Company culture: how to make it not suck

I had the mistaken pleasure of watching an interview* with the following three people,

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com
Jaya Kumar, CMO of Frito-Lay North America
William Pearce, Senior VP and CMO of Del Monte.

One of them stood out among the rest. Tony Hsieh. Yeah, you know Tony. He’s the guy you could have a beer with. He’s the neighbor who see’s you dragging something to heavy for your underworked muscles in the back yard and actually stops to help you. THAT guy is awesome.

Read More…

Holy Bantam!

Undoubtedly a masterpiece, the Kodak Bantam Special is considered an icon in the classic design style of the 1930’s. A machined die-cast aluminum body with an enamel finish, coupled with high-quality optics, made this camera as functional as it was beautiful. A limited edition design launched in 1936, the Bantam is a rare and sought-after collectors item. In case you’re wondering, yes, we’ve got one.

Personally I love the Bantam, it really is “special.” But I also love Teague’s Kodak Beau Brownie. A few months ago I came across an old leather-like Brownie camera case on the side of the road, pretty cool; I scooped it up, cleaned it up, and brought it into the studio to accompany our small Beau Brownie camera collection. Read More…

LIVEwall Introduction + Dreamscape

LIVEwall – observations from the periphery

A while back we kicked off LIVEtwall in the studio to identify forces that are shaping today’s visual cultures and built environments as well as social movements that could influence what we design. The idea was pretty simple, yet at the same time pretty complex: to submerge ourselves in the quickly evolving and often chaotic world and emerge with synthesized insights to fuel the design process.

Read More…

Rebels with a cause

A long time ago I fell in love with Rollo May; he is a genius, and he loves design. Unfortunately, he’s dead.

He did however leave us a small gift, his book, The Courage to Create. It isn’t especially well known, certainly not in our industry, but it is especially relevant to our creative community. In it, Rollo speaks about a little something (the whole premise of the book really) he calls ‘creative courage,’ or “the discovery of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.” He also implies that designers are the most dangerous rebels on the face of the earth.

You better watch out.

Read More…

W

So far we have Who, What, When, Where, Why, and hoW.  Six (conveniently counted) Ws originally developed for journalism which apply equally well to product design. Who is it for? When will it launch? hoW will it be manufactured? etc. etc. The answers to these questions are carefully explored at many different levels throughout the design process. There are specialized consultants, trademarked methodologies, and significant budgets built around each of these questions all with the common goal of defining the unknown and making the most logical choice. When big dollars are at stake the most prominent W is “why.”

Read More…