I never knew I was a urinal snob until I saw a few design-y posts lauding these urinals by Clark Sorenson as beautiful and compelling.

THEY AREN'T!!!

I am not totally a closed-minded traditionalist on the urinal-front. I can see that urinals could use some improvement. I've pee'd in Phillip Stark's urinals, and hell, it wasn't, uh, discommoding at all. To the right you will see Stark's urinal, and below you can see Phillip Watts "spoon" urinal. Both are great, but the ones below them are seriously not ok.

Labels: Industrial Design, urinals

While it seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me, there are some people who hesitate to admit that cars can be art. Maybe this is fear of the "art" applelation, or maybe it is because it is difficult to imagine the ugly clunker in the driveway is part of a larger centuries-old debate about how our transportation transforms us. Regardless, you can enjoy the debate too.





There is an interesting presentation concerning "cars as art" from chris bangle (car designer at BMW).


It is on the newly redesigned TED site, which (while slow) is simply the most articulate design conversation taking place today.




Also if you happen to be in the Phoenix area you should go see "Curves of Steel, Streamlined Automobile Design April 1 - June 3, 2007"




Here is a nice quote from the website:

"Emerging from aerodynamic studies seeking to improve the speed of ships and airplanes, streamlining is characterized by smooth, curvilinear shapes idealized in the tear drop shape. Amidst the Great Depression and strains of the impending war, the sleek, futuristic look of streamlined design represented an optimistic future of science and technology and provided a stimulus to the market by making former more ornamental styles look outmoded. The look of the designs became equally important to its physical ability to reduce drag and improve efficiency. While the design of the 1937 Delahaye 145 proved itself when it won the “Million Franc Prize” Grand Prix, the 1939 Delahaye 165 Cabriolet by renowned designers Figoni and Falaschi was the darling of that year’s New York World’s Fair, curving voluptuously from front to back in teardrop style and painted bright red."

Labels: cars, Design, Industrial Design, museum, phoenix, TED

They tell you that most small businesses go belly-up inside of two years. If you can turn a profit by your third year, then you are in good shape. But what does it mean when your business lasts 1,400 years?

Kongo Gumi was a 1,400 year-old family-owned Japanese temple builder that recently went bust.

Why? For the same darn reason that many new companies are forced to close their doors: 1. over extended their financial resources as recession hits, 2. social changes reduced demand for what they produced.

Both factors are external and are very hard to control and hedge against. At the same time, however, these things don’t happen over night, and perhaps some alternative strategy could have been executed in order to keep the company alive and kicking – much like many of the previous Kongo Gumi’s CEOs did during trying times. One former CEO switched the company’s focus to manufacture coffins during WWII.

Have a read, it's remarkable!

Labels: Business Strategy, External Factors, Small Business

I wanted to send this out because in my Digital Art class (I teach at Towson University) last night my students were impressive.

It is not that they aren't usually impressive, it is that I guess I sometimes forget that they are so interesting and capable.

I asked them if there was anything we could do as artists, communicators and designers about / with or in response to this Virginia Tech tragedy.

We talked about it for a while and someone suggested we come up with a list of bullet-points.
And then someone mentioned that we should stop calling them bullet-points.

So here is a list of responses and some tangible and real ideas:

• There should be a vietnam-memorial-type space or art piece at every school that commemorates the names of the dead in the community - if they die in war or by accident or in tragedy. Or maybe the name of anyone who has been part of the community and died.
  
  
• There needs to be a visual symbol, a small logo, or something, so that everyone can express their sadness by wearing it or displaying it.
  
  
• There was a long discussion about what it means to be so close to Baltimore, where so much death happens, and how oddly insulated we feel. One woman who lives in or is familiar with a bad part of town said, "The only reason you are shocked that this could happen on a campus is because you think there are walls. There are no walls, there is nothing keeping these people out. If they want to kill you they will."
  
  
• They wanted to start a charity. Seriously. They said it was possible an all most people need is a way to send money or help... and they will.
  
  
• They wanted to do a music video. They found "Ohio" by neil young online and watched a pretty touching video of him singing it. It is a song about the Kent State Massacre, you've undoubtedly heard it. Ultimately they decided it wasn't appropriate thematically, that song was mostly a protest song against the government, while this VTech Massacre was more random.
  
  
• We just finished a project where we built 3d digital versions of Towson's campus buildings.
  They wanted to build a replica of VTech's campus and track where the 2 incidents occurred, so they could better understand it and also maybe - if it were offered to the news - so that everyone could see how far apart these two places were.
  
  
• They suggested that maybe there should be a special prayer for those who die senselessly.
  
  
• The following list of thoughts were all offered, discussed and, with modifications, were communally decided to sum-up how the class felt:
  • It could have happened to anyone of us...nobody expected this to happen.
  • We wish the best to and for the families of the victims.
  • Campus life is fragile and can be altered at any moment.
  • We feel pain for the tragic events at the campus but we can not live our lives in fear that the worst will happen.
  • We feel scared
  • We feel threatened
  • We feel uncertain
  • We thought we were safe
  • Maybe we are safe
  • We've taken our safety for granted
  • It could just as easily happen here as it did there
  • Could have been any one of us
  • We're sorry for your loss
  • You're not alone
  • We extend our sympathy to you
  • Our hearts are heavy

Also, at the end of class, they got together and quickly built this blog, it has some thoughts too:
http://virginiatechvictims.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-we-are-trying-to-say.html

Labels: blog, digital art, students, Virginia Tech

I am behind on the times, but I wanted to make some comments about MSNBC's re-branding to msnbc, and talk a little bit about what I think about this new logo.

Labels: Branding, Logo, msnbc, Old Media Deathwatch

This article has some compelling points about the future and the potential of online advertising. The point made in the title of my post, that no one search for toothpaste, was made by the head of Yahoo's UK division, and his argument was that video had opened up a new advertising frontier for those who couldn't gain traction with search-advertising. Is it true, does no one search for toothpaste?

I liked this:

"Unlike their parents, the YouTube generation will not be prepared to sit back and simply consume what they are given. They will expect much more control — to be able to choose when, where and on what device they watch and read about the things that interest them. Their attention will be much harder to win.

“Television companies will tell you that kids are still watching as much TV,” said Morris, “but they’re not. Television does not have the emotional pull. Programmes do, the stuff they see on a screen does.

“But conventional TV — something that’s scheduled, that I sit down and watch at a time someone has decided for me, prepared to watch the ads while it’s on — they don’t get it.”

He continued: “You ask any kids, what would you rather be without: the TV or the internet? They will tell you, we’d rather be without TV.”"

My daughter, 5 yrs old, to use an immediate example, actually DOESN'T understand tv or the radio. She always asks me to rewind, pause, or forward the radio in the car, and when I tell her I can't, she is dumbfounded (presumably with my stubborn inability to do the simplest things). Similarly, when she gets up from watching a show on tv she wants it paused and when it can't - say when she is at Grandma's house, she is speechless. She actually has difficulty imagining media that can't be controlled.

So take this for what it is worth, but when our children grow up, tv is going to be the last thing on their minds.

Labels: advertising, Old Media Deathwatch, Online Advertising

One of my jobs at work is to keep abreast of neat new things that are happening in Multimedia. Happily, the list of exciting things is always long because so much innovation is occurring all over the globe. Here are two I have liked today.



This vodaphone site has been up for a while, but it is particularly noticable for its tight integration with video and sound.

i love lucy

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Nikon has developed a terrific response to Eames (choose "top ten" and then "Powers of Ten") in this fantastic exploration of relative sizes. Spend a good 10 minutes reading befre you dive in, it is well worth your time. From an animation perspective, I LOVE the velocity as you slide from one size to another, but from a typographic perspective I am annoyed by the centering of text throughout.

It makes me want my very own sphinx and planet saturn.

NIKON (formerly mislabeled as kodak - I am an idiot.)

Labels: cool sites, flash, kodak, multimedia, online video, vodaphone