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.

  • Frankfurt + more things

    I spent a good bit of time in Frankfurt this week, working with one of our clients on demystifying analytics and trying to put in frameworks out which they could get actionable insights. Being in Frankfurt was more exciting than the previous sentence makes it sound and great to meet people in person that I had only dealt with by phone or email.

    Untitled

    Japan-ized Cities: Surrealistic “Worldwide Tokyo-lization Project” – it gives you a good idea of how information-rich the urban landscapes of Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo are in comparison. More on Japan related issues here.

    I love this video: Salute – Storm

    Clint and Scott Eastwood: No Holds Barred in Their First Interview Together | Esquire – Clint Eastwood’s interview split people along political lines, but the sense you get of him not being beholden to anyone is something to admire.

    Eastwood is probably the last generation to really think about physical expansion. California didn’t really come into its own until a post war migration to it as GIs demobbed. In some ways he is a connection to the cowboys that he ended up portraying in the southern Spanish deserts of Almería, villages in Sardinia or just outside Rome.

    The Designers Republic Remembered – Creative Review – TDR didn’t necessarily do great graphic design, in reality it was more like art. As art, I think that their work ranks highly. It is hard to imagine the cultural impact that TDR had on UK design through to the early 2000s. You saw it in night club flyers, record sleeves, merchandise, video and web 1.0 design.

  • The QRcode post

    A few years ago, I was involved in a project that used a QRcode across OOH (out of home) activity for a retail launch. We had it on advertising hoardings and on the back of public transport.  QRcode scanners varied in performance. In addition you had to think about:

    • Contrast – did the code stand out?
    • Relative aspect – would it be too big or too small for the audience to scan?

    In the UK, the QRcode is seen by marketers as old hat (but then marketers and consumers in Europe didn’t ‘get’ them in the same way that their peers in Asia did). Many people don’t really understand how to use them.

    Early adopters downloaded QRcode readers. But now, due to the uptake in Asian usage we will see QRcode reader function build into the phone operating system instead.
    QRcode 101
    Above is the picture of the local cafe around the corner from my office. The QRcode contrast is just ok, but the glyph is too disjointed. I am not too sure if this is by design, or due to a poorly maintained inkjet printer.  The image is too blurred for devices to read. I asked a member of staff about it and he told me that he thought it was some type of logo…

    More on QRcodes here.

  • Amerigo Gazaway + more

    Amerigo Gazaway

    A great summer soundtrack by Amerigo Gazaway who do some of the best blends of hip-hop with soul. More on Amerigo Gazaway here. Amerigo Gazaway has produced some amazing hip-hop versus soul and blues mashups including the likes of Marvin Gaye and BB King. 

    Unsafe At Any Speed

    I got this crash test video from an old college friend who had studied industrial design. The crash test of a modern car versus a 1959 model tells you a lot about how safety and design has come on in leaps and bounds.

    The massive improvements in car safety design depends a lot on owes a lot to Ralph Nader’s Unsafe At Any Speed. In his book Nader posited that cars were deliberately designed to be unsafe. I don’t think that it was the result of intentional design decisions, I just think that it didn’t explicitly put safety on the design brief.  

    I find it fascinating how the kinetic energy of the crash ripples through the Bel Air as if the car was a jelly mould as the metal and glass explodes to get out of the way of the Malibu. It’s also sad to see a car that has survived more than 50 years go out in a display of wanton destruction. More on design here.

    Unlimited Future by W&K for Nike

    Weiden & Kennedy for Nike came up with the Unlimited Future campaign. Nike opponents pointed out that it could be construed as a reference to their sweat shop factories. Either way you don’t see other sports apparel brands doing powerful brand anthems like this

    Manhole covers

    Pirate Printers: Shirts and Totes Printed Directly on Urban Utility Covers | Colossal – just waiting for a Stanton Warrior t-shirt or using city and prefecture customised Japanese manhole covers

    Marlene Dietrich as you’ve never seen her before

    US public broadcaster has been bringing some of its vintage interviews to life like this video featuring Marlene Dietrich

  • Benetton – new positioning

    Benetton was, from my personal perspective, a photo-streetwear brand of the 1980s and early 1990s. It had a particular European look.

    This was back when European tennis wear like Lacoste and Australian by L’Alpina were exotic. The Pet Shop Boys were singing about the Paninara sub culture that was obsessed with designer clothing and American movie style. Benetton made highly branded t-shirts and rugby shirts, but it was best known for its knitwear. It was a family run business that pioneered the use of technology to automate clothing manufacturing in the face of globalisation.

    At that time, thanks to Fiat adverts about its production line for the Fiat Strada, Italy was considered in the UK to be a highly sophisticated manufacturing power. There was a clear contrast with the striking British Leyland factory workers. Of course, the Fiats still rusted like their predecessor cars.

    Being a family business Benetton was also able to do a famous series of adverts that provided progressive social commentary through shock tactics.
    Benetton new positioning
    It’s new positioning is a marked move away from this heritage. It’s ‘Clothes for Humans’ tag line moves the brand towards the everyday – almost norm core in its message. It positions the brands as clothes for everyone – more Uniqlo or Gap than designer wear.

    More on streetwear here.

  • MasterCard logo + more

    MasterCard logo redesign struck a nice balance between  change and heritage. Wired magazine has more details on the MasterCard logo redesign and how it has changed or evolved over the years. More on branding related stories here.

    Snoop Dogg on a US game show via Zak Agency’s ‘cool sh*t‘ email newsletter. Legendary undersells the Doggfather.

    Masaaki Hiroi’s wooden toys look amazing. They are a great example of how Japanese artisan crafts continue to manage remaining relevant.

    Our Iain switched me on to Snoring (music to sleep by) from IGLOOGHOST. Which makes a lot of sense given the amount of focus on mindfulness and white noise generators in smartphone app stores.

    I went to see The Avalanches play their new album at Oval Space back in June and there were a number of people in the audience ignorant of their process and exceptionally vocal on social media.


    I honestly don’t know what they were expecting – Led Zeppelin type stage antics? They didn’t realise that The Avalanches are producers and turntablists. I guess this is what we get when people only know their music through their favourite playlists on Spotify rather than being able to read album notes.

    This was in advance of their new album drop Wildflower. The album is tremendous; Wildflower has been on heavy rotation in/on my iPod. It moves on from the ethereal quality that their first album had to something more confident in nature. Buy it, gift it to friends and relatives.

    The folks at who sampled put together this great run through of where all the pieces came from. Given The Avalanche’s creative process, this is a long but very worthwhile video walk through the Wildflower album.