My Tai Chi teacher says: "Don't correct your foot once you put it down. It's the only way to learn to put down your foot correctly at once."
My sketching teacher used to say: "Don't correct wrong lines, sketch lightly and clarify with color. In the end you will learn to put down a line correctly at once."
My saxophone teacher used to say: "Don't stop playing when you go wrong. The band is not waiting for you."
Benjamin Zander says: "Don't wince when you make a mistake. Smile! And say: How interesting!"
Would there be a larger truth here about learning and creativity? It's better to evaluate afterwards than correct all the time...
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Design quotes
I heard some nice one-liners on the last conference I went to.
"Mass Communications has become so expensive that design is a much better priced alternative." - If design is used as a tool to communicate, and not as a sauce. Design in this sentence means design thinking. Unusually simple solutions with talk value.
"It's faulty if a door handle needs to have a push or pull label. [It should be self explanatory]" - Oscar Peña, head of Philips Design. Mr. Peña called great designers 'translators' since they translate an idea into shape and material. They express the product identity in material qualities. And the best translators, translate ideas so powerful, they change society.
"I know I've designed an icon when I don't get the discussion about marketing etc. when launching the product," said Erik Tjepkema. I guess all designers wish they'd design icons all the time... Erik went on to compare design to Jazz (it's a similarity I've seen before). He didn't go into details but I think there are comparable concepts.
song theme = brand&identity
improvising = assocaiation, creating new outings
groove = ambiance
scales/chords = input, brainstorm methods, aesthetic rules of thumb
Erwin van Lun said "Brands love to build relations with people, but if you ask them people don't want relations with brands!" Still he demonstrated that relation building is an automatic process whether we want it or not. People build relations wih aibo dogs, electrical dinosaurs, tamagochis and their iphone. The core of a relation is relevant responses. If you have to explain your name address and occupation time and time again: no relation. If you are recognised, treated as a person and get relevant reactions, responses in your own language, a relation starts to build. With all the emotions that go with it. This is a double edged sword since those relevant answers should be accompanied by enough trust or you get the Orwellian Big Brother feeling.
His presentation is online for download...
Jean-Pierre Raes started off with a small statistic in the room: "Where did you have your latest brilliant idea?" Nobody mentioned the office. :D He went on talking about the creation of new new business going from Insight to Idea to Plan to Business. The hard part is getting relevant insights, you can do research for that or talk a lot to your friends about what they run into. I believe the best insights come from people solving their own problems like the people at 37signals or someone with a Seth Godin-style otaku. If you need to do research, qualitative and observative is best in my opinion. Statistics aren't usually very inspiring. Although a friend of mine who recently discovered pivot tables and used that to ask questions to a huge dataset said the opposite was true.
Jean-Pierre's own personal insight was that many people have a lot of ideas, but they fail at writing and implementing a healthy business plan. He set up his own company to help them.
Erik Kessels showed some work with a lot of humor and great communication power. I should book a night at citizen M at Schiphol, the pictures look great. He collects peculiar photo albums from flea markets. They contain really funny stories and some great amateur photography. He explained how he looked for funny details, authenticity and the man in the street for inspiration. To illustrate that he showed for years of ad campaigns for the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel and some really funny videos. My favorites are these: Goal! and Rugby.
H&M had a pretty monotonous presentation about their history, way of working and all the great names they worked with. To find out what they are experimenting with, check out their concept stores at Collection of Style.
All in all this was some good inspiration again.
"Mass Communications has become so expensive that design is a much better priced alternative." - If design is used as a tool to communicate, and not as a sauce. Design in this sentence means design thinking. Unusually simple solutions with talk value.
"It's faulty if a door handle needs to have a push or pull label. [It should be self explanatory]" - Oscar Peña, head of Philips Design. Mr. Peña called great designers 'translators' since they translate an idea into shape and material. They express the product identity in material qualities. And the best translators, translate ideas so powerful, they change society.
"I know I've designed an icon when I don't get the discussion about marketing etc. when launching the product," said Erik Tjepkema. I guess all designers wish they'd design icons all the time... Erik went on to compare design to Jazz (it's a similarity I've seen before). He didn't go into details but I think there are comparable concepts.
song theme = brand&identity
improvising = assocaiation, creating new outings
groove = ambiance
scales/chords = input, brainstorm methods, aesthetic rules of thumb
Erwin van Lun said "Brands love to build relations with people, but if you ask them people don't want relations with brands!" Still he demonstrated that relation building is an automatic process whether we want it or not. People build relations wih aibo dogs, electrical dinosaurs, tamagochis and their iphone. The core of a relation is relevant responses. If you have to explain your name address and occupation time and time again: no relation. If you are recognised, treated as a person and get relevant reactions, responses in your own language, a relation starts to build. With all the emotions that go with it. This is a double edged sword since those relevant answers should be accompanied by enough trust or you get the Orwellian Big Brother feeling.
His presentation is online for download...
Jean-Pierre Raes started off with a small statistic in the room: "Where did you have your latest brilliant idea?" Nobody mentioned the office. :D He went on talking about the creation of new new business going from Insight to Idea to Plan to Business. The hard part is getting relevant insights, you can do research for that or talk a lot to your friends about what they run into. I believe the best insights come from people solving their own problems like the people at 37signals or someone with a Seth Godin-style otaku. If you need to do research, qualitative and observative is best in my opinion. Statistics aren't usually very inspiring. Although a friend of mine who recently discovered pivot tables and used that to ask questions to a huge dataset said the opposite was true.
Jean-Pierre's own personal insight was that many people have a lot of ideas, but they fail at writing and implementing a healthy business plan. He set up his own company to help them.
Erik Kessels showed some work with a lot of humor and great communication power. I should book a night at citizen M at Schiphol, the pictures look great. He collects peculiar photo albums from flea markets. They contain really funny stories and some great amateur photography. He explained how he looked for funny details, authenticity and the man in the street for inspiration. To illustrate that he showed for years of ad campaigns for the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel and some really funny videos. My favorites are these: Goal! and Rugby.
H&M had a pretty monotonous presentation about their history, way of working and all the great names they worked with. To find out what they are experimenting with, check out their concept stores at Collection of Style.
All in all this was some good inspiration again.
If everything seems under control...
"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." Although Andretti was a successful Formula 1 and Indycar pilot, the same holds true for organizing a design practice and playing jazz music.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Purple Cow
Many of my friends were talking about it, I had noticed many of them as successful innovation, and now I finally read it: the Purple Cow by Seth Godin.
The book hammers down one key point: just good doesn't cut it anymore. A product can't be sold by advertising. It should sell itself by being remarkable. Or as Mr. Schurman of Herman Miller says: "The best design solves complex problems but if you can weld that to the cool factor you have a home run."
Simply put: Safe is Risky and Very good is boring. I you design something that appeals to the general public you won't be able to sell it, since they are very good at ignoring you. You have to target the lead user, the niche, the people craving for the new, the better and the remarkable. The sneezers who start spreading the virus, who can create critical mass.
The good thing is that not many people will try to launch purple cows, so the playing field is all open. In good times, they say: "Safe is good enough." In bad times: "Let's play it safe in these bad times." We should take a break to produce a classic. Sit there don't just do anything. Marketing departments want to justify themselves.
So what I will implement in my design practice is this:
- I will devise a process or service to help clients find lead users
- I will use purple cow examples to convince clients to divert money from advertising budgets to the design budget, because it will be the better investment.
- Purple Cow questions are nice triggers in brainstorms: "How do we make this idea so remarkable it gets on the news? On leading blogs? How do we make this idea collectible? What would happen if we told the truth, like McDonalds France?"
- In my design practice we also have ambassadors, people who love our work. I'll invite them for brief sessions in strategic meetings and give them my home number if they're on to some business...
- Since remarkable products come from otaku's (some kind of deep fascination) I will be more alert on them and the people who have them, so I can call them for advice. I'll start with finding out all about the otakus of my collegues.
- I'll invite a couple of marketeer guest speakers to introduce our designers to the marketing practice.
- I'll set up a product or service teaching our clients 'design thinking' or visual thinking. It should help them identify better opportunities and it will help them to work creatively with the identities and websites we design.
- We also need a smart way to do research, since focus groups are a waste. How can we release prototypes to the interested public? How can we find them? How can we create an incentive to talk back to us? A point saving system?
The book hammers down one key point: just good doesn't cut it anymore. A product can't be sold by advertising. It should sell itself by being remarkable. Or as Mr. Schurman of Herman Miller says: "The best design solves complex problems but if you can weld that to the cool factor you have a home run."
Simply put: Safe is Risky and Very good is boring. I you design something that appeals to the general public you won't be able to sell it, since they are very good at ignoring you. You have to target the lead user, the niche, the people craving for the new, the better and the remarkable. The sneezers who start spreading the virus, who can create critical mass.
The good thing is that not many people will try to launch purple cows, so the playing field is all open. In good times, they say: "Safe is good enough." In bad times: "Let's play it safe in these bad times." We should take a break to produce a classic. Sit there don't just do anything. Marketing departments want to justify themselves.
So what I will implement in my design practice is this:
- I will devise a process or service to help clients find lead users
- I will use purple cow examples to convince clients to divert money from advertising budgets to the design budget, because it will be the better investment.
- Purple Cow questions are nice triggers in brainstorms: "How do we make this idea so remarkable it gets on the news? On leading blogs? How do we make this idea collectible? What would happen if we told the truth, like McDonalds France?"
- In my design practice we also have ambassadors, people who love our work. I'll invite them for brief sessions in strategic meetings and give them my home number if they're on to some business...
- Since remarkable products come from otaku's (some kind of deep fascination) I will be more alert on them and the people who have them, so I can call them for advice. I'll start with finding out all about the otakus of my collegues.
- I'll invite a couple of marketeer guest speakers to introduce our designers to the marketing practice.
- I'll set up a product or service teaching our clients 'design thinking' or visual thinking. It should help them identify better opportunities and it will help them to work creatively with the identities and websites we design.
- We also need a smart way to do research, since focus groups are a waste. How can we release prototypes to the interested public? How can we find them? How can we create an incentive to talk back to us? A point saving system?
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Working at Warp Speed
I remembered Barry Flicker’s ‘Working at Warp speed’. Sadly only +after+ the deadline of the last stressful project. I have to stick his four core ideas on the wall again.
- “We’re in this together.” Stress in the team leads to adversarial positions. Before I slip into the uncreative defensive mode, I have to remind myself of this. Some ‘Aikido in everyday life’ can help me with this. It helps me to keep centered and creative even under repetitive verbal attacks from stressed out colleagues.
- “Slow down before you turn.” I have to make sure to be inclusive when taking the project trough a major curb into a different direction. Turning to fast leads to a lot of confusion. Also in review meetings I need to stay better focused, take time to take a step back. Otherwise things get sloppy. Would it help to change the music from hard rock to relaxing, to influence my state of mind? It is what Norman suggests in ‘Emotional Design’…
- “Am -I- the best one to do this?” I got pretty good at delegating the right stuff, but I have to coach the others.
- “Take time to plan.” I really appreciate those short daily kick-off meetings! Much better than diving right in. But again we didn’t plan in user and consumer feedback. This can be so powerful, but always gets crushed in the rush of tight deadlines.
Barry Flicker didn’t give any ideas on how to break away from old solutions and doing something really sexy when working at warp speed. I have to find a way get this in the process…
- “We’re in this together.” Stress in the team leads to adversarial positions. Before I slip into the uncreative defensive mode, I have to remind myself of this. Some ‘Aikido in everyday life’ can help me with this. It helps me to keep centered and creative even under repetitive verbal attacks from stressed out colleagues.
- “Slow down before you turn.” I have to make sure to be inclusive when taking the project trough a major curb into a different direction. Turning to fast leads to a lot of confusion. Also in review meetings I need to stay better focused, take time to take a step back. Otherwise things get sloppy. Would it help to change the music from hard rock to relaxing, to influence my state of mind? It is what Norman suggests in ‘Emotional Design’…
- “Am -I- the best one to do this?” I got pretty good at delegating the right stuff, but I have to coach the others.
- “Take time to plan.” I really appreciate those short daily kick-off meetings! Much better than diving right in. But again we didn’t plan in user and consumer feedback. This can be so powerful, but always gets crushed in the rush of tight deadlines.
Barry Flicker didn’t give any ideas on how to break away from old solutions and doing something really sexy when working at warp speed. I have to find a way get this in the process…
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Large group interventions
Barbara Bunker & Billie Alban propose a method for organizational change involving at least half the organization in the analysis and planning process. The underlying idea is that this kind of change is more sustainable than the traditional vision, cascaded down trough the organization, because the vision will be created and endorsed by the whole. This usually is a 2 to 3 day event where the whole large group gets together and works in subteams on creating a new future. Since today organizations are very dependent on their environment, it is highly recommended to invite also core suppliers and clients to this kind of events. Work is done in small groups with rotating timekeepers, recorders, facilitator and reporters.
Typical parts of such conferences are:
- Scan/analysis of the environment
- Overview of the history. This creates a common basis.
- Analysis of the current process/situation (value stream mapping). A dump of most common tasks then ordered chronologically.
- Discuss prouds&sorries or glads, sads & mads.
- Defining a most desirable system/discovering common futures
- Action planning, where people can choose to work towards the goals/on issues that interest them most.
As formula for effective change Gleicher uses C = D x V x F > R. The will to change (C) is influenced by the dissatisfaction (D), a clear shared vision (V), and clear (F)irst steps to be taken. It should be larger than the (R)esitance to change.
Overall one should consider the fact that in large groups the speaking time per person is the length of the meeting divided by the number of participants. It’s usually not much so you need creative ways to work around this. Also the amount of structure to workshop is a careful balance. Too little structure creates anxiety and unfocused work, and too much structure can be limiting creativity and working on unexpected priorities.
In a way it reminds me a bit of Gladwell’s tipping point: these tools allow you to create a tipping point for organizational change.
Typical parts of such conferences are:
- Scan/analysis of the environment
- Overview of the history. This creates a common basis.
- Analysis of the current process/situation (value stream mapping). A dump of most common tasks then ordered chronologically.
- Discuss prouds&sorries or glads, sads & mads.
- Defining a most desirable system/discovering common futures
- Action planning, where people can choose to work towards the goals/on issues that interest them most.
As formula for effective change Gleicher uses C = D x V x F > R. The will to change (C) is influenced by the dissatisfaction (D), a clear shared vision (V), and clear (F)irst steps to be taken. It should be larger than the (R)esitance to change.
Overall one should consider the fact that in large groups the speaking time per person is the length of the meeting divided by the number of participants. It’s usually not much so you need creative ways to work around this. Also the amount of structure to workshop is a careful balance. Too little structure creates anxiety and unfocused work, and too much structure can be limiting creativity and working on unexpected priorities.
In a way it reminds me a bit of Gladwell’s tipping point: these tools allow you to create a tipping point for organizational change.
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