This has been a question for 1,000's of years I guess. The idea of what interests us and what makes us want to know more. If people could crack it then you imagine the education system would benefit hugely. I have mentioned it before on twitter but I love THE BIG BANG THEORY. For those that dont know the show it's an American sitcom that revolves around a group of insanely clever geeks. Recently there was an episode which had one of the main characters investigating the flags of the world. One item struck me in the episode, and it was a fact about the Haiti flag and the Leichenstein flag. Where in the 1936 olympic games they for the first time met and realised they had almost identical flags, with Leichenstein adding a crown to it's flag from that point onwards. A few days later it made me look into this and find out whether it was true. The need to know this was pretty strong and looking through the forums it seemed that there equally inquisitive people who had also been drawn to the question through an American sit-com.
So firstly I have to ask why was this so interesting that it went beyond just watching? Why did it become participation? and then why did I want to know about this particular fact?
I think for me there was an element of, is it really true? and leading on from that, what was the story that led two seemingly separate cultures and communities to create the same thing? For many years this has interested me more and more. How can people create the same thing? this has seen quite alot of publicity with the patent law suits around the world between Apple and other mobile device manufacturers. It brings me to the belief of are ideas anyones? are ideas important? and can they ever be seen as being owned by anyone person or organisation?
This might seem odd but lets take a look at the word implementation a great example is the release of two films that are about the launch. Both are about the old fable of Snow White one being a comedy called Mirror Mirror - The untold adventures of snow white starring Julia Roberts. With the second being Snow White and the Huntsman starring Charlize Theron. So the idea or concept is the same yet the implementation or 'take' of the film couldn't be more different? If we take this argument a bit further in theory should all things be able to be created by a person in isolation? for example there is the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan a Hindu Indian man in isolation who came up with the concept of infinity. A concept that had perplexed scholars for years.
So are ideas really the thing we should hang our hats on in the future? is it really just a different view point? a different story?
There are many that will disagree hugely with this talking about the first and it being important that to be the first takes determination and should be protected. And I think this is indeed true pioneers really should get more support and should be recognised for this. But I can't think of a single company or product that was genuinely the first in it's field and then became market leader. Google wasn't first, neither was facebook. Apple might have had the first personal computer but Xerox showed them the way with the desktop concept. And they are hardly market leads in terms of computers. iTunes was second to market with SONY not realising what they had, and in a similar way to XEROX back in the day.
So is it really about the perspective and the story that is important. Is it easier to create something once the 'idea' is realised to then improve and adapt it?
I am not sure how we can be in April already but the year seems to be flying by. This is quite scary as we have a load of projects that we want to produce before 2012 is over. I have been meaning to write about the last few months for ages so here it goes.
A month or so ago I was invited by British Council and Pervasive Media Studio to be part of a week sprint based around envisaging what a playable city could be. The week brought artists and designers from the UK and also East Asia and Australia. It was a great five days and one that brought a lot of questions into my head regarding design and art and how you really can't have one without the other. To this end I really want to investigate how this can work over the next year or so in some of the projects we are involved in. You can find a video of the week www.watershed.co.uk/dshed/playable-city-sprint
I have tried to write exactly what happened during the week but there was so much so I hope the video gives you an overview.
So the end of 2011 went by pretty quickly. It seemed to be one of the busiest we have had. Which ment that we didn't get through all the 'What we learnt in 2011' post's we would have liked down to you.
So we thought we would have a quick look forward to see what everyone's new years resolutions are:
- Random act of kindness each month
- Start running / get fit
- Get Fit
- Go to somewhere new each month
We will pop some others once we get round to thinking of more.
Last year we spoke about implementing things to do outside of the studio to help with new ideas and generally just getting out there to be influenced by different things. So this year we have been screen printing, attended multiplatform courses, organised a design pub quiz, tried to make lunch, LUNCH (as opposed to being in front of a screen) and finally we learnt to float!!!!! (no seriously) We have tried to go to as many things as possible. It's a big change to make, but we are getting there with, and hope that 2012 we can do even more.
So if there is something to be learnt from this. It's the old "you have to speculate to accumulate" but this is NOT in money terms but in experience, knowledge and social terms. So here's to more events and unplanned trips.
Last year we wrote a few pieces about what we had learnt, and what we were thinking about implementing ready for the next year. It seemed to go down quite well so we felt it might be good to do it again.
So what have we learnt in 2011?
Well this year has been pretty incredible in terms of projects. We have rebranded, restructured and redeveloped some brilliant companies and brands. We feel like we have moved on again and our projects have become that bit bigger and that bit wider reaching. With this comes more pressure and more expectation. But what we have really learnt is that people are people. They laugh, smile and cry just like the rest of us.
So if you are thinking about doing something give it a go. What's the worst can happen?*
*Check out the guy from social network in the above Dr Pepper advert.
So after my first piece about the Cardiff Design Festival and some of the more business/design related events I thought I would write a bit about the smaller events that centred around designers socialising and generally getting to know each other. It's an odd paradox while most designers spend their entire day developing to things to communicate and make lives easier we sometimes aren't the most social of people. So I think the social events are really at the core of Cardiff Design Festival. Without designers on board then the festival is never going to be what it could. So the events that I went to were (for obvious reasons) the NakedWales pub quiz, and the Design Wars out the back of Milgi.
I think both offered something totally different. The quiz was a great chance for people to catch up or meet, have a few drinks, and answer (or maybe not) some quiz questions. The great thing is that we have done three of these quiz's over the years and each time it has got busier and busier until this year when we ran out of chairs. So while I can't say what it was like as I had to read the questions out I think people had a good time? Let us know what people thought.
The Design Wars started last year and I think from hearing about it from other people it was a highlight. So this year I had to pop in and see what it was all about. I think the idea is great and it pulled in a variety of of students, practicing designers and just people interested in what was going on. I think the thing it made me think was that the Design festival did start to bring together recently graduated designers together. Almost the length of the festival has allowed them to grow up with the festival and now as people who are practicing they are now supporting it.
The first two weeks of October have gone by and with it, so has Cardiff Design Festival 2011. I managed to miss most of last years festival as I was busy working on a project. So this year I was determined to go to as many events as possible. Firstly I think from the year break it has really shown me that the festival feels a lot more solid and a great two weeks of events. I think there are levels of events now, within the festival. Events for designers and business, to social events for designers, right through to events that were put on by designers that attracted a public audience. Definitely from the 2009 event there seems to be a big progression. So I am going to give you a quick over view of some of the events I attended and give you an idea of what I thought.
I think I might go in reverse order. So the last event I attended was Design Wales' Service Design seminars at the Pierhead building. speakers were Ben Reason from Live|Work and Nick March from Sidekick Studio's. Both companies practice service design at different levels. Live|Work are a huge established service design company working with large clients from all over the world. Where as sidekick studio's are, (as the name implies) a much smaller studio working on smaller digital service design projects.
So what did I think?
For me the work Live|Work showed and how Ben described the way they felt design was going was bang on. But I don't think it gave me much insight into them as a company. I think for people just getting into this arena then I could see it being really interesting, but it didn't really hold the attention. Second up was Nick. Who discussed the transition sidekick studio's are going through right now. Instead of just doing client based work. They are now developing projects internally and then trying to sell them. The projects he discussed such as Buddy and the Amazings were really interesting and it will be interesting to see if they do manage to get this going long term. I think Designers have for a long time made off shoot businesses. It is nothing new. Elmwood for example have for many years had their own tea brand and more recently launched a boutique beer. Traditionally designers have often sold one off designs within the shop section of their websites.
What I felt was slightly different about Nick's viewpoint were the requirements of the project in the first place. A mini value set, or mini brief if you like. This helped them decide on whether the project should go forward. In a nutshell all the projects had to be "digital products that make money, change lives and put a smile on people's faces" with the aim to "make our society better". So for me with general interest in this subject it was interesting to see this type of model within a commercial company. Granted they do get a lot of their initial start up funds from research pots and other funding schemes, but long term it left me questioning is this the way we should look at developing projects and companies for the future?
This thought brings me nicely to another event I helped out in at the Old Library. EDC had for a few months now been talking to Llamau – a Welsh based charity that do great work with young people. For many years they have worked with them to develop social enterprises. So we worked them to try and develop their projects in a one day design workshop. Working through the business generation workshop diagram, we developed a number of small exercises that allowed people to explore their initial business ideas and hopefully get them to think about their potential customers, and also who would be needed to make the business a success. I guess looking back on both these two events. Design has a real opportunity to make a difference within lives for good and also generally across society in general. I think regardless of the client. We should be looking to advise about how to make things 'better'.
I will write another post about other events soon.
Well this year Wales has taken the bold step of charging for plastic bags. You can get more information about this from Cynnal Cymru's website. The idea is obviously to reduce plastic waste and get into bringing your own bags to the shops. So we thought it was a great idea to give you the chance to get some really cool canvas bags designed but our own fair hands.
This is my design which is still in progress. I am wrestling with the idea of whether I should also have 'I DON'T LIKE EGGS' written large on it. More bag designs form the rest of Hoffi to come very soon.
Which one do people prefer???
Posted by Julian Sykes
Recently I have been thinking about the impact of brand and the struggle large companies are facing with the idea of being universal or relevant to the local community. One of the most obvious responses to this is the Starbuck approach with their Roy Street franchise. Making a huge brand feel that bit more.... friendly?
In a previous blog I posted about the idea of companies creating brands/companies that respond to a particular demographic. So what is happening?
I have been struggling to put my finger on it. But I think I have a bit more of an idea as to what it maybe. I think the main reason for this growth in this type of business model is to do with the internet. The basis of fractal information and hyperlinks bringing these pots of information together. Each area being a small bespoke element of that information. It also seems like it is not just brands. Stories, games and education are all developing multiple threads into the same subject matter. This aspect is in the public eye recently with the advent of the word 'transmedia' which is a more recent incarnation of the Japanese 'media mix', in where narrative is told through various media channels.
Could this bring a new level of richness to things?
Or could (like the documentary below) it be a really good story no matter what the media is the real star?
The Mast Brothers from The Scout on Vimeo.
If you are interested in kind of discussion, myself and Alison have been organising an event called playARK. Day one will have a series of speakers discussing everything from games through to attention spans.
In preparation for the playARK - games festival and talks , I have been thinking about getting some new trainers. I have for years now had Converse and Puma and have never really seen myself buying NIKE, but after playing around with NIKEiD I have a number of choices (in ARK colours of course), to decide I have pasted them all together for people to vote let me know your thoughts.