FREE: The web as big box retailer

A few days ago I stumbled across an interesting pair of companion pieces: Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker review of FREE and Chris Anderson’s response to that review – Dear Malcolm: Why So Threatened? Read back to back, the two pieces make for an interesting, if disjointed, debate.

Anderson has shrewdly tapped into (and consequently helped frame) an emerging and controversial debate over the future of business. Taking a page from Stewart Brand’s “information wants to be free”, the core observation of Anderson’s book is that the triple threat of ever cheaper processing, unlimited storage and increased bandwidth conspire to drive web based business models toward a no-cost formula. It’s a sexy premise and one that’s clearly in evidence all over the web.

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Hey Bravo, the 90’s called and they want their sets back

Like most women, I watch a bit of Bravo now and again. The latest round up of ridiculousness has finally dropped, and gasp, the set designs are worse than ever. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’ve gotten progressively worse over the past four seasons. Isaac Mizrahi’s Project Runway rip-off, The Fashion Show is the perfect example of set design gone terribly wrong. A triangular runway anchors a room flush in gray tones with oodles of unflattering lighting and a checkered backdrop… who could succeed in that environment?! It’s simply too much to ask. Sorry Isaac, we’re just not buying it.

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In search of lost time

Happy Tuesday! I tend to frown on the whole Happy Friday thing, and since I took a long holiday…well…holiday isn’t really the right word, I’d categorize it more as a mini-break, during which I got to thinking about how little time we’ve truly got to live; I’m talking Thoreau type living here, deliberate living. From workin the 9 to 5 to doggie day care pick ups and drop offs, grocery shopping, paying bills, dropping in and out of the bank, laundry, endless appointments and blahblahblah, it’s all work, all the time…we devote every waking hour to activities that support life, but unfortunately don’t contribute much to it (though not always true of design, phew). Perhaps that’s what the American Dream requires, in which case I might pitch a tent with Thoreau…but need remedy be so drastic?

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Life in marvelous times

At long last, the wait is over! Mos Def has finally released The Ecstatic. It’s quintessential Mos Def, at his best, pure form, rah-rah.

Short of saying, holy !@#$%, this album is genius–this isn’t so much of a review as it is a discourse. And, this isn’t so much about Mos Def, as it is about hip-hop.

I l.o.v.e. hip-hop. And, as you already know, I l.o.v.e design. There are a few parallels here I find especially interesting, and relevant.

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UGLY: How unorthodox thinking will save design

Is ‘Good Design’ an asphyxiating dogma?

Design is a peculiar activity: It’s a creative process, but a process that subscribes to and reinforces certain restrictive attitudes. It can be rigid and self-policing, since a profession that earns its living by discerning what is good and bad must necessarily become judgmental. Ultimately this judgmental nature creates and enshrines certain points of view, which left unchallenged, become dogma. Today, one could argue that this dogma, generally predicated on longstanding ideas of ‘rightness’ and ‘beauty’ is choking the profession down, and worse yet, stifling its creativity as it faces some truly great problems—problems which if handled with new thinking and true creativity, will define the substance, practice and contribution of a generation of designers.

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