Design Sojourn

Reinventing Work

Click graphic to see it bigger!

Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin (Amazon link), reinvents work by challenging everyone to be an “Artist” now! (Check out the Linchpin manifesto graphic above for a gist!) This is something most designers should already do well, and then again for some of you maybe do better?

Now, if the man on the street is encouraged to work with passion and artistry, how is a designer, whose work is about passion and artistry, going to do one better?

Design’s Return on Investment

Looks like China is getting it when it comes to design.

In a recent interview on the local Chinese CCTV, Chen Dongliang, Director of the Beijing Industrial Design Center, has highlighted the tremendous economic value of Industrial Design to China’s economy.

The output value of industrial design in Beijing reached 80 billion yuan in 2008. Now around 250-thousand employees are working for nearly 20-thousand design companies in the city. Beijing is also expanding technology service and high-end manufacturing industries, both of them can help boost the industrial design sector.

That’s just in 2008! While the job definition of an Industrial Designer in China is pretty broad, even if we discount their statistics, it is still a lot of people and money.

What is more interesting is their next set of statistics.

Why are there so few truly remarkable products?

It’s quite simple really.

Our industrialized economy, founded on mass manufacturing and economies of scale spurred by consumerism, is the greatest enemy of remarkable products.

Of course many products will come close, in fact many will be hailed as fantastic or even great, but the truly remarkable will be few and far between.

People striving to create awesomely remarkable products can do so because it is actually quite straightforward. Unfortunately it rarely happens, as making remarkable products is a constant uphill battle against the basic machinery that makes it all happens.

Lets take a look and see why.

Frustrated Consumer Designs a Dead Simple Headphone Wire Management Solution

A Lifehacker reader, frustrated with every headphone wire management solution in the market, decided to design his own dead simple solution that I dare say rivals any professionally designed consumer solution! I do wonder why designers can’t seem to get away from reinterpreting the dog bone, fish bone or donut?

Product Hack found in the Back Streets of Hong Kong

A colleague recently shared with me an interesting product proposition he purchased. It’s not really a product proposition as such, but an interesting mix of different electronic components slapped together in a “why did I not think of that” manner. It was purchased for under USD $50 from the back streets of Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po electronics district.

Spaces for Ideas: The Final Prototype!

iPhone and 15cm Ruler for sizing!

So here it is, the final prototype for my Spaces for Ideas expandable sketchbook. Actually this prototype has been in my care for the last 2-3 weeks, however I had delayed releasing it to all of you as I wanted to finalize the brand and get the design protection registration going. As both are finally in place, I like to now introduce this sketchbook to all of you!

I would say this prototype is about 95% there. The only difference between this prototype and the final product are two things. Firstly the spine will be in the same material as the pages and secondly the Spaces for Ideas logo will be quietly debossed on to the front cover. The rest of it, i.e. the size and how it unfolds is accurately depicted in the images after the jump.