Design Sojourn | Strategic Industrial Design Blog » Designer Musings

Life’s Like That: Part 2

DT — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:58:17 +0000

Image: Poop Hat from Jbox So where was I? Ah yes. On two separate occasions, I had a similar discussion with two designer friends. One of which was a very senior designer almost two decades older than I. We were discussing how designers have "Use by Dates" and how we all will eventually get there. This is because the older designers would eventually get surpassed by new blood that has access to new training, technologies, skills and thinking. So I pondered: "How can designers remain relevant in today's fast pace design world?"

Life’s Like That: Part 1

DT — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:06:44 +0000

It has been awhile since I wrote a post that adequately fits into my "Designer Musings" category. In the start-up days of this blog, more than 2 years ago, I had defined this category as “My personal reflection and opinion on Design and the Design Industry”. So as I have not posted in a while I thought that this would be a good time to do some “Designer Musings.”

Why Sh*T matters in Design. What?

DT — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:46:35 +0000

This little video excerpt by Allan Chochinov (of Core77 fame), during his presentation at the PSFK Conference New York 08, talks about his observations he made of his students after he asks them to design the perfect pooper-scooper.

Starck says Design is Dead, yet Again?

DT — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:23:42 +0000

PSFK posted an article on their blog about Starck feeling that "Design is Dead" and is also shamed for all the excess he has created in his designs. Well it was sometime ago he spoke about his distaste for design and a year ago when he spoke at TED and indicated similarly. This time around he continues his tirade by telling a German news weekly Die Zeit that:

I was a producer of materiality and I am ashamed of this fact.Everything I designed was unnecessary. I will definitely give up in two years’ time. I want to do something else, but I don’t know what yet. I want to find a new way of expressing myself …design is a dreadful form of expression…. In future there will be no more designers. The designers of the future will be the personal coach, the gym trainer, the diet consultant.”

I'm sorry but can something die twice? Third time lucky? Well, at first the cynic that I am believes that Starck is up to his usual shock tactics. Ironically going against a type of design that he had a hand in popularizing.

Top 10 Ways to Nurture a Thriving Creative Culture

DT — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:01:26 +0000

From the recent SPARKCon, a creative conference for the Southern states in the US. One of the community discussions were the top 10 recommendations of how to build a creative scene in your area or, I dare say, in your country.

Bye Gary, Thanks for the Memories and My Ability to Design

DT — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:12:11 +0000

Image Source: The Innovation Diaries I wanted to write this much sooner but it kinda got lost in the back burner. Sadly, half of the population, depending on your age, may or may not know of this piece of news. On March 4th, I received an email from a old friend, someone who I have not seen and heard for a very long time. It was a link to a news page that reported that Gary Gygax had passed away. I was shock to say the least.

Why can’t Everyone be like Apple and Other Nonsense

DT — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:46:50 +0000

I recently stumbled on a post by David Pogue, a technology columnist for The New York Times, who wrote a scathing post on how manufacturers today are not "Designing What’s Right for Consumers". While I agree with some of his points, I can't help coming away feeling that this post just gives the wrong impression. It is pretty obvious that Pogue spends a lot of time playing with products (check out the list of Apple How-to books!), but the news flash is (no pun intended), playing with products is a lot different from making them.

Microsoft wants Yahoo for $44.6 BILLION!

DT — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:07:19 +0000

Breaking news! Just 5 mins ago from The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft announced that they have made a bid to buy Yahoo for USD$ 44.6 Billion, $0.4 Billion less than their 50 Billion bid in early 2007. Microsoft Corp. Friday offered to buy Yahoo Inc. for $44.6 billion, a move designed to pick [...]

How I Simplified My Life and Became a More Efficient Designer

DT — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:34:47 +0000

What a Mess!

About 5 or 6 months ago, I decided that I needed to simplify my life. Due to a lot of diverse interests and that little bit of an overachiever in me, I have a bad habit of taking on and doing more than I can actually handle. Furthermore, the fact that I tend to lose interests in things very quickly or jump around on different projects does not help me one bit at all. Coupled with the stresses of my job, I was just flat out overloaded! Mentally I was stretched and constantly tired. This was because I often had anywhere from 15 to 20 projects to attend too at any one time. My fitness went down hill as it became a vicious cycle of my mental tiredness preventing me from getting out of the house for exercise. As a result I got nothing much done and learnt a painful lesson that I, like many other humans, do not multi-task very well.

Friend Wheel : A Visual Representation of How my Friends are Connected on Facebook

DT — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:45:11 +0000

I'm always a sucker for cool graphical representations of data such as the Website Graph Generator. Thus one of my favourite reads is "Information Aesthetics", a website focusing on such data visualizations. Therefore I recently had a pleasant surprise when I discovered the Friend Wheel application on Facebook.

Bill Gates says Good Bye

DT — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 03:43:13 +0000

This year's 2008 CES Keynote speech is Bill Gates' twelfth and his last as a Microsoft Employee (he is still the Chairman though). He says:

"This will be my last keynote. As of July, I will no longer be a full-time Microsoft employee. Since I was 17 I've had a full-time Microsoft job."

Not sure how well this bodes for the future of Microsoft, but his conceptualised this last day at Microsoft with this video that took me a while to find.

Why don’t people complain about Good Design?

DT — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:06:11 +0000

I know I do, I always swear like a "Potty Mouth" when ever I stumble over any kind of great Industrial Design work. Even though I am from sunny Singapore, I rarely actually comment about the local design industry back home. Why? Well you know the old "taking a dump in your own back yard etc." and I have tons of great designer friends that I love there as well.

Yet More Apple Bashing

DT — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:14:19 +0000

A British journalist interviewed Apple executive Phil Schiller about the Monopoly iTunes has created (ah la Microsoft Style) and the use of it for downloading music on the iPhone. The Apple PR animals jump right in to stop the interview, and forces it to be refocused it to the iPhone. I guess they [...]

Autumn in Nanjing

DT — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 12:27:29 +0000

China is actually a wonderful place with many interesting things that shows its culture evolving as it finds a happy relationship between east and west. Enjoy the photos. A lunch of stir fry vegetables and pork that was both colorful to look at and taste.

Region Coding an exercise in Stupidity

DT — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 08:08:05 +0000

Recently my trusty not so rusty DVD player died. It just refuses to play my DVDs anymore. So I'm back in the market for a DVD player and my one and only requirement is that is has to be able to play DVDs I have purchased from all over the world. Here is an exercise in stupidity, all the DVD players are not sold multi-region playable. However manufacturers recognizes that the consumer demands it. So as a work around there is a folder behind the counter with instructions on how to "unlock" the DVD players. But the problem is that firstly it might not work, and secondly you have to remember to get the instructions on how to "unlock" it.

Design for Brand Talk Monday 14 May 2007

DT — Sun, 13 May 2007 10:58:26 +0000

Edit:After speaking to a few people, I have been advised that as my slides are in such point form that its actually useless to anyone if I am not there to present it. Perhaps I will organise a recording next time and post it on YouTube instead. Many apologies for the failed [...]

The Most Innovative Companies of 2007

py — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:26:52 +0000

BusinessWeek has just featured the world’s 50 most innovative companies. Apple has topped the list for the 3rd year running, owing its successes to iPod - the icon of design. This shows the importance of design in business innovation. Some of the Asian companies that are featured include Japan’s Toyota and Honda, Sony and [...]

Social Networking Site’s Unethical Practice

DT — Wed, 02 May 2007 04:30:41 +0000

Recently I have been getting a spade of emails from my wife and our mutual friends inviting me to join up with this new social networking site hi5. However after speaking to my wife, she insisted that she never sent any invites, nor agreed to allow the site to send any. So I [...]

Good Marketing Went Bad

DT — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 07:03:40 +0000

This was taken at Sydney’s Fish Markets located very close to the city. Not sure if the pilot read the script upside down, or did I miss something?

Gameboy Survives War and Returns Home

DT — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 06:19:31 +0000

Check out these amazing pictures of a Nintendo Gameboy that survived a bombed barracks during the Gulf War. It still works and plays Tetris! Amazing, why can’t we build products like that anymore, products that can really last? When my mobile phone slips out of my pocket, hits the pavement cracking the [...]