have been invested in during the 20th century and globalisation was starting to make itself felt in light industrial areas. This documentary film about their manufacturing process was made just prior to the the business closing. I’m a sucker for these kind of films that show case processes. There is something poetic about them. The processes have likely evolved from an initial plan over time organically to enhance productivity.

    This is one of a series of ads done for RACV Pet Insurance in Australia. It’s the kind of work you’d be proud of doing. I love some of the customised rigs that the disabled dogs have been given to enable to keep being good dogs.

    Naomi Wu demonstrates a bin that heat seals its bags. At first I thought it was frivolous; but then thinking about the kind of summer we had last year I can understand the appeal to reduce smells and the opportunities for insects to take up home in your bin content. The bin is positioned as a smart device; but it isn’t really.

    Water Margin Podcast: Outlaws of the Marsh – my favourite general interest podcast to fill the gap after Cocaine and Rhinestones. It is a podcast that explains in relatable terms the Chinese classic. This makes a lot of sense as the number of characters starts to expand a lot.

    I ended up working out of Somerset House for some of this week and shot this Thameside time lapse video. It is amazing how much river traffic there is on the Thames in central London. Despite the congestion charge and outrageous parking charges, the car is still very popular. More London related content here.

  • One Small Step + more

    I had to start with this short film ‘One Small Step’ I saw that’s right up there with Pixar in terms of its storytelling and craft. One Small Step is an amazingly inspirational film. The space theme reminds me of the retro futurism of the Soviet bloc in terms of visual style. The characters have a lovely airbrushed feel to them. Keep an eye out for this director and animator in the future.

    I’ve been listening to this mix by Greg Wilson which contains his favourite edits and reworks from 2018. It is a beautiful set of tracks from a range of producers sympathetically rejuvenating classic tracks. It is more than ‘nu-disco’; Wilson imprints his usual eclectic style on the mix. More related posts here.

    If you’re doing anything in the international sphere on digital then bookmark this presentation: Digital 2019: Global Digital Overview — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights – I expect this will be in every strategists tool kit for creating client PowerPoint decks.

    Ken Block’s latest vehicle includes a huge intricate metal manifold made with additive manufacturing. Despite the voice over, this video about the manufacture of the manifold is very interesting. Ford engineers worked with  RWTH Aachen’s Digital Additive Production Institute, in Germany. Ford claims that it is the largest additive manufacturing metal part in a working vehicle. it is obvious that Ford is wondering how this could affect their manufacturing processes in the future, if parts can be created on demand.

    Cixin Liu’s short story The Wandering Earth has been adapted into a film that’s been released in China over the spring festival. The trailer looks immense but I don’t know if Liu’s work has been done justice through the film adaptation. Chinese cinema often manages spectacle but then fails on dialogue rather like George Lucas’ Star Wars scripts.