Trending Meaning Of late CultureofFuture has
been called to speak at a number of venues and more and more it is a request
for direction and meaning. The think tank Demos.fl of Finland brought us to
present a LoCarbon Lifestyle Trend presentation to 20 journalists and a
Meaningful Brands presentation to over 200 creatives in Helsinki via SUBtv.
Demos knows how to influence a topic forward! We will write more on this experience later, but it gave us many ideas one of which is a call to various trenders to submit content on meaningful trends.
Kristina and I met while presenting at the lovely Malmo,
Sweden DesignBoost.se sustainable design conference and exhibition. Kristina is
sharing here her perspective as she spends time in Japan.
Factors that influence
Japan’s approach to sustainability Kristina Dryza, http://www.kristinadryza.com/
Least possible wastage Historically, the small size
of the country and its limited resources meant extravagance in the use of space
and materials was seen as immoral. Getting the most out of every thing is
deeply engrained in the Japanese psyche. This is why recycling is such a strong
feature of daily Japanese existence.
Blaine Brownell, an
architect and sustainable material researcher, said in an interview that many
Japanese architects practice sustainable design in Japan without necessarily
labeling it as such. They just naturally make the most of limited space and
resources with highly imaginative solutions. They are conscious of space and
know how to enhance it.
While today Tokyo is the
sky-high neon city we all know, there are still objects and utensils used whose
production hasn’t changed in centuries. The secret behind this long lastingness
according to the Louis Vuitton City Guide is “the simple fact that from their
origins, the objects produced in Edo were meant for daily use. They were
functional, adapted to the lives of ordinary citizens and not objects of grand
luxury intended for ostentatious display - like the daimyo - who held power.
They were designed in a spirit of craftsmanship where economic imperatives
(such as the least possible wasting of materials) were key.”
In previous centuries the
humility poverty instilled led the Japanese to appreciate a rustic simplicity.
This quiet dignity and Zen austerity still influences their designs today
allowing them to refine concepts down to their essence. True beauty is not
showy; it's considered and thoughtful and gets to the heart of all things.
Seasons Life in Japan is driven by
the seasons. The four seasons are so clearly felt, seen and experienced, and
the whole culture supports the celebration and acknowledgment of seasonality.
Japanese cuisine especially
places paramount importance on expressing the joys of each season. For example,
Japanese sweets (called wagashi) represent
the different seasons with both elegance and feeling. They are inspired both by
nature and emotion, and express natural and abstract phenomena. These sweets
are to be served graciously, enjoyed leisurely and appreciated delicately and
attentively. Each bite brings with it the emotion of the season.
The Japanese also know when
each food is in its prime - like the first harvest of a seasonal crop - whether
it’s bamboo shoots, melons or wild mushrooms. The ‘first of the season’ idea is
incredibly important to a culture so attuned to the cycles of nature.
Attention to detailThe Japanese ability to
attend to details is what made the nation the economic powerhouse it is
today. Their efficiency and precision is known the world over. This attention
to detail and the ubiquitous pursuit of perfectionism leads to fast adaptation,
compact editing and their clean, modern design aesthetic.
Shigeru Uchida in his book
‘Japanese Interior Design - Its Cultural Origin’ says the physical sensibility
of the “culture of sitting down” and “culture of taking off shoes” means the
Japanese pay attention to fine details. “People of the climate, of the forests,
sit on the earth and observe nature, imagine and infer. Their attitude is one
that pays careful attention to very subtle occurrences, and one that discovers
beauty hidden in fine details. The manner of being one with nature is felt by
listening to the insects in the garden, appreciating the changing seasons and
admiring the glories of nature in the peaceful flow of time.” These
sensibilities are directly reflected in the design of Japanese spaces.
Ikebana Traditional Japanese flower
arrangement (called ikebana) is not
just about floral display. It’s used as a tool to convey the creator’s own
feelings.
Flowers and plants aren’t
just beautiful, pretty things to be admired - they have their own energy. Ikebana artists learn to read and
enhance the energy these plants have. As nature tries to grow to the sun, the ikebana artist finds the best expression
for each branch by finding its ‘front face’ - its highest possible
representation.
By reading deeper into the
energy it’s possible to have a two-way communication with nature that enhances
the artist’s own creative expression. Ikebana
teaches its students to step back and see the bigger picture, yet also to
pay attention to details. Ikebana
artists learn to work in multiple dimensions balancing space, containers and
materials.
But one of the central
aspects of ikebana is the
appreciation for the different stages of nature, respecting each of the changes
that happen to a tree. For example, the wilting bark, the falling leaf and the
hole the bug made in the leaf. As Kisho Kurokawa, an architect, concurs, “We
used to consider things that could live forever to be beautiful. But this way
of thinking has been exposed as a lie. True beauty lies in things that die,
things that change.”
Sense of quality It’s well known that the
Japanese have a keen sense of quality. But more than that, they have a deep
respect for exquisite quality that goes beyond the product to include the
person who sells the item to them, the creator, and any thing and every person
that touches the item in between. This sense of holism means the Japanese look
beyond the surface of things and equally judge quality by what is not visible
to the naked eye.
Japanese concept of beauty Soetsu Yanagi, a famed
handicraft authority, described the keys to Japanese beauty using the terms shibui, yugen and myo. Myo refers to a special spirit that
imbues the truly beautiful, a spirit that goes beyond mechanical skill to
express a delicate mystery. Yugen
expresses both a mystery and subtlety that lies modestly beneath the surface of
things in delicate, perfect harmony. And shibui
refers to a restrained, highly refined beauty that epitomises classic
simplicity and also exhibits the quality of myo
and yugen.
This is why there is
artistic merit in almost every item in the Japanese home. This holistic
approach to beauty leads the Japanese to have a refined aesthetic sense that
they take with them into all aspects of their lives.
Bringing the outside in Gardens in Japan aren’t just
for palaces or Zen monasteries, but to be brought into one’s own world. The
Japanese have always been bringing the outside into their homes and office
buildings. As author Boye Lafayette De Mente says, “Shintoism, the native
Japanese religion, holds that all things in nature, including trees and rocks,
have a spiritual essence of their own. In this philosophy, the apprentice
carpenter cannot fully master his craft until he is able to recognise and
respect the spirit of the wood used in his trade.”
Learning to look to the
spirit that lies beyond all things means nature is not something separate to
the Japanese. Bringing things that are a part of nature into their surroundings
is essential to promote the flow of spiritual harmony.
Some examples of these
approaches in practice: Least possible wastage Reben is a wall paint that
consists of powdered Japanese washi
(paper), seaweed glue, scallop-shell powder, titanium dioxide and natural
pigments that actually ‘clean’ the air: http://transmaterial.net/index.php/2007/11/04/reben/
Seasons As the season’s change, so
do the look and taste of Toraya's sweets: http://www.toraya-group.co.jp/english/
Attention to detail Utilising computer network
technology, Toyota's new Home Energy Management System can
display the amount of energy consumption and control operations of home
appliances: http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/029108.html
Ikebana The Cerulean Tower Tokyu
Hotel employs ikebana artist Eikou Sumura to craft installations as a
form of communication with their guests: http://www.ceruleantower-hotel.com/en/
Sense of quality The directors of 21_21
Design Sight - Issey Miyake, Taku Satoh and Naoto Fukasawa - each create in
different mediums and exhibitions here are testament to their holistic view of
design: http://www.2121designsight.jp/index-e.html
Japanese concept of beauty The porcelain in designer
Gaku Otomo's tea cups is so fine, green tea literally ‘shines’ through: http://www.gakudesign.jp/
Another view: Leonard Koren's classic books on Japan explore Wabi Sabi For Artists and Poets, Japanese Flower Arranging and How To Take A Japanese Bath. For complete collection of books on Japan: http://www.leonardkoren.com/
Bringing the outside inThe ‘Fiber City: Tokyo 2050’
concept describes four strategies - Green Finger, Green Web, Green Partition
and Urban Wrinkle - for an alternative metropolis: http://www.fibercity2050.net/eng/fibercityENG.html
Culture
of Future is Jody Turner, the founder, and Kathy Baylor, the VP of research.
Jody holds US West Coast and European perspectives from San Francisco and Los
Angeles, while Kathy covers Asia and East Coast perspective from NYC and
Tokyo.
While
anyone can track trends, we have the time and resources to do so. Our mission
is inspiring and assisting country, community and company in the redesigning of
how we live, work, and play with creative and conscious consumption
innovations.
Our client list includes top brands and top innovation influencers. Our
dynamic culture network includes some of the world's influential designers,
style arbiters, eco power players, retail gurus, tech innovators, artists and entertainment media pros. Kristina Dryza is one such brilliant
influencer.
I met with current Danish designer Jens Skibsted about his book “Instant Icon” (available for now in Danish) and his upcoming English book “Brand Icon - The world’s most powerful marketing tool.” Jens recently premiered the Bamboo Bike designed by Ross Lovegrove at Salone de Mobile in Milan (The Milan Furniture Show). Jens runs Biomega Bikes and Skibsted Ideation out of Copenhagen with the strongly simple idea that long-lasting and well-made products (with smaller footprints) can be a powerful eco choice and contribute less to the landfill. (www.skibstedid.com and www.biomega.dk)
The Movie “Objectified” that features Marc Newson’s bike for Biomega introduces to mass culture some of these ideas discussed here and is well worth seeing. To further this conversation, we will focus on the product and industrial design approach of Biomimicked products, which have a cradle-to-cradle focus to prevent brand landfills. Next in this series we will take a look at the eco ‘culture’ around design change.
For this conversation, Jens and I met on the corner and sat outside at a sunny North Beach San Francisco café sipping away. I was using my Mac and intermittingly taking notes with my handy MontBlanc pen – an iconic pen my father passed down to me as I will do when the time is right! “Jens, sustainability has been on the mind of design, can you speak to the iconographic design approach we have been hearing about and thinking of?”
"Iconographic design is a big topic, covering over a third of the well-known product icons of industrial design. What we commonly hear about in this vernacular and to give a little background let’s cover a few icon categories out there:
1. Slow Starting: Design Classics. Form Changers Such As The Aeron Chair (http://www4.hermanmiller.com/Products/Aeron-Chairs) Some consider this design super ugly and yet the healthy functionality of it allowed us to believe in and love the product. Because of this people purposefully adapted to the look. The Aeron Chair is a category leader. This is a slow starter category of form-driven changers whose design over time through value and familiarity move from uninteresting to taking up considerable space in our consciousness.
2. Democratic, Functional and Humble Masterpieces Like The Local Mailbox Peter Fiel and his theories about icons being democratic must be mentioned here. While we never think of the mailbox as design it is. This category is about very functional objects that after a while are so familiar we give them meaning. The mailbox is a powerful icon in our culture showing how low design again gains meaning in our consciousness through the brutality of time. It has staying power, even if we move to pure virtual mail it will retain a creeping historical place of importance in our consciousness.
3. Instant Icons, Quickly Adopted Game Changers Like The Polaroid Camera Typically these products are newer in form and function. What is notable about them is their paradigm-changing powers. Though this product or icon may not look that different, the thinking around them is by providing a new manner of use that inspiring other shifts and developments. The Polaroid looked like a camera but it’s image developed quickly. It is this category that began the impetus for the “Instant Icon” book.
The Walkman is another Instant Icon. These particular icons would last forever if not for their technology becoming obsolete. Instant Icons can morph into retro collectables, if not they are landfill bound. We want the icons of the future to be Instant due to visionary concept but long lasting due to brilliant usage of materials and consideration for long-term human necessity.”
“Jens, tell us about your current book, Brand Icon.”
"I had the idea for writing this book when I was working with the client Puma. Puma is a culture and lifestyle brand that gave us freedom to move within new product categories as we ideated future directions.
Regarding sports and design in Europe, Puma first focused on sports tech marketing and the very first forays into fashion with the likes of Jil Sander and Yasuhiro Mihara. Then not long ago, Jens Skibsted, Marcel Wanders and Philippe Stark started working for Puma. Those guys are design guys rather than fashionistas. A high design precedent was set.
Meaningful Iconography
The PUMA bike is the most meaningful PR product of all PR products they have made. It is very different from a fashion strategy as it has an attractive combination of movement and eco lifestyle. The bike is a statement meant to last versus a transitory seasonal design statement.
Transportation is a huge topic worldwide. Our Puma design approach has meaningful iconography - lifestyle expertly addressed with a depth and value of sustainable living, urban mobility and empowerment as we rethink and redesign our experiences on this earth.
Marc Newson's Biomega bike and Jens Skibsted's Puma bike became popular right away - instant icons. Unlike fashion, the bicycle doesn’t lose its appeal. Both of these bikes have staying power.
Newson and Skibsted brought forth a new way of approaching design for these seasonal brands: design with a new appeal, yet long-lasting use, where Fashion + ID integrity seemed to be instrumental in creating “Instant Icons.”
Blockbuster Versus Icon
Icons are not made in the design phase but rather in the visionary phase. In going about this, companies would do well to begin by differentiating between what is blockbuster and what is icon.
Icon is not defined by commercial success but rather by cultural success.
If they coincide, that is great. But if you look into the cabinets of MOMA you will find that not many of them are both. Rather they are instant icons from the cultural perspective with a slow burn of desire and collectability that builds a deeper relationship within the psyche of the user.
Why just a cultural success? Economy was most recently about how to create a product of ultimate desire and monetary results. Economy is now more emotionally meaningful: “If I create value for you, you will in turn give back some value.” With this, companies have added offers of meaningful social context to purchases, services and experiences via deeply human marketing alignments, which strengthen the interconnected value.
Now it is about this AND recognizing the possibility of a long-lasting contribution through a lengthy relationship with the product itself.
Today people seek cultural contribution, levels of interactive value and success in their lives. They need to know they are contributing to a part of the solution versus the overall problem, and this is top-of-mind everywhere today.
The cheap merchandise of the moment and the tendency to trick one into purchasing is still ongoing, but is much more costly to advertise and market these and people are gaining an understanding of this. The slow market and money approach means you may not buy it now, but you would over time and/or buy other products in the same product portfolio lending itself to brand loyalty. This is much cheaper to sustain marketing-wise and landfill-wise.
The cultural value is quite powerful, ingrained within it is a naturally meaningful marketing expense and approach taking us away from aspirational advertising, which has led to the over-consumption paradigm we are now in the middle of. In summation there are 3 standout reasons to make design icons in general: 1. To createfocus on your passion and intent, to build a natural and authentic attention for your product and purpose.
2. Products with longer life cycles will force a redesign in market delivery strategy and will increasingly speak less to market leadership strain and more about doing what is good and timely.
3. Global icons will help create products that are sustainable just in the fact that they last longer and provide deeper relationships, created for more considered human living.
This interview was co-written by Jody Turner and Jens Skibsted.
Elizabeth Adamsis our editor, www.elizabethadams.biz
Next Part 2 of this Eco Design series will include conversations on Biomimicked Design and Materials in Sustainability.
Check out another infamous Dane we will be interviewing for next month, Kigge Hvid of The Index Awards focused on “Design To Improve Life.” http://www.indexaward.dk/
Note on author: Jody Turner lives a very simple life as a trender and designer in the US which allows her to study, report and speak about the business and design opportunities available in our world today. The world is facing an economic crisis due to an over production economy with less of a focus on what the consumer truly needs or is looking for today. A solution driven and problem solving education, experience, skill sharing and community building economy product base are the opportunity directions. It is Jody's intent to help those businesses that need opportunities and those needing reinvention and focus a helpful and true pathway forward.
Our world is facing grave economic disruption due to the choices we have made to date. It is our purpose at Culture of Future to usher in a new focus on opportunities unlike those we have created before. Today is a time of finding your personal passion and relinquishing that, which has not worked. It is no longer a time to serve a greater that does not consider the mass effect be it environmental or economic sustainability for the mass livelihood.
It is our hope that the slowing economy can kick start with new directions and consciousness benefitting all in a new way.
Upcoming we will be focusing on three main points of modern design within the sustainability conversation:
1. Iconic, long lasting design that inspires immediate and long-term relationships with design and product. For instance, I have my father’s MontBlanc pen he used throughout most of his life as my main pen of pens – a great combination of continual reuse and feel good all at once. With this we have an interview waiting in the wings ready to post with the Danish designer Jens Skibsted regarding his new book Instant Icon. We will also pursue friend and associate Eames Demetrios for commentary on icongraphic design approaches per the Eames Foundation.
2. Sustainable and Biomimiced materials which are materials that have, like a leaf, a planned timeline working toward cradle to cradle in some form or another. We have again in the wings an interview with Sergio Palleroni who has worked in sustainable architecture for many years (Design Like You Give a Damn) and who recently started the sustainable design and processes school for Portland State. We will be talking about resources such as Ecolect and will hopefully catch a few designers from Nike Considered to see how they are doing.
3. On a more intimate level, we will be interviewing a stanch ECO DAD who has ‘made’ his family the perfect eco lifestyle. We will get the resources and the real low-down on how this is going. We feel a reality program coming up in his future.
We will post the first article within the next two weeks. Enjoy your summer!
Quite a gap of time since we last posted! It is definitely a whirlwind time of shift and change. Are we busy? We are busy here at CultureofFuture.com – framing change in a way that inspires learned pathways and wise reengagements. This is a reframing that allows us to feel the loss, indulge (if briefly) in the paper media fright fest and yet move deliberately forward toward new business models of media divergence, slow money, product and services, including a reinvention of value, energy and life metric systems.
We wish to begin by sharing some of the framing and reframing wisdoms we have been working on. We have recently completed two framing charts and will share CHART1 with you here. Next blog will be CHART2, the visual trend zeitgeist and snapshot of current culture.
Before we begin, we wish to thank Elizabeth Adams and her editing expertise, www.elizabethadams.biz.
Part 1 - Turner Matrix, A Current Culture - Linear Flow Chart
Level One: Can we take any more change?
-Industrial and hierarchical expansionism takes a hit; joined and collective shifts in global empowerment emerge
-Globalism economics leans toward expansive and empowered localism
-Reinvention of how we live, work and play is the call of the day
-Personal to global meaning and value drives actions going forward
-INCLUSION ECONOMY: East meets West, Young meets Old, Heritage meets Future, Green meets Gorgeous, SocNets meet everything as we work together in change.
Level Two: Economically we are moving from, to:
-Initial reactions to economic challenges? “Survival is the new success.” Unavoidably feeling the crisis, which is motivating new behaviors - sink or swim.
-Pausing, temporarily sinking, swimming, re-evaluating and ultimately swimming again but with an ear up
- Listening, restrategizing and restructuring business ideas based on new value and meaning within ongoing waves of change
-Charting mutual agreements, new points of entry with consumer and business considering aptitudes and passions of each
Level Three: Moving Forward
-Shifting from an ‘Innovation for Innovation’s Sake’ marketplace, from the unique and clever ‘Individualism Identity’ era
-Shifting to the Connected Era, it will take a village to solve these problems
-GIGANTIC shifts from ME to WE.
-Media includes voices not normally heard, a listening culture emerges, and a ‘Contribution Culture’ evolves.
-Leads to new markets and business leadership, authentic cultural need meets innovation.
-Drawing on influential official and unofficial communal brain trusts: Doing it differently going forward.
Level Five, Highest Grok:
-A shift from FAST BUSINESS or the Industrial Economy for the greater good
to a Slower and Wiser (inclusive) business model of SHARED and DIVERGENT ECONOMY for the greater good.
-A chosen or forced SHIFT TO SLOW BUSINESS driven by SLOW MONEY
-We will be charting how these changes are drilling out in society and business as we move forward in this blog.
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Part 2 –
Let’s hear from practitioners within this new economy the two brilliant blokes at IDEO: Owen Rogers (SF) and Paul Bennett (London)
The Interview:
Jody: Hello Owen and Paul. We want to talk with you about what you see happening, what your latest seems to be and what is top of mind? We seem to be moving toward an identity-building culture based on ‘Share Content.’ What’s up with that and the new economy?
Paul and Owen:
UGC / User Generated Content or User Inspired Content is the cutting edge trend, we are hearing clients and interested parties speak a great deal about this.
You Tube is pushing piracy conversations but it is going toward User Inspired Content conversations. How will this affect everything? This question and the question of how to make money out of YouTube are rampant.
It is totally wrong. YouTube is the closest idea we have to heaven…. we are putting our hopes and dreams and fears out there for everybody to see. We are all doing this because we want other people to see what we care about.
In business if you listen to what people want and produce what people want (if anything this is the time to do this) you will be engaged in the changes going forward. Everyone is pushing the reset button as everyone is slashing his or her profits. Consumer generated engagement is an authentic direction. Let’s look at users again…. clients are going back to their core – really looking at what users are doing…. this is an authentic re-entry point.
Doing Your Part
Come back to your core in life and in business. What is needed, what is not?
In dark times we need optimism. Literally to come out of darkness you need light.
Stop trying to make money, start doing the right thing and then the money will flow. People are looking to follow the positive versus the negative.
People are trying to figure out how to monetize, but stop it…
Truth and Optimism Approach: The Rant and Antidote
We worked with a baby food manufacturer alongside an agency on a year-and-a-half cycle… a very difficult project. IDEO obsessed with finding the truth to be guided by it, meanwhile older attitudes of advertising wanted to find the myth in order to sell it. It is a new world, consumer truth is the pivoting point and we are at the convincing point of this, particularly considering what has just happened.
We directed a video for Snap On Tools and wanted to put it on YouTube. We took the client on the journey of telling the truth to consumers…. would the client go for such a transparent approach? Ultimately the CMO asked for the release and supported posting it on YouTube.
Truth is a time-based medium and is part of building a long-standing relationship with your client/consumer/citizen engager. You have to be truthful, if you can’t tell the truth you are not moving forward in your relationship. In business we don’t get the quick hits anymore, you have to be into it for the long haul with the consumer. People are trying to uncover the truth about everything.
Obama’s recent popularity in his global meetings reflects this insight from Paul. Obama is the living example of transparency and designing for a future now. It was not only a community of Americans but also the community of the world who voted him in. The Americans may have been the ones who put the marks on the ballot…
Take the high road, like Obama, who is doing so by engaging the media through government transparency. (Article - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/23/MN7214842D.D...). Obama recently was quoted inviting help from the global powers, claiming that it is no longer a conversation between FDR and Churchill over cigars and brandy. It is a world conversation now, open to the globe.
Differentiation of Product and Advertising
B We will have to adhere to the transparency focus tomorrow and for some time. Why is this happening? Innovation is an industry taking everyone along for the journey of authenticity. Tell the journey and the story of why you do what you do in order to invite, engage and include.
The days of anonymously hiding in a cube are over. Industrial cog in wheel has shifted to a shared conversation and role. Entrepreneurialship is a requisite, being self-responsible is key.
Obama was heard to say on The Tonight Show: “…. while many problems occurred outside of my watch, the buck stops here and I take full responsibility for it. We no longer are playing the blame game rampant in Washington, and must be an example.”
Personal courage, neck on block, moving us all forward.
Creativity, personal creativity in the work place is now in every industry. The Guardian Magazine piece on creativity in business shows people who are changing the face of modern business by being inspired by people outside of their industry. This has been a long time in the making.
We see evidence of a profound shift in the economy, it is now moving toward (from Tim Brown blog at http://designthinking.ideo.com/)
Restorative Innovation
1. Social Structure
2. Environmental Structure
3. Business Structure
Ground this down all at once and basically you need to have social impact, global and environmental impact to succeed.
Influential world leaders and top business thinkers are moving in the same way. Our issues and purpose rest in how we create the tools to allow them to tell their stories internally and to the world, working with the leaders to articulate ideas and change through companies.
2-pronged attack really, (1) need long-range forecasting, a CEO about the future while at the same time you (2) do something tomorrow about what is happening now and it will all come into place. This is uber cutting edge. Most companies internally struggle with how to do these things simultaneously and talk to each other about it.
Conclusion
What is innovation? Not a chart on the wall – it is a verb. You have to do stuff to innovate, prototype the future as you go along. We are about doing stuff immediately, and bringing it to fruition.
The storm is the time to fish, an Eskimo approach. Use the recession as an absolute reflection to figure out the next big thing. Time to use it as a positive design challenge, the biggest of all.
End
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Culture of Future is Jody Turner, the founder, and Kathy Baylor, the VP of research. Jody holds US West Coast and European perspectives from San Francisco and Los Angeles, while Kathy covers Asia and East Coast perspective from NYC and Tokyo.
While anyone can track trends, we have the time and resources to do so. Our mission is inspiring and assisting country, community and company in the redesigning of how we live, work, and play with creative and conscious consumption innovations. Our client list includes top brands and top innovation businesses.
Our dynamic culture network includes some of the world's most influential designers, style arbiters, eco power players, retail gurus, tech innovators, athletes, artists, entertainment & media pros, culinary culturists, fashion & beauty mavens, and urban tastemakers.
January 19, 2009: Today is Martin Luther King’s birthday and we have one day to Obama’s inauguration!
New World Economy So much is changing and becoming more interesting and meaningful. This is an evolving era of mass insight, global to local co-creation, collective skillset communities and urges of mass contribution and engagement. Case in point, welcome to the Fast Company global conversation, thank you Fast Company and the many, many conversations going on out there.
2009 News: Posting this week is a GENERATION G Briefing, with TRENDWATCHING.COM. Reinier Evers the inventive Amsterdam entrepreneur and innovator of trendwatching.com has invited us to contribute to his current ‘Generation G: Generosity, not Greed’ posting. Check it out online at www.trendwatching.com, global release today with a US release on Wednesday.
How can we speak of generosity in an era of economic downturn and change? Three main reasons the world is moving into a conscious consumption model: 1. Recent consumer disgust with greed-induced crisis 2. Deep consumer longing for someone who cares about them, about the world 3. Above all and pre-recession, the emergence of a more generous culture, fueled by the online revolution which is about sharing, giving, creating, etc, AND about delivering status and recognition to individuals who actively participate. This is a shift from the old model of status for individuals who consume the most and the best.
OUR NEW WEBSITE has posted today and we offer many FREE downloads including GENERATION G breakdown points of view and stats. Also offered are free inspiration and blog downloads, links to our famed Apple color and design articles.
BLOG OUTLINE: A Year of Travel This has been a year of travel and shared conversation for CultureofFuture.com: Brazil to Seoul, Copenhagen to Montreal, Sweden to Los Angeles to Chicago and to New York. The conferences are interesting enough to jot down and report, which is my goal for the next few months of the blog. I hope to share nuggets from events as grist for the mill - what we shared, what was shared, and what you think about it.
We will post pictures, and share perspectives through the time honored traditions of meaningful gossip within well-intentioned pseudo journalism (certainly on my part). This is trending provided for your personal and professional knowledge bank. Enjoy freely and best to you in the new year, Jody.
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This year we will be speaking in Istanbul on retail trends (with Brian Dyches, thank you Brian), in Portugal to a marketing school on marketing trends, at a leading innovation conference in Boston and to life coaches at the interesting US conference called Conversation Among Masters. More to come, and we will report on all of our travel collections and observations.
UPCOMING BLOGS: IDEO: Innovation and Collective Creativity. A conversation with friends and IDEO partners Owen Rogers, IDEO San Francisco and partner Paul Bennett, IDEO London
SERGIO PALLERONI: Sustainability in the New Economy. The National Design Award Winner, architect and writer recently established an architecture school for Portland State University with a focus on sustainable processes and social ethics. Sergio will share with us how sustainability will increase in the new economy.
NEW MEDIA: Online is changing brand connections, but how? A panel of industry leaders and advertising leaders present and are interviewed on the future of new media. The trends, the consumers, the brands and the technology will be discussed. Thank yous to IDEO and Sundance Channel.
REINIER EVERS: Business Entrepreneurship and the New Economy. The creative entrepreneur who founded TrendWatching.com. We will share his brilliantly pliable and creative business mind about the future.
BRAZIL’S INTERNATIONAL DESIGN CONGRESS: A collection of Brazilian creatives and myself speak on design trends.
THE MYSTERY EXECUTIVE: A brilliant corporate leader at a top of mind company gives his thoughts on where we are going. He provides such juicy conversations and tidbits.
CEOs FOR CITIES: How are cities fairing, what are they doing? Driving forward change via the city. Carol Coletta will share her latest projects influencing business and politics. DESIGNBOOST: Business and the Sustainability of Design. People from all over the world flock to Malmo Sweden where we discuss the powerful trends of Redesigning How We Live Work and Play.
THE BRAIN & INNOVATION: We have a wonderful brain neurologist associate and we are putting together a new presentation. It is in the making, we will discuss our thoughts.
NEXT POST WITHIN THE WEEK.
Culture of Future is Jody Turner, the founder, and Kathy Baylor, the VP of research. Jody holds US West Coast and European perspectives from San Francisco and Los Angeles, while Kathy covers Asia and East Coast perspective from NYC and Tokyo.
While anyone can track trends, we have the time and resources to do so. Our mission is inspiring and assisting country, community and company in the redesigning of how we live, work, and play with creative and conscious consumption innovations. Our client list includes top brands and top innovation businesses.
Our dynamic culture network includes some of the world's most influential designers, style arbiters, eco power players, retail gurus, tech innovators, athletes, artists, entertainment & media pros, culinary culturists, fashion & beauty mavens, and urban tastemakers.
