Ged Carroll

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  • Stussy Bearbrick

    Shawn Stussy just threw down on a Stussy Bearbrick. Admitted the Stussy Bearbrick looks pretty lame. Imagine if you set up your own company and you named after yourself because you signed all your work. Over time your signature became the most valuable design asset of the company. Over time you decide that you want to take some of your hard earned cash, take time out and do the stuff that you actually enjoy. You leave your business, having been bought out.

    However, you then have the problem of seeing your name plastered over absolute tat.

    taking your name in vain

    Welcome to Shawn Stussy’s world. They guy invented streetwear as we know it. He mixed American classics like the oxford cotton button down, denim and t-shirts together. On top of that he added American workwear beloved of surfers.  Shawn also got Japan and what they could bring to the table back when everyone else was just thinking about Sony.

    And then the copy and paste aspects of punk culture. There is a reason why Stussy designs come off like old school fanzines. They both come from a common cultural route. The backward SS was a homage to Chanel. The repeating pattern a nod to the luxury brands from Gucci and Louis Vuitton to MCM.

    Supreme, Palace, Neighborhood, Off-White all are following in his footsteps.

    I am a big Stussy fan and it is a rare season where I don’t buy something from their collection. It is hard to keep banging out new streetwear, season after season, even when you’re delving into an archive like Stussy has.  But some of the stuff ends up being pretty ropey and I sympathise with Shawn Stussy’s predicament. Which is why I look forward to seeing what his long-awaited new venture S-Double Studios will come out of the trap with. More on luxury here.

  • Bomb, Book and Compass: Joseph Needham and The Great Secret of China by Simon Winchester

    Bomb, Book and Compass

    Simon Winchester’s Bomb, Book and Compass delves into the history of science and innovation. The old adage of the victor writing history applies not only to wars but also the history of innovation and science. Everything you were taught in school about the history of science is likely to be wrong. It usually having a European focus; from the Greeks and Romans to the Italian-based renaissance via the wisdom preserved within the monasteries of Europe during the dark and early medieval ages.

    Book, the book and the compass

    The Chinese, in comparison, were seen as inscrutable and cunning rather like the Fu Manchu character of Sax Rohmer’s novels but less sophisticated than their European counterparts. This diacotomy helped assuage the consciences of empire-builders who had designs on the riches of the Chinese market, from bringing away silk and porcelain to finding a ready market for Indian-grown opium and laying the foundations for the modern-day heroin trade.

    Up until the European’s arrived China was the world’s largest manufacturer, counting for about 30 per cent of the economic activity by value in the world. This time of weakness is what the Chinese refer to as the century of shame, which was finally laid to rest when they claimed back Macau in 1999.

    Joseph Needham

    Bomb, Book & Compass is the story of Cambridge biochemistry professor Joseph Needham and his quest to find the real truth behind the history of science and China’s role within it, he did this during the chaos of the second world war, when he had the chance to get at the documentary evidence.

    He then spent the rest of his life curating and writing material for a vast series of books Science and Civilisation in China. These books were not only a historical record that put China closer to the centre stage position that they deserved in science, but also put the country on a more even standing with the ‘civilised world’ restoring or enhancing its reputation. In some respects Needham’s work could be considered to be the largest unpaid (in that China didn’t pay for it) corporate reputation campaign in the annals of public relations.

    Bomb, Book & Compass is a compelling read, by turns adventure, travelogue and political intrigue. I would recommend it, if nothing else for the very human portrait it paints of Joseph Needham as a man of great intellect and passion, but also a man with some very human failings. More book reviews here.

  • Heirloom Design

    Saul Griffith in a presentation he gave as part of the Long Now Foundation talked about the environmental impact of our stuff. The possessions that we own make up about a quarter of our lifetime carbon footprint. The way to reduce this is to have stuff that lasts longer, and that we want to keep longer. From this came the idea of heirloom design.

    IMGP0699.JPG

    It isn’t new, Sotherby’s and Christies have made very good businesses selling old stuff, Patek Phillipe talks in advertisements as the watch-owner not actually being the owner but the custodian to pass the timepiece on to the next generation and Rolex has an excellent reputation for taking lifelong care of watches it sells.

    1.JPG

    So its a new framing of an old idea, it has been adopted by some eco-conscious businesses such as Howie’s Hand-Me-Down range: a set of bags and a jacket that are so well made and so durable that you want to keep them for their natural life. The examples that are given are a Montblanc pen and a Rolex watch; both of which require considerable upfront investment as well.

    Dieter Rams

    However design also has a case to play in this: look at the prices on eBay for a genuine Charles Eames recliner, or any of Braun’s consumer electronics offerings; classic cars fetch a far higher premium than their newer, more sophisticated cousins because of their styling.

    A second factor comes into heirloom design: design for servicing. Pretty much every part on my Technics turntables are replaceable, contrast this with the Denon DVD player I had which I had spent similar money on, yet the manufacturers couldn’t repair as they didn’t have the parts; or my Nokia E90 communicator which would have cost more to repair than two new Nokia E-series phones. Nokia’s Vertu phone range with their over-engineered cases and dealer-replaceable future proof guts may be the way forward.

    The personally most ironic thing for me is that my Dad has bemoaned the quality with which things have been made for the past 30 years and is a staunch believer in progress through industry may finally have something to agree with the environmentalists on.

    A number of brands practice heirloom design already but don’t shout about it:

    Suggestions from a quick poll I did on Twitter included

    • Bialetti with their user serviceable coffee pots
    • Caterpillar
    • Timberland
    • BMW – they certainly have the service network and they have built up a reputation for having a good build quality
    • Kenwood – the shortwave radio and communications manufacturers
    • TAG (presume they meant TAG Heuer) – not too sure that I would agree with this one, or some others suggested such as Apple, Panasonic and Sony; at least in their consumer goods especially with Panasonic doing away with the 1200 series of turntables
    • DEWALT
    • Dyson
    • Le Creuset
    • Mag Instrument Inc. (Maglite torches)
    • The North Face
    • Stanley Hand Tools
    • Aga
    • Herman Miller – particularly the Aeron chair
    • Cyrus Audio
    • Stokke prams, car seats and other stuff for early childhood
    • Tumi luggage

    Kudos in no particular order to Ruby Quince, Ana Mangahas, Becky McMichael, Stephen Holmes, Tom Wynne-Morgan, Robin Clark and Abigail Harrison for their heirloom design suggestions.

    Which brands do you think represent great heirloom design? Feel free to leave a comment. More design related posts here.

  • Black precious resin & Montblanc

    I had a short haul flight and went over the duty free catalogue on Swiss Airlines. This section on Montblanc pens stuck out at me because of its wording. Each pen was described as being made of ‘black precious resin’. Click on the image if you want to see a larger version.

    Precious Resin Montblanc spiel

    So what does black precious resin actually mean? One would presume some form of black shiny plastic, which doesn’t seem quite so precious. Now the use of plastic isn’t a bad thing in pen manufacture. For instance fellow German writing instrument manufacturers Pelikan and Kaweco both make writing instruments out of plastic, but they also don’t charge over 300 pounds for a ballpoint pen.

    Plastic feels thoroughly modern. It defined the post-war world and accelerated further with globalisation. Black precious resin isn’t particularly rare in itself like ebony wood or precious metals. 

    What the black precious resin explanation misses is the real elements at the heart of Montblanc’s authenticity:

    • History: Montblanc is actually over a century old as a firm
    • Country brand: It’s pens are still made in Germany, so it can take advantage of the German country brand: precision manufacturing excellence and craftsmanship
    • Craftsmanship: making a pen write smoothly is an art, too much ink and you will get splodges. A badly designed nib or ballpoint mechanism will scratch the paper, deliver the ink unevenly and even stain the writer
    • Design: One of the reasons why Montblanc managed to upset A.T. Cross in the market for luxury pens because their pen design feels much better in the hand because of its fuller barrel size

    But none of these factors are reflected in the description of the Montblanc pens featured in the duty-free catalogue, instead we get smoke-and-mirrors which engenders distrust and makes for an authenticity FAIL.

  • The digital economy bill

    I recently wrote a guest blog post with my colleague Nick Osborne for progressive (Nick tells me that means left-of-centre, politically speaking) blog Left Foot Forward: The Digital Economy Bill is legislatively flawed.

    digital economy bill

    Nick was particularly concerned about inconsistencies in the legislation and constitutional issues. I thought about different issues regarding media economics and technological progress, so I thought I would share my thinking with the notes I made before I contributed to the post. Enjoy.

    And here’s the copy that we submitted:

    Left Foot Forward published an article last week, Unravelling the Digital Economy Bill, but the fact is that the legislation is flawed. We say this for a number of reasons but the most concerning is the Secondary Legislation included within the Bill.

    Without getting into the details of Parliamentary legislative rules, this Bill will give the power to Lord Mandelson, or any future Secretary of State whose remit includes this legislation, to introduce new laws, without extensive Parliamentary scrutiny.

    Apparently, Lord Mandelson has also written to the Leader of the House, Harriet Harman MP, to amend the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, also, most likely through secondary legislation. This is all part of the Government’s crack-down on media piracy.

    However, the Guardian has been reporting the potential for this Bill to open the door for the Tories to help Rupert Murdoch and stop news aggregators such as Google publishing any NewsCorp or News International owned news, which would be a dangerous precedent and a concerning outcome for everyone – including bloggers such as ourselves.

    Attempts by Murdoch to pair with Microsoft to block out Google seem to be underway if the Dow Jones Newswire is accurate. This potential lack of consultation, scrutiny and openness is concerning in any Bill, however in a medium and industry that is as fluid as the digital and online sector, there is large potential for this legislation to have some very damaging effects.

    Whilst these controversial legislative methods are apparently designed to future-proof the bill technologically, it also raises a few questions about the government’s vision of the future. Moore’s Law talks about the number of transistors on a given piece of silicon doubling every 18 months; this is the reason why computers and networks have sped up and why storage on mobile phones have increased over the years.

    It is also the reason why the minimum standards for future broadband aim way too low. With Moore’s Law in mind, it is important to look at the actual technological advances being triumphed in this Bill. The UK government had a chance to spur innovation and be visionary like it did with the motorway system in the 1950s, instead we will have set a miserably low benchmark.

    The UK is relatively densely populated, yet Australia under the leadership of Kevin Rudd has set access speeds of 100MBps for 90 per cent of homes. Hong Kong residents already enjoy 100Mbps broadband and similar speeds are available in Japan and South Korea. Simply put, the digital economy won’t be able to grow under these circumstances.

    Furthermore, there is no reference to the digital tax, a necessary evil, to pay for these upgrades. Although it has been stated that it will be in the Finance Bill which will be outlined in the near future, what happens if this Bill doesn’t get through prior to the election and the Finance Bill does? Where is this money supposed to go?

    The next concern is the “three strikes and you’re out” policy, which opens up a whole new area of discussion. Every home will be sent three warning letters every time their ISP finds them downloading illegal content. Users can have their accounts blocked or fined, as can ISPs who do not comply, despite the fact that the ISPA has said most of the Bill will be unworkable and costly.

    Ironically, there is some research to indicate that piracy is closer to trialling, like a test drive at a car dealership and plays an active role in word-of-mouthmarketing boosting media content sales.

    The Bill tries to protect the media industries against digital innovation. Yet this is as misguided as the nationalisation of failing businesses in the UK up to the late 1970s. Much of the media industries’ problems are due to chronic mismanagement.

    Looking at newspapers firstly, they have little to differentiate themselves, like British Leyland of old they produce the type of content no one wants to buy and have historically been making cuts in all the wrong places of their businesses. An analysis found that newspapers were spending 70 per cent of their money in areas that were not value-creating.

    The music industry’s issues extend back way before the internet and have been well documented by the industry insiders like Simon Napier-Bell. In fact it was only the rise of the CD and back catalogue sales of older artists which helped it grow meaningfully throughout the 80s and early 90s.

    Music labels have a fundamental lack of understanding of online economics, in a time when they should be looking how they can rationalise processes and sign increased rosters to take account of the ‘long tail’ of consumer demand they have reduced artist rosters. They cease to add value for established artists who instead have gone for ‘360’ deals with events companies which provide them with more money.

    So basically, there are a lot of holes in this Bill. It could all be moot as it may not even get through prior to the election, but there is no doubt that it needs many more amendments before it creates anything truly useful. Hopefully, the secondary legislation will be used to make these improvements, because if this Bill is sped through without proper consultation, the digital economy may take a long time to recover. More related content here.