ThoughtSpurs

"…I learned more and I learned faster by listening to the voices of the quilters on eBay. I got trained in the features to look for, what quilters consider boast worthy, and what other bidders thought was worth plunking their money down for. This was unsytematic and uncertified knowledge, but because it came wrapped in a human voice, it was richer and in some ways more reliable: the lively plurality of voices can and should outweigh the stentorian voice of experts." David Weinberger - Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web . Compared to Andrew Keen's book The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture and Assaulting Our Economy David Weinberger's is far better considered and reasonable. If you have even a passing interest in how the Internet is shaping your life (whether you know it or not) I recommend it to you. Unlike the pesimistic view of the The Cult , Small Pieces has more positive scope: "…although we don...

Designers hold the keys to the future. At Massey University (where I teach) there is a brilliant transport design department. They are strong in marine design. That makes sense. There is a great deal of demand for New Zealand maritime products. We are probably the best in the world in many facets of this category. What I struggle with is seeing kids learning how to render 'super cars' i.e. v12, v8 2 litre plus cars. Guys. Get your head around sustainability. I want to see much more emphasis on materials, motives (power and intention) . Saw this on the web - The Aptera Hybrid/Electric I like that it is a low cost solution When you think of solutions for these issues I want you to think about the lowest cost for manufacture and consumption. I want you also to think about the lowest cost to the place we all live. Micro economics is the job of designers. The job of creators is to enhance the quality of life - not to destroy it, Please.

Hey, it's the weekend. Relax. Take your fish for a walk. A new product for the aptly titled Geekologie blog. I used to keep fish in a cookie jar on my desk. Nothing in the jar except two goldfish and kermit green stones in the bottom. It suited my slightly affected 'creative' schtick. I switched them from their cosy, if stark (in a Corbusier kind of way) jar to a more baroque, retro candy dispensor. The silicon sealed plug I made to keep it watertight (normally the candy dispensed from the bottom)proved less than reliable. Fed em up for the long weekend. Teknikos promlematikos. Leak. Not good. Worse for the fish. So I'm sensitive to the mistreatment of goldfish. It's a guilt thing. Is there a statute of limitations at the SPCA?

I like this. Kind of nutty. But a fun way to mark time. (Sorry I had to switch the music off - it was bonkers after a while).

I've randomly encountered David Byrne before - he was hanging an exhibition of his photographs at a gallery in London in the mid 90s. The show hadn't opened. I was lugging a portfolio around doing the rounds of ad agencies in London and had some down time. Byrne was relaxed and friendly and was happy for me to look around. His blog makes for interesting reading. He articulates his views on culture - from his first hand experience of it. I enjoy reading his comments on strangely mundane experiences - like riding his bicycle to 42nd Street in New York to catch a screening of Transformers the movie. It reminds me of his movie True Stories - a curiously good natured flash of post-modernism that introduced the term sesquicentennial into the vernacular consciousness. I especially enjoyed his observations after visiting the Philip Johnson Glass House in Connecticut. Worth a look. I've added it to my RSS reader and the permanent list on your right. Link via Bad Banana

Interesting article on the Fast Company magazine website - an interview with Phillipe Starck by Linda Tischler. Do you have a formula for creativity? Every morning, take royal jelly and omega-3 oil, eat oysters, and have a good sexual life. Don't care about anything, and never listen to anybody. Be free. Works for me.

I saw a headline on a blog post over on BrandDNA : What do you do? And while his tale of a successful client meeting with three 'suits' didn't spell it out - I am pretty sure the headline refers to a story about Steve Jobs, head of Apple computer (back in the days when it was Apple Computer and he was its head - the forst time). I thought the story was told in the wonderful book Chiat Day - the first 20 years. But I have scanned its pages and can't find it. Maybe it's apocryphal. I'll tell it to you from memory… Young Steve Jobs is being given a tour of his new ad agency's offices in California. He is introduced to the staff and shows an interest in their roles and what they will be doing for his account. He meets a number of the creative staff and says to each: "So,…what do you do?". Copywriters explain their work; collaborating with art directors to come up with ideas for campaigns and executions for ads, then crafting the copy. Likewise with ar...