When Design Ruled...No focus groups...No marketing teams!

The other day, I was at the post office and saw a dapper gray-haired gentlemen get into the most exquisitely restored gray Lincoln Continental from the early 40's. Personally designed by T. 'Bob' Gregorie for Edsel Ford, this elegant model is a true icon of automotive design. I am certainly not a car person, but I know an icon when I see one and this car was such a thing of beauty that I felt compelled to yell out a compliment to a complete stranger. (Find more pictures of these beauties at HubcapCafe.)

As I look around me, every other car looks the same in that generic sort of way. How did car companies get to this place? Is it possible that marketing teams and focus groups are the culprits? Catering to the lowest common denominator is BORING and sales of today's BORING cars reflect that fact.

Art Inspires

There are days that our involvement with product development seems so mundane and we need a fix of inspiration. Art often offers that fix, especially when an artist, like Jennifer Maestre creates such exquisite beauty from a mundane manufactured product - the colored pencil.

It is the subtle details that make the difference. Manufactured products too, can be more than just ordinary.

Housing idea whose time has come

I grew up next to, what we then called a "nasty run-down rental" with a family living there that called their only son "Brother," the house was easy to ignore because it sat on a large piece of property with gorgeous old growth trees. The owner left the property to his daughter, and to our delight, she immediately restored the house to the charm of its origins - a Sears catalog bungalow. Today, beautifully landscaped, this house makes a good neighbor. My parents are ever hopeful that someone doesn't come along and tear it down to build a McMansion. (For more inspiration see a collection of the original plans from the Sears Catalog of houses at About.com on architecture.)

Bill Valentine of HOK, whose article Voluntary Simplicity: Making Smaller Better, I mentioned in November 07 is finally getting his wished-for form of housing. An article in the Wall Street Journal introduced developers Ross Chapin and Jim Soules from the Seattle area to the entire country in an article:The Newest Cottage Industry. They have been building boutique neighborhoods of a dozen of so Craftsman Style cottages ranging in size from 800-1,500 sf, about half the size of typical new homes. The cottages are built around a communal courtyard and are not cheap, they sell in the $600,000 range. The houses are well designed for optimal living in small spaces, for example, interior walls have been replaced with floor to ceiling bookshelves. It is nice to hear that the Bungalow aesthetic is finally making a comeback when sustainability is on the tip of everyone's tongue!

Designer as Therapist

More than a decade ago, I put together a series of special home furnishings inserts for a regional weekly newspaper called the TAB. Having never worked in publishing, I found the general atmosphere there much more poisonous than any other work environment that I had ever seen or experienced. Judging by what I was being paid, the pay scale must have been abysmal - what made it bearable for me was the positively delightful editor that I worked for. Coming off of a self-designed sabbatical, I had made a commitment to myself to try new and "fun" stuff and this gig - I thought - fit the description.

What jogged this memory for me was Home Is Where the Head in today's "New York Times Home and Garden" section. "Architects complain that they are asked to behave more like mental health professionals than designers, clients complain that their architects and their mates do not understand them, and the stories of couples coming asunder, or of clients suing their architects, are legion." Christopher K. Travis, an architectural designer in Texas has found a solution: "an exhaustive psychological and aesthetic compatibility exercise for would-be home builders that is part New Age self-help manual, part personality test."

I looked on my time at the TAB as a learning experience. What I learned is that the most successful residential designers had first been in some form of counseling - art therapist, sex therapist, sociology and even teaching. I finally came to understand why my initial forays into residential design had come to naught - I never found that counseling connection. In hindsight, a lesson learned - I finally understood why I found business much more interesting! (I also learned the few companies that were getting their money's worth from their p.r. agencies. I found small boutique agencies were happy to be helpful to a novice working with a circulation of 600.000, while larger agencies failed to follow up because they were busy putting out boilerplate releases. I am often curious whether anything has changed in the ensuing decade+.)

The "New York Times" story reinforces the importance of the psychological connection that we all have to our homes for those in the business of making and marketing products for the home.

Disney Innoventions Dream Home goes retrograde

David Rakoff puts it so well in his piece on Disney's new Innoventions Dream Home in the NY Times:
"...Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts styles, all wood, warm earth tones and nailed-down knickknacks — a mildly hopeful and unthreatening place. One like today, only better. The future, such as it is, is hidden in the wiring behind the walls."

Yes, the new "idea house" is aspirational only in the McMansion sense, but the optimism of the 1957 "Future House" is missing. The images of the "Innovations Dream Home" have an insular bunker mentality about them. The company appears to be stuck in their successful past, rather than shooting for the stars in the idea world, as Walt Disney would have done.

Disney House of the future...very "Twilight Zone"

It is interesting to contrast this 1957 version of Disney's "House of the Future" with today's. Product placement is certainly not a new idea.

ROOM (Happenings in the box)

Is anyone living in this box? Life informs art and art informs life. An interesting take on the impermanence of materials.

Newly revived Wright Palette

When I purchased my 1890's Victorian house, the interior colors were comfortable and tasteful, if not exactly to my liking. I knew that the colors were not Victorian, but couldn't quite figure out their provenance until I toured Wright's Unity Temple in Oak Park. There was the palette that the previous owners had used throughout the house.

Suitable for today's organic aesthetic, Pittsburgh Paints has introduced a palette of Wright colors - the Fallingwater Inspired Colors. These colors have the same spirit that is present in Oak Park, with the inspiration that Wright found in the central Pennsylvania mountains. The colors have been authenticated by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, the caretakers for Fallingwater. The area and house are well worth a weekend adventure.

Time Travel with "Classic Ad Watch"

As boomers approach retirement, marketers are asking: who are they and what do they want to buy today? Humans prefer the exciting and novel with a touch of the familiar. A good place to begin to get in touch with boomers psyche is on the jalopnik.com website - there you can watch the top 10 car ads of the 60's, 70's and 80's. The narratives, images, music and voice-overs truly allow you to travel back in time.

Germaine Kruip's "Counter Composition"

Germaine Kruip's kinetic art at the Armory in 2007.

Minimalism Lives On

The New York Times weights in on the new Jil Sander store in SOHO..."not a bag, shoe, or double-faced cashmere coat in sight," with an aptly titled article: It’s About...Nothing. Despite several changes in ownership, the new creative director Raf Simmons continues to respect Jil Sander's spirit of minimalism in his approach to both fashion and interior design. He collaborated with Germaine Kruip, a Dutch artist who works with space and light to create the interior of the new store. Although Sander stores have always been spare, it remains to be seen how long the space will show simply nothing.

Creatives grow better in the South West

The secrets of creativity are exposed.

Devolution to the Lowbrow

The illusion of a carefree life, childhood, living off the grid, traveling the open road, the idea of having no encumbrances - these are the new fantasies.

Recently, Trader Joe’s was serving PBJ’s at their sampling counter (Peanut, Butter and Jelly sandwiches - a childhood favorite for generations of American kids.) A “crunchy granola” head sporting a bicycle helmet in the store - trying to be “cool” said, “Oh, that is so low class, but I guess it is Trader Joe‘s peanut butter.” Actually being a granola-head is - so yesterday and she missed the whole point. Trader Joe’s has become a cult classic and has become one of America's highest grossing retail store with virtually no advertising by being on target with the zeitgeist. The next week they were serving grilled cheese sandwiches – they understand the “tastes” of the future well.

Goat cheese and brie are so yesterday, luxury items are appropriating the gritty tastes and visual language of the lowbrow cultures to the extreme – pbj’s, comics, the ghetto, old waterfronts, and decaying manufacturing sites – the unseen and disappearing places in first world cultures.

• Hoodie’s have gone from gangs camouflage to chairs.
• Cheap plastic flowers adorn the bicycle of a “street” lady in New York, then inexplicably and simultaneously they appear in a chic boutique window in the Meatpacking district and covering the façade of the Copper-Hewitt- what was once the premier design museum in the US. This begs the question: “Is the Cooper-Hewitt loosing it or are they just trend forward?” Their facade trimming is certainly not nearly as sophisticated as the Torte Boontje florals seen recently at Christmas in all the “Targee” stores.
• If you channel surf at all in the American media market, you will eventually see the laborers taking apart decaying ships in the ports off Bangladesh. Is this where the Dornbracht designers (subliminally) got their ideas? Rust and decay finishes are increasingly seen in interiors.
• McDonald’ and other corporate logo colors are becoming so ubiquitous that people now comfortably wear these color even when not working there.
  

Words to live by

"Life is pretty simple: You try something. Usually it fails. Sometimes it works. If it works well, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is to keep trying something else." Leonardo Da Vinci

Color Inspiration from your favorite image realized

Before beginning work with a new client, every design professional recommends that the client create a file folder of "favorite" images to give them a head start on working together. There are a ton of "decorating tools" of questionable value on line, but only one that I have found that lets you take an image and translate it into something really useful - kuler by Adobe. Simply upload the "favorite" image and presto you have a color scheme with 5 colors from your image. Who would have guessed that a vase of peonies could create a preppy color scheme for a downtown loft. Shown is the "muted" random scheme that the software generates with several other options available. You can also move 5 circles around the image to other colors to change the scheme at will. Importing pictures is a piece of cake, and the site works intuitively. Originally designed for graphic artists, it is a delightful tool for anyone that loves color.

Cheap solar power from MIT...Simple, Elegant, Raw

Worlds largest solar powered LED display in Beijing

Visitors to the Olympics in Beijing will be find the world's largest color LED display combined with China's first photovoltaic system integrated into a glass curtain wall. The GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall was designed by New York-based architect Simone Giostra with solar technology by China's solar powerhouse Suntech. This display forms the curtain wall of the Xicui Entertainment Complex in Beijing, harvesting solar energy by day and using it to illuminate the screen after dark, mirroring a day’s climatic cycle.

Researcher from Groningen developes transparent solar cells

Finally, a solar cell we aesthetically minded can love - or at least live with. In Groningen, the Netherlands, researchers are working on the development of of a cheaper solar cell which can be made of plastic. Afshin Hadipour found a way to make semi-transparent solar cells made of plastic which can function as a window at the same time. Read more about it on their site.

George Carlin RIP

A Message by George Carlin on the death of his first wife:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less.
We plan more, but accomplish less.
We've learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stock room. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' , but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

If you don't send this to at least 8 people....Who cares?

Thoreau, Boomers and Brand

What do Tom's of Maine. Burt's Bees, Ben and Jerry's and Stonyfield Farm have in common? Yes, the companies were all founded in New England, but an article in brandchannel.com finds that they also share a decidedly New England world-view or more specifically a view of nature as articulated by Emerson and Thoreau. Professor Jane E. Rosecrans of Virginia’s J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College notes that the green values championed by the afore-mentioned brands echo many of the ideals that were advanced in New England in the mid-nineteenth century by these Transcendentalist writers.

If you want to continue to appeal to Boomers keep these writers' values in mind- especially in these "green" times. Thoreau was a cultural icon for those that came of age throughout the 60's, and like the music of one's youth, the ideals of poetry stay with a generation throughout life. (Never mind the obesity crisis, even a spoonfull of Ben and Jerry's is akin to the heaven Thoreau found in nature to me.)

2008 State of the Nation’s Housing Report Released

The nation is in the throes of a housing downturn that is shaping up to be the worst in a generation, finds The State of the Nation’s Housing report issued today by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. While the falloff in housing starts, new home sales, and existing home sales already rivals the worst downturns in the post World War II era, home price declines and mortgage defaults are the worst on records that date back to the 1960s and 1970s.

This is a critical time for those in the building material industries to be creative in all aspects of their business.

Classic or a Cliché

Is the red geranium a classic or a cliché? Is it an archetype for happy summer days - for summer itself?

Occasionally I will plant geraniums that coordinate better with the perennials in my garden, yet every time I do, I find myself disappointed and the next year it's back to the brilliantly red ones. Those "sophisticated" designers turn their nose up at the very idea, yet red geraniums satisfy some deep-seated yearning for me. Why is a basket or windowbox of red geraniums so much more satisfying than the other colors?

That is the very question in both design and marketing, when does the presentation of the familiar cross over to cliche? Or does it matter - is a cliche just an efficient form of communication whether in words or images?

I cast my vote for red geraniums as classics!

Patricia Urquiola continues to charm

Like Pompeii, it used to be that Milan annually spewed out a flow of bad antique reproductions. Now it is simply a flood of mid-century modern furniture reproductions that come out year after year after year. Contemporary used to mean "of the current times" now it seems to mean "more of the same."

However, there is one designer in Milan who truly designs in the spirit of "contemporary" and that is Patricia Urquiola. Every season her designs are original and enchanting. Not afraid to use color, this Spaniard has given us a delightful new design vocabulary. Whether designing wire chairs for EMU, fabric-inspired plastic chairs for Kartell, or a whimsical set of fine china for Rosenthal, Urquiola creates fresh and exciting interpretations of traditional forms for today. Find out more about her in an interview on the Designboom website.

A solar Rube Goldberg machine

"A" for effort and an "F" for looks. The Sunray golf cart by Cruise Car is recharged by a solar panel. Does it really have to be so obvious? Also obvious is that this company has not heard of "Design."

Must they be so ugly?

Maybe Herwig's book Universal Design: Solutions for Barrier-free Living will finally let the world know that universal design does not have to be ugly. I always hate checking in late to a hotel, only to find myself with the handicap room with its on-so-ugly bathroom. Europeans just do these things much better, HEWI products are available in a decent array of colors at plumbing supply houses here, but I have only seen them at trade shows. What a shame!