Designing Business; Businessing Design

John Edson — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:41:44 -0400

Before I used computer-aided design to create products, I had pencils. Before I had pencils, I had Legos. Before Legos, crayons. Before crayons, blocks. And with these tools, I have always been a designer.

The act of exploring alternate ideas, prototyping them, testing them and then breaking them down in search of new ideas has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. It is a way of being that shapes everything I value, everything I do and the way I see the world.

Creating Cults and Cultures With Design

John Edson — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:30:48 -0400

I can't possibly write for a week about design without bringing up Apple. Has a single company outside of the fashion world consistently produced such an impressive collection of offerings that have been both successful and adored? This week's iPhone 3G S is no different. Their brand and products and software are beautiful, wonderful, delightful.

Why Ugly Sells

John Edson — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:10:42 -0400

A while back, I was standing in a checkout line at a drug store, passing the time by wondering who would ever buy the ugliest clock I'd ever seen, on display at the front of the store. It wasn't a regular sort of ugly. It was nuclear ugly.

Toothbrushes, TiVo, and Twitter: Designing Great Relationships

John Edson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:28:42 -0400

I was on an airplane yesterday. But before I got on board, I had one of those awkward conversations with a ticket agent that keeps vice presidents of customer service awake at night. She said, "That other person you spoke with at the airlines? He was lying to you."

But...but...but...aren't you the airline? I thought to myself.

Patterns of Emotional Connection

John Edson — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:18:13 -0400

HP Pavilion dv200, wave pattern for HP's Imprint Finish designed by Lunar

I bumped into my friend Lori recently and noticed that she had a new PC--a notebook computer from HP sporting graphic patterns that my firm, Lunar, had designed with them. When I asked her about what her checklist contained when she set out to buy a PC, we ended up talking about her list of technical requirements.