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Hugh Ferriss

Hugh Ferriss (1889 – 1962) was an American delineator (one who creates perspective drawings of buildings) and architect. According to Daniel Okrent, Ferriss never designed a single noteworthy building, but after his death a colleague said he ‘influenced my generation of architects’ more than any other man. Ferriss also influenced popular culture, for example Gotham City (the setting for Batman) and Kerry Conran’s “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”. “Just Imagine” (movie from 1930), strongly influenced by Hugh Ferriss’s book, Metropolis of Tomorrow (1929), takes the archetype vision of the future city as defined by a Manhattan-like skyline, and portrays it in all its beauty and majesty.

Via Elecko Plankton’s reference. Enjoy the huge image archive on flickr showing off his spectacular imagery. They are taken from the collection available online at the Avery Library of Columbia University, where you can also download scalable high-resolution files. Check out his glorious books on Amazon.

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Idle chatter


YongFook in Singapore is grabbing attention with cheap tactics.

To ‘talk cock’: (Singapore). Hold-up! That’s the phrase to talk nonsense or engage in idle chatter. I haven’t gone back to my old, profanity and sexual-innuendo-laden blogging ways.

Notwithstanding the spam-like cheap tactics, this innuendo was actually a serious attempt to gather web professionals and industry thought-leaders to come and talk enthusiastically and authoritatively about ROI, business metrics and measurement, social media campaign strategies, and simple ways you can measure the success.

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LHSA+DP


Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership (LHSA+DP) are a nationally recognized, published, award-winning integrated design firm with a diverse portfolio of architecture, museum and graphic design projects.

They are credited with using the phrase ‘design as interpretation’

Furthermore:

Our process always begins with total immersion into the content and context of any situation. A fun credo of “listen, learn, distill, create” results in designs that uniquely embody the vision and goals of their clients. Giving form and imparting meaning become one objective, one vision, and one of the surest paths to superior design.

Outstanding. Great firm.

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Aileron Executive Management

In the words of Clay Mathile, former owner of The Iams Company,

“To be a successful entrepreneur, you must have unwavering faith and commitment to your dreams, no matter how many obstacles are put in your path. Aileron was built to help America’s aspiring entrepreneurs of today and for generations to come…”

Aileron seeks to nurture entrepreneurship by providing ongoing education and development to those who seek to start or grow their respective businesses.

“…I believe that entrepreneurs perform the most noble acts of anyone in a free society. By putting their capital at risk and creating jobs for others, they keep the Great American Dream alive. We believe that those who engage themselves in all that we endeavor to share will grow in knowledge and passion to take their business and their dreams to the next level.”

Clay Mathile”

Helping you achieve those dreams and becoming a champion of free enterprise are the foundation upon which Aileron was built. Our mission is simple: to create an environment Focus is a theme at the Aileron Campus in Dayton, Ohiofor owners of private enterprise to implement professional management. To achieve that mission, we’ve developed a variety of services tailored to the specific needs of the private business owner. From a state-of-the-art campus Aileron Campus in Dayton, Ohioand one-on-one consulting services to our popular Course for Presidents and other programs and workshops, you’ll find the resources you need to plan for a successful future.

Clay Mathile, whose own story shows the rewards that can come with calculated risk. In 1975, he bought a 50 percent ownership stake in Iams, the pet food company, which at that point was on the verge of failing. By 1982, Mathile owned all of Iams, and he grew it from a six-figure business to one that in 1999 had nearly a billion dollars in sales.

What Aileron means and why we chose it:

ai·le·ron n. — One of two movable flaps on the wings of an airplane that can be used to control the plane’s rolling and banking movements. –American Heritage Dictionary

And here are just a few of the reasons Aileron fits with our business and our mission:

* Riding in an airplane provides a different view of the world. To reach their goals, leaders need to break out of the day-to-day grind and look at their organizations from a 30,000-foot “big-picture” perspective.
* An aileron guides the plane and gives it direction. Professional management and its components provide control, stability and the means to keep your organization on the right course.
* Planes take you to new places. Learning about professional management will do the same for you and your business.
* Business leaders are the pilots of their organizations. Aileron is the friendly voice on the radio providing guidance to help you reach your destination.
* Aviation is all about forward motion. Aileron is here to help you move toward your goals.
* Our name is a nod to the rich aviation history of the Dayton community.
* It takes a lot to keep a plane up in the air. Thrust and momentum are essential, but they aren’t enough to guarantee success. To get where you want to go, you also need expert navigation and control.

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Environa studio

“Building a freestanding prefab home is, in a sense, building a green SUV: You’re greening up the wrong thing.” Sydney based architects Tone Wheller and Jan O’Connor of Environa Studio.

An article in this month’s Dwell, discussing the vocabulary of modern design, inspired by prefab assembly and by the legendarily balmy Australian climate.

We try to allow a certain amount of flexibility in our projects. You’re not using the same room in the same way 365 days of the year. The house is flexible enough that you can use one room in the evening and one in the morning—or you can adjust the spaces so that they’re used at different times of day and even different times of year. It goes down to the modernist tradition of furniture that’s light and easy to move. Sustainability needs to go beyond just materials and energy use; we need to start thinking about density, size, flexibility—fitting more things into smaller spaces. Everything would be small and compact—but everything would fold out at full size.

I’m really getting into modular use spaces, I first came across it at the Royal College of Art CRD studio, which would often change appearance based on the intended function or the evening’s activity. Doors on rails, screens (fabric and metal) swing into place and provide immediate privacy and flexibility to this adaptive studio space.


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Kayak team

Kayak
It’s often a rather painstaking task getting a collective set of images to feel uniquely ‘unified’ and seemingly ‘united’ all at the same time. I think Kayak did a pretty decent job. Like everything that Kayak does, it’s driven by the needs, voices and behaviors of the users. I’m citing the elegant words of Yung Chun, who’s a director running product for hotels.

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Face to face interaction


Tom Wilson wrote a long paper on digital interaction/social communities. Long story short, down with email, up with immediacy and face to face. Helping to refresh the list of reasons why I hate emails longer than 3 lines.

Miscommunication – In a study reported by New York Times, it was found that face-to-face interaction is full of information. We interpret tone, body language, pacing and other factors besides the verbal message to convey a message being transferred. In sending an e-mail, typed words lack rich emotional information that would have been transferred through a phone conversation. Many times words have different meanings through different tonal pitch inflections and pitch inflection can create a positive or negative spin on a sentence. Through e-mail their is no verbal tone, no verbal pitch which can create confusion in interpretation, especially when communicating with an anonymous individual (Goleman 2007:1).

Although e-mail is quick and efficient, it increases the chances of miscommunication and mis-interpretation, leading to possible conflicts which could have been avoided with a personal phone call.(Daniel, 2007) The use of e-mail also leads to the decline in phone conversations, which creates social isolation, as the time it takes to respond to e-mail is not instant as in a real conversation. The use of e-mail creates a social isolation and a distant connection that lacks emotional content that can lead to a decline is social capital.

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Grid/Plane in Portland

Having lunch today with David DeCheser, loving his tip on grid/plane studio:

JD Hooge founded Gridplane to help clients bring their stories to life. Gridplane specializes in unifying practical user interaction with engaging design to craft unique experiences.

Over the past 10 years, JD has assembled a diverse portfolio of creative work for cultural institutions and companies large and small. Past clients include XBOX, Google, Sony, MTV, Helio, Nike, Starbucks, and Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

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Tony Robbins

A metaphorical ginnie in the bottle. You need to have a goal, make a map, have a sense of urgency (don’t stop) and possess empowering emotions. Honestly, Tony’s telling you what you know already, the real nugget is understanding how to realign lost inspiration.

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British Bulldog Brand

Take a cue from Winston Churchill,

“The further backward you can look, the further forward you can see.”

Understanding how competing brands position themselves allows us to learn from their mistakes and successes. When I think about brands I’m looking to lead my clients into making design decisions that allow a them to redefine the conversation within an industry. Build a niche for yourself, be unique.

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Donald MacKinnon

Donald

Creativity, according to Donald MacKinnon, long-time researcher in the field, it is

“a process that is extended in time and characterized by originality, adaptiveness and realization.”

For me, the essence of creativity is “connection” the ability to relate or combine, through flexible persistence and insight, seemingly remote, contradictory or irrational ideas and elements with an elegant, unified and complex simplicity. The creative concept, product or outcome is not only novel but has value and use” (Gorkin).