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.

  • The helmsman + more things

    Sailing the Seas Depends on The Helmsman

    Sailing The Seas Depends On The Helmsman – There has been a minor drama playing out amongst westerners who analyse China. A theatre group put on a performance in the symbolic heart of the Chinese Communist Party. Sailing The Seas Depends On The Helmsman – is a Cultural Revolution era song which eulogises Mao Zedong’s leadership.

    The Helmsman or Great Helmsman was one of the many labels Mao picked up as leader of China.  This series of concerts were seen as a celebration of the Cultural Revolution and elevated President Xi to a similar ‘cult of personality’ within China. Some considered it to be a subtle way to sabotage Mr Xi. Either way it took pull to allow the group to perform in the Great Hall of the People. The scale of the presentation was spectacular and it’s quite a catchy tune – as you can see in the video created by the South China Morning Post.

    Morgan special projects

    I am not the fan of car designs that I was as a child and have never been a fan of Morgans. But there is a lot to admire in Morgan Motor’s Special Project team. The video outlines the process they went through in building a bespoke car for a customer.  Ask pretty much any other car manufacturer to do this and the money would literally be astronomical.

    It is ironic in a day of 3D printing and CNC machines that they use old school techniques that my Dad would have learned as an apprentice to create a special one-off car. There is also an interesting mix of materials in the design and the marine plywood-based seats caught my eye.  The designer gave careful thought to how the car would age.

    Objective See

    Objective-See – handy ransomware blocker for OSX (macOS), ideal for these troubled times when 2/3rds of UK business have come under some form of a hack.

    Everyday objects

    A blogger who goes by the name of ‘The Electronic Mercenary’ has set up a great YouTube channel where they x-ray everyday objects or components for your enjoyment.

    Check it out.

    I don’t often have much time for Samsung, their product advertising usually lacks subtlety and creative chops – you are not charmed by their marketing. Instead you are bludgeoned into submission with a media plan that has more in common with a Katyusha rocket system than persuasion. Occasionally they do some stunning emotive corporate marketing, this is the latest example. Separated Korean families unite in heartfelt Samsung spot | Marketing Interactive

  • Twitter bars intelligence agencies + more

    Twitter Bars Intelligence Agencies From Using Analytics Service – WSJ – I don’t think that this will affect Twitter’s revenue that much. I also don’t think that Twitter bars intelligence agencies will restrict their access to information overall

    China white-box players leaving tablet market and pushing into new applications – focus instead on ‘two-in-one’ device, robots and VR goggles. Expect keener pricing due to competition

    Xiaomi seems kinda desperate for you to get excited about its big new phone – make or break time in China’s tough smartphone market for Xiaomi and its eco-system

    China Exports Stabilized in April Amid Weakness in Currency – Bloomberg – interesting variances in top line take aways from this. Reuters described exports and imports as ‘lower than expected’

    Calls for Reckitt Benckiser boycott in South Korea — FT.com – Korean consumers are forcing supermarkets to withdraw Reckitt Benckiser products from sale.Figures are hard to verify but it apparently due to a company product injuring about 180 women and small children. 103 of them were killed, the rest suffer from horrific lung damage. The active ingredient polyhexamethylene guanidine was found to cause severe lung damage. Kids with oxygen tanks are not what company investors want to see. Back in the UK, the CEO’s pay rise has made more news, the communications team dodged the proverbial bullet. More on FMCG related items here.

    5 latest changes to WeChat Public Accounts – WalktheChat – the ID changes will affect the way teams can effectively manage accounts if working in an agency

    Luxury brands embrace digital storefronts in China, but will they click with buyers? | South China Morning Post

    Getting Next-Gen Messaging based experiences — to work — UX/UI developments, advances and innovation — Medium

    Yahoo investor hits back at ‘patent troll’ critique of activist shareholder Starboard Value – patent trolling is repeatable revenue which is what the activist has

    After The Download: When Apple Turns Off The iTunes Store – When new formats race to the fore it is easy to make the mistake of taking an eye off the legacy formats. This is risky because they usually still account for very large portions of existing revenue

  • Chinese industrial decline + more

    Chinese industrial decline – It is hard to explain to people the diversity of China. If you’ve followed China as a subject area you’re used to discussions around tier one to six cities. We tend to buy into ‘Blade Runner’ China because its the tier one and two cities that you end up visiting. Its pretty much the same with the media. I really like this New York Times documentary that deals with the slowdown of heavy industry in Northern China and apparel manufacturing in Guangzhou province in the South.

    Chinese industrial decline in this documentary shows off it’s rust belt and left behind areas. This city’s mayor and is project is a microcosm of the efforts going on.

    China has been in a constant state of reinvention. I worked out of old electronics factories in Shenzhen that had been turned into offices and creative studios, with Shoreditch style retail attached. Whilst, Shenzhen is famous for manufacturing, the reality now is more complex. It has a thriving finance sector that China hopes will eclipse Hong Kong.

    Further up the Pearl river delta cities like Dongguan were industrialised by Hong Kong entrepreneurs and became crucial parts of the global fashion supply chain. Here too changes is happening, areas of Dongguan are being repurposed as tech campuses. Huawei built their ‘European theme park’ campus there. Of course, the unskilled workers get replaced. They move further inland along with some of the industry.

    Some of the industry, has moved abroad. China has become too expensive and onerous to deal with. In the North, heavy industry was built at break neck speed relatively close to coal fields, rather like the UK during the industrial revolution. During this go-go time China could use or export all the steel old. After the 2008 Olympics China started aiming for more sustainable growth and heroic efforts became surplus production.

    A Brazilian flavoured tune as a free download Oya’ Indebure feat. Laudir de Oliveira | DJ Nu-Mark. However, don’t mistake free, for low quality, this is an amazing tune. More on DJ Nu-Mark here.

    Maybe a team up with Scanner would have been more appropriate but liking Jean-Michel Jarre + Edward Snowden – ‘Exit’

    May the 4th aka Star Wars day saw geeks dominate the web, I did really like Japanese airline ANA’s rendition of the Star Wars theme purely from aircraft related found sounds

    TBWA in Amsterdam pulled together these clever DJ controller place mats for McDonalds. It shows how much is now possible with printed circuits. I love the combination of material smarts and  creativity.

  • Bots won’t replace apps + more

    Dan Grover | Bots won’t replace apps. Better apps will replace apps. – great analysis around conversational UIs and the designs of OTT messaging platforms from a a product manager at WeChat. The question I have is while bots won’t replace apps, will bots write better apps?

    Chinese Conglomerate LeEco Wants To Give Away Its ‘Tesla Killer’ Electric Supercar For Free – Slashdot – going directly into zipcar type offerings. One has to wonder how stable the business is. LeEco has business across a wide range of business interests. It is curious how it will get on and how it is funded. More China related posts here.

    Google Preps New Corporate Incubator — The Information – Google does Yahoo!’s Brockhouse model, even with Bradley Horowitz onboard again (paywall). It will be interesting to see where this takes Google. Historically innovations like Gmail, Orkut and Google Reader were invented within the business. Though a lot of Google’s advertising business came from outside the business or relied on intellectual property held by Yahoo!.

    Bangladesh Bank exposed to hackers by cheap switches, no firewall: police | Reuters – did not have a firewall and used second-hand, $10 switches to network computers connected to the SWIFT global payment network. Hacking is about being slow and methodical rather than being completely ‘elite’. This was quite shocking. I suspect this bank won’t be the only one with this kind of set-up.

    Business Forecasting & Planning Software | Quantrix – best spreadsheet ever. Interesting modelling capabilities, but I am skeptical of it being a cloud service.

    The top 100 most expensive keywords in the UK: new research | Search Engine Watch – I was expecting to see insurance and mortgages dominate. Previously insurance companies had over-paid for leads. Instead it was gambling, and financial instruments that are close to gambling as to be indistinguishable, big data related technology and legal representation for compensation claims.

  • WeChat payments + more things

    WeChat payments and wallet function brought to the international version of WeChat with its last version update, but I only noticed it this week. Does this mean that WeChat is now putting all the pieces in place before they get serious about an international market push? They are already trying to get foreign credit card merchants on board accepting WeChat payments to  provide extra convenience for Chinese consumers travelling abroad.
    WeChat wallet now for louwai
    TfL brought back its experiment for having people stand on both sides of the escalators. For those of us who live in London this is quite a change to our usual routine. We are used to standing on the right or moving along the escalator on the left. It caught me out the first time that I visited London.

    But TfL research found that you net out moving people more efficiently by encouraging everyone to stand. This allows a ‘denser’ escalator and better times clearing people off platforms.
    Stand on both sides - people living outside London won't realise what a paradigm shift this is
    A comparable shift would be say, New Yorkers suddenly becoming unfailingly polite and accommodating. I do quite like the ‘blue pill’ footprints that TfL use for signage on the escalators.

    Japanese producer TOYOMU reimagined Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo based on reviews and a list of the samples used. Japan hasn’t embraced streaming music unlike western lemmings music buyers. I think what he came up with is far better, see for yourself.

    Forthcoming Russian superhero film Guardians looks even more intense than the Night Watch and Day Watch films. Apparently the bear packs a chain cannon a la Jesse Venture in Predator.

    Luxxury releases Greg Wilson remixes of the their track on yellow vinyl, have a preview of it here. I am a huge fan of Luxxury and the lush nu-disco products that he manages to come up with.  More Luxxury sounds here.