Archive for November, 2007
Pay it forward
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
I was feeling really tetchy today. Indigestion, an unknown, sleep-related finger injury (I am still confused how) and too much to do. Comme d’habitude. Travelling on the train this morning, I noticed that my disposition was unconsciously mirrored by the people around me, people trying to maintain their composure during their commute, whilst at the same time waging silent, mental warfare on the person in front of them who just got to the seat before them.
It is amazing how important, tiny unimportant things like this feel, and how contagious and pervasive your humour can be. If it is this easy to get grumpy and spread grumpiness…
Surely it must be equally easy to reverse this, to start an epidemic of goodwill? It must be! Time for a change! From small acorns and everything…
Have we lost it?
Friday, November 23rd, 2007
Romance. Those flutterbelly moments. Will the phone ring, will she say yes, does he even remember?
And what about woo-ing me? A little note of love, a thank for you making you dinner and looking after your dog for a few days. Yes, I know that we live in modern times, but let’s not lose the art.
It’s not that difficult. But it means so much more than a text or an email. So much more.
“If I am not worth the wooing, I am surely not worth the winning”
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow quotes
We are falling out of love with love letters
Our affair with the love letter is coming to an end. Fewer than one in five Britons received a passionate note from an admirer in the past year, new research shows.
And only 28 per cent have received a letter from a lover in the past five years. More than a third of those aged between 16 and 34 have never written a letter to their sweetheart.
Singletons face mixed fortunes. The survey found they were more likely to have received a love letter in the past 12 months (24 per cent) than those who were married/living as married (17 per cent), or those who were separated, divorced or widowed (10 per cent).
However, they were also more than twice as likely never to have received a love letter (30 per cent) than those who were married/living as married (14 per cent), or separated, divorced or widowed (12 per cent).
D-zyn lead. De-syn lehd. Design lead….!
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
We were having dinner last night, and we somehow started talking about construction and roads (lots of precocious teenagers around). Why are roads as they are? Why are roads in one country so very different to another? Why are they curved? What about manhole covers, why are they round? Design baby, design.
And what about trains? Here in London we have the tube - why doesn’t the map look like the road map? Easy answer here - it’s just much easier to use. MUCH easier. And you feel a whole lot cooler…
Designers of all sorts spend hours, days weeks and years in making our lives easier. And the proof of their success is when we don’t even notice. Some of it evolves our years (think knife and fork), some if a direct result of some really hard work (think Ferrari 308 Magnum fans), and some of it by total luck (Hula Hoop crisps anyone?).
But what’s worst is when designers aren’t involved - those doors that don’t open properly, clothes that just don’t fit anyone, and that those internet sites that just don’t work. Bugs you doesn’t it? Well, it bugs me, for sure.
Two factors are crucial for the work of any designer. Firstly, the arena in which most design is practised is that of business, where profit is necessary to survive. If designers cannot contribute to the economic viability of a company, there is no reason to employ them. Engineers ensure things work, marketers position goods appropriately, but designers specialise in the detailed interaction between what a company produces and the lives of its users, which is a different matter from the cosmetic function often assigned to it.
The second imperative is that what is designed becomes part of a wider social and economic world. Only if what is designed is affordable, useful, accessible and pleasurable will it sell and give continuing satisfaction. Users ultimately determine what constitutes value and innovation, and a focus on their needs and an emphasis on providing greater and deeper satisfaction to them is the key to sustainable profitability.
Baby you can….
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
…drive my car? Somehow, there’s twisted consolation to know that I am not the most absent-minded person in Europe!
Forgetful German
A German man forgot his car after filling it up at a petrol station, police said Friday.
“He just forgot about it and walked off home,” said a spokesman for police in the western city of Wuppertal.
After the car had sat blocking the pump for about an hour, a woman working at the petrol station became suspicious and alerted authorities.
Officers contacted the 63-year-old from Remscheid, who came straight back to fetch the vehicle. He had paid to fill up the car before walking off.
Burma and some underwear
Friday, November 16th, 2007
It doesn’t seem believable in this day and age. What happened in Burma, and one of the most surreal responses that we couldn’t possibly have imagined.
Is it the liberated feminist’s take on peaceful protest? We’ve no idea, but it sure conjures up interesting images of people opening up their post….
Panty protest against the Myanmar Junta
Women in several countries have begun sending their panties to Myanmar embassies in a culturally insulting gesture of protest against the recent brutal crackdown there.
The country’s superstitious generals believe that contact with women’s underwear saps them of power.
“Post, deliver or fling your panties at the closest Burmese Embassy. Send early, send often!” the Lanna Action for Burma Web site urges.
Small actions
Friday, November 9th, 2007
I was on the tube a few days ago and I noticed someone’s bag. One of those canvas bags, self-consciously not a plastic bag. Ethical and all that.
Not that unusual, I suppose. However, what struck me was the message on the bag.
Small actions x lots of people = big change
Now, be cynical if you will. And I readily admit that canvas bags may not change the world by themselves.
But in the end, it’s an obvious truth. If we all adjust here and there, change a little bit, give a little more, we really can have a big impact.
More soon!
It’s got to start somewhere….
Monday, November 5th, 2007
It’s quite a long journey. Starting up, getting people to believe you. But we’re getting there.
Yes, we know you want to know. Us too. When will we launch?
Soon. And we’ll be telling the whole world about it. In fact, that’s all we’ll talk about.
Hang tight. Patience. Virtue and all.
Someone’s boring me. I think it’s me.
- Dylan Thomas
