Pascal Anson


Pascal invents, design and prototypes products. This is his disarming presentation. Maybe it’s intended for this new generation of stay-at-home-dads who need to get IKEA inventive? The irony and wit is first class refreshing, stay with it for heaven’s sake, smile often.

This I adore, can we convince DWR Design within Reach to run with it?

His wit and style make him today’s daring act winner. His site, www.iampascal.comPascal Anson

Will Lyman

Will Lyman is the series narrator for PBS FrontLine and now spokesperson for BMW.

For over 25+ years Will’s voice has ensured this acclaimed documentary series has a unmistakable, deliberate, credible and provoking authority. I really do love his work. [Frontline is a regular feature on our Tivo]

Everything changes, though, when he speaks. Hearing his voice on his answering machine brings to mind PBS documentaries and nature films. In that voice, at once commanding and polished, yet seemingly effortless, he says matter-of-factly, “I’ve been the series narrator of ‘Frontline’ since ’82.” That one sentence placed him, for me. It is his voice that transports me to all those evenings of flipping the channels and pausing on PBS to listen to what was happening on “Frontline.” And I now realize it was Will Lyman telling it to me.

Now Will is lending that authoritative voice to some BMW spots and certain people in the blogishere took offense to that. I don’t, keeping the lights on at home and sharing his talent with a respectable and credible brand like BMW is fine with me. All said and done, I thought the spots seemed a little offbeat.

LED artist

LED artist
Digging through my notes looking for the name of the German Austrian born artist behind some amazing work featured here. Found it, Erwin Redl.

Austrian-born artist Erwin Redl uses LEDs as an artistic medium. Working in both two and three dimensions, his works redefine interior and exterior spaces. Born in 1963, Redl began his studies as a musician, receiving a BA in Composition and Diploma in Electronic Music at the Music Academy in Vienna, Austria. In 1995, he received an MFA in Computer Art at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he now lives.

Redl’s works have received attention both nationally and internationally. With his piece Matrix VI (detail), he lit the face of New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art for its 2002 Biennial Exhibit. Works such as Matrix II, which was shown in New York, Germany, France, Austria, and Korea, and Fade I, which animated the Eglise Sainte-Marie Madeleine in Lille, France, explore volume and allow people to move through lit spaces.

Louis Kahn

‘My architect’ is a movie that I so vividly remember. Loui Kahn, an enigma that touches and transcends any preconceptions about the role and life of an architect. I share this TED out of great respect for his work/life.

SpongeBob


Doing a bunch of new design work for Nickelodeon, including the king of the bubbles…

RIP: Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott-Heron 'B Movie'

‘B Movie’ Lyrics – Fresh and very respectful little tune.

Well, the first thing I want to say is Mandate my ass!

Because it seems as though we’ve been convinced that 26% of the registered voters, not even 26% of the American people, but 26% of the registered voters form a mandate or a landslide. 21% voted for Skippy and 3, 4% voted for somebody else who might have been running.

But, oh yeah, I remember. In this year that we have now declared the year from Shogun to Reagan, I remember what I said about Reaganmeant it. Acted like an actorHollyweird. Acted like a liberal. Acted like General Franco when he acted like governor of California, then he acted like a republican. Then he acted like somebody was going to vote for him for president. And now we act like 26% of the registered voters is actually a mandate. We’re all actors in this I suppose.

What has happened is that in the last 20 years, America has changed from a producer to a consumer. And all consumers know that when the producer names the tunethe consumer has got to dance. That’s the way it is. We used to be a producer very inflexible at that, and now we are consumers and, finding it difficult to understand. Natural resources and minerals will change your world. The Arabs used to be in the 3rd World. They have bought the 2nd World and put a firm down payment on the 1st one. Controlling your resources we’ll control your world. This country has been surprised by the way the world looks now. They don’t know if they want to be Matt Dillon or Bob Dylan. They don’t know if they want to be diplomats or continue the same policy – of nuclear nightmare diplomacy. John Foster Dulles ain’t nothing but the name of an airport now.

The idea concerns the fact that this country wants nostalgia. They want to go back as far as they can even if it’s only as far as last week. Not to face now or tomorrow, but to face backwards. And yesterday was the day of our cinema heroes riding to the rescue at the last possible moment. The day of the man in the white hat or the man on the white horse – or the man who always came to save America at the last moment someone always came to save America at the last moment especially in B movies. And when America found itself having a hard time facing the future, they looked for people like John Wayne. But since John Wayne was no longer available, they settled for Ronald Reagan and it has placed us in a situation that we can only look at like a B movie.

Come with us back to those inglorious days when heroes weren’t zeros. Before fair was square. When the cavalry came straight away and all-American men were like Hemingway to the days of the wondrous B movie. The producer underwritten by all the millionaires necessary will be Casper The Defensive Weinberger no more animated choice is available. The director will be Attila the Haig, running around frantically declaring himself in control and in charge. The ultimate realization of the inmates taking over at the asylum. The screenplay will be adapted from the book called Voodoo Economics by George Papa Doc Bush. Music by the Village People the very military “Macho Man.”

Company!!!
Macho, macho man!
Two-three-four.
He likes to be well, you get the point.
Huuut! Your left! Your left! Your leftright, left, right, left, right!

A theme song for saber-rallying and selling wars door-to-door. Remember, we’re looking for the closest thing we can find to John Wayne. Clichs abound like kangaroos courtesy of some spaced out Marlin Perkins, a Reagan contemporary. Clichs like, itchy trigger finger and tall in the saddle and riding off or on into the sunset. Clichs like, Get off of my planet by sundown! More so than clichs like, he died with his boots on. Marine tough the man is. Bogart tough the man is. Cagney tough the man is. Hollywood tough the man is. Cheap stick tough. And Bonzo’s substantial. The ultimate in synthetic selling: A Madison Avenue masterpiece a miracle a cotton-candy politicianPresto! Macho!

Macho, macho man!

Put your orders in America. And quick as Kodak your leaders duplicate with the accent being on the nukes – cause all of a sudden we have fallen prey to selective amnesia – remembering what we want to remember and forgetting what we choose to forget. All of a sudden, the man who called for a blood bath on our college campuses is supposed to be Dudley God-damn Do-Right?

You go give them liberals hell Ronnie. That was the mandate. To the new Captain Bly on the new ship of fools. It was doubtlessly based on his chameleon performance of the past – as a liberal democrat as the head of the Studio Actor’s Guild. When other celluloid saviors were cringing in terror from McCarthy Ron stood tall. It goes all the way back from Hollywood to hillbilly. From liberal to libelous, from Bonzo to Birch idolborn again. Civil rights, women’s rights, gay rightsit’s all wrong. Call in the cavalry to disrupt this perception of freedom gone wild. God damn itfirst one wants freedom, then the whole damn world wants freedom.

Nostalgia, that’s what we wantthe good ol’ dayswhen we gave’em hell. When the buck stopped somewhere and you could still buy something with it. To a time when movies were in black and white and so was everything else. Even if we go back to the campaign trail, before six-gun Ron shot off his face and developed hoof-in-mouth. Before the free press went down before full-court press. And were reluctant to review the menu because they knew the only thing available was Crow.

Lon Chaney, our man of a thousand faces – no match for Ron. Doug Henning does the make-up – special effects from Grecian Formula 16 and Crazy Glue. Transportation furnished by the David Rockefeller of Remote Control Company. Their slogan is, Why wait for 1984? You can panic now…and avoid the rush.

So much for the good news

As Wall Street goes, so goes the nation. And here’s a look at the closing numbers racism’s up, human rights are down, peace is shaky, war items are hot – the House claims all ties. Jobs are down, money is scarce and common sense is at an all-time low on heavy trading. Movies were looking better than ever and now no one is looking because, we’re starring in a B movie. And we would rather had John Waynewe would rather had John Wayne.

“You don’t need to be in no hurry.
You ain’t never really got to worry.
And you don’t need to check on how you feel.
Just keep repeating that none of this is real.
And if you’re sensing, that something’s wrong,
Well just remember, that it won’t be too long
Before the director cuts the sceneyea.”

This ain’t really your life,
Ain’t really your life,
Ain’t really ain’t nothing but a movie.

[Refrain repeated about 25 times or more in an apocalyptic crescendo with a military cadence.]

This ain’t really your life,
Ain’t really your life,
Ain’t really ain’t nothing but a movie.

CarbonMade

Carbonmade

Showing off the carbonmade portfolio site, [you know it I’m sure, 110,000 savvy designers apparently using it too]. I’ll be building one for audreylam.com tonight. Found a chap at random on this site, John Weiss who says:

My work is guided by purpose, passion, simplicity, beauty, innovation and surprise.

Powerpoint Rule

10-20-30 rule for powerpoint

Couldn’t resist Ernest Hemingway sat calmly contemplating his next sentence. We all should know by now Guy Kawasaki’s memorable 10/20/30 rule for decks. That’s 10 slides, 20 mins, 30 point font?

I am trying to evangelize the 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint. It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points. While I’m in the venture capital business, this rule is applicable for any presentation to reach agreement: for example, raising capital, making a sale, forming a partnership, etc.

Ten is the optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business. The ten topics that a venture capitalist cares about are:

1. Problem
2. Your solution
3. Business model
4. Underlying magic/technology
5. Marketing and sales
6. Competition
7. Team
8. Projections and milestones
9. Status and timeline
10. Summary and call to action

Read more: How to Change the World: The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint.

Mind Map

Branson Mind Map

David Kelly IDEO introduced mind maps in his book (see his diagram below in comments). Here’s a mind map for billionaire Richard Branson who’s very public persona helps make this relevant. Excuse the clip art gone wild.

A mind map is a diagram used to visually outline information. A mind map is often created around a single word or text, placed in the center.

Brandon’s focus on adventuring and daring earn him top respect.

Major categories radiate from a central node, and lesser categories are sub-branches of larger branches.Categories can represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items related to a central key word or idea. Mindmaps can be drawn by hand, either as “rough notes” during a lecture or meeting, for example, or as higher quality pictures when more time is available. An example of a rough mind map is illustrated.

Marissa Mayer on Charlie Rose

Ms. Mayer came off as someone who has an amazing combination of common sense and intellect that is rare in technology. It was interesting to hear her explain the development of Google’s products and how they have the user in mind. Mayer is earnest and charming, perhaps too charming. What’s her fascination with Roy Lichtenstein and pop art?

A comment on Charlie blog said:

There’s something depressing – even degrading – re social-computing. Even (or especially?) this. Face-book, twitter, myspace, yadda yadda. More demeaning, too-often witless, self-serving proselytizing political or commercial peddling.

Beyond mathematics, science etc the cost-benefit for computers plummets – possibly into negative territory. The diverted time and thought on vacuous social exchanges would doubtless go along way toward solving (their own?) problems.

Simplicity

Simplicity is not necessarily obtained through a reduction of information: it can be provided through order and aesthetics, as in the beautiful stained glass of a Gothic church. This argument frames exactly the need for reductionism in experience design — the entire segment illuminates the value of order and aesthetics.

Alessandro Valli on simplicity:

Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari used to say that progress is when things are made simpler. Less is more. Simplicity leads to an easier and more sustainable relationship with media and technology.

In current interfaces, contents are often immersed in a bunch of audiovisual objects (e.g. widgets, notification sounds) associated with functions and information; this draws people attention away from the content itself, and makes aesthetics and functional integration with the overall environment difficult, if not impossible. Moreover, this is similar to contemporary culture, where things are always immersed in many opinions and comments: it is necessary to unleash the power of things, the power of contents, by putting these back in the foreground, following a Thomistic approach. The higher the level of abstraction of the interface, the higher the cognitive effort required for mere interaction.

The first direction in which simplification takes place is the removal of any kind of mediation between the person and the machine, to achieve the greatest immediacy. This happens at different levels: interaction schemes, representation of content, information organization, disappearing of devices into interaction-related objects (devices not perceived as technology-related devices). As technology becomes invisible at all such levels, from a perceptual and cognitive point of view, interaction becomes completely natural and spontaneous. It is a kind of magic.

One of the characteristics of a successful natural interface is thus the reduction of cognitive load on people interacting with it. Simplicity is not necessarily obtained through a reduction of information: it can be provided through order and aesthetics, as in the beautiful stained glasses of a Gothic church.

Maharam

In the late fifties, Maharam sensed new opportunity and began supplying textiles for commercial interiors, helping pioneer the concept of contract textiles. Over the following three decades, the company flourished through a commitment to performance, value and service.

The fourth generation of the Maharam family has brought new definition and direction to the company, focusing on design and technology, and marrying past and present with textiles drawn from the archives of the twentieth century’s greatest creative talents, rich natural fiber textures, and next generation synthetics influenced by the latest runway trends.

Maharam has a relationship with A4studio based on a commitment to highly personal approach that breaks the computer generated aesthetic. Well respect designers have collaborated with Maharam over the years including Charles and Ray Eames, Paul Smith, Bruce Mau and Andree Putman. Maharam live in the same building as Ensequnce @ 251 Park Ave South, New York.

Richard Meier models


First covered by NYTimes in 2008 but again reposting given the timeless nature of the subject matter. Jullian, fancy heading down one Friday?

Rather than offloading architectural models or letting them swamp the office shelves, Richard Meier stashes hundreds of them in a Long Island City warehouse. “I don’t throw a lot away,” he told The New York Times in an interview last spring, when he’d just started allowing the public in to poke around. “To have all this and have no one see it is kind of crazy.” On May 2, he’ll reopen the 3,600-sq. ft. space for the season. Visitors can stroll around miniatures of his built work spanning from the ’60s (boxy houses in Connecticut and on Long Island) to the ’90s (a Dutch paper mill, his masterpiece Getty Center). Also on display are furniture and product prototypes plus sculptures collaged from chunks of steel and wax.

45-minute self-guided tours available on Fridays only, call 212-967-6060 to reserve a spot

LeBron James

“There is a lot of pressure put on me, but I don’t put a lot of pressure on myself. I feel if I play my game, it will take care of itself.”

“I don’t need too much. Glamor and all that stuff don’t excite me. I am just glad I have the game of basketball in my life.”

To all the positions, I just bring the determination to win. Me being an unselfish player, I think that can carry on to my teammates. When you have one of the best players on the court being unselfish, I think that transfers to the other players.”

blogotheque

Blogotheque

Take-Away Shows are a series of outstanding video sessions with bands like REM, Tom Jones and plenty of well-known indie stars, Satine, Beirut, Richard Swift. Don’t go jumping the gun on this treasure — this is personal documentary filmmaking with it’s own stylistic soulful simplicity.

Vincent Moon has single-handedly pulled off a coup de force with these cinema verite musical oddities. Each singer brings a distinctive personality following him/her/them into a natural and simple approach of playing in the streets and buildings of cities and towns around the world. The fruit market scene in Buenos Aires definitely tops this week’s line up. Thanks to my buddy Paul for his tip on this stuff! With over 100+ shorts in that vast archive, that’s plenty of material for us to enjoy.

Annie Leibovitz creativity

Definitely a special treat watching Annie in action during the portrait of Chairman and founder, Conny Dufgran in commemoration of Profoto’s 40th anniversary.

Simple is smart

Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s new CEO, has simplified the management structure. Good start. In her blog posting, Getting the house in order, her words strike back at getting focused around users and your core customers. Making users go ‘wow’ is a core company passion. I felt it when design consulting with Yahoo a few years back.

So today I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo! a lot faster on its feet. For us working at Yahoo!, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer. For you using Yahoo! every day, it will better enable us to deliver products that make you say, “Wow.”