The Masters of Design issue (October) was so inspiring, I literally could not sleep. I was tantalized by Sam Lucente's "design attitude" strategy, teased by the Paola Antonelli story, and bowled over by Yves Béhar's sheer passion to embody a product with a human print, package it, and deliver it for each brand. Nice! More important, all of the designers you've featured illustrate a promise of open-mindedness and optimism that breathes fresh air. It's just what we as designers all need but sometimes lose sight of: food for creativity.
Adrian Goring
Sherbrooke, Québec
I was disappointed by the Masters of Design issue. You took the easy route. It's easy, relatively speaking, to design things. But the majority of us do not produce things, we produce hows. I hope in the future you will include a Master of Design of Process, for those of us in the services industry. What are the newest designs in customer service, financial organization, decision making, promotions, or marketing?
Bruce A. Hurwitz
Cliffside Park, New Jersey
The October MOD issue was really super . . . except for the fact that graphic design was pretty much ignored. Hot, newly designed products, ads, and companies always require innovative logos, Web sites, packaging, and advertising; you don't show any of this.
Linda Cooper Bowen
Jersey City, New Jersey
I was glad to see the article "Time to Get Trigger Happy" (October) in an issue focused on design, since there is a connection to be made. Scientists are generating abundant evidence that prove our brains and our environments are aspects of one system. There is continual adaptation in both directions: We respond to our environments as much as we influence them. Knowing this, we can be strategic in how we design our surroundings so that they trigger much more than just product associations. We can trigger moods, abilities, knowledge, behaviors, or any other aspect of who we are.
Marketers understand this; so do designers of office space and public areas. I would like to see ordinary people become aware that all of the environments we live in affect who we are. We can be intentional in how we create and choose our external environments to design our internal experience and bring different aspects of ourselves into being.
Andrea Sullivan
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania
I use FAST COMPANY for my fire company. Without fail, I find useful ideas to make our fire department a better organized, more efficient, and more effective emergency-services provider. You'd think that in an industry in which we pretty much "enjoy" 100% market share, we would want for nothing. But many if not most of the fire departments in our area and across the nation are habitually underappreciated, understaffed, and underfunded.
FAST COMPANY provides me with a seemingly endless supply of ideas to better promote everything our fire department does and the opportunities we offer to be a part of our volunteer team.
Your article "Time to Get Trigger Happy" touched on how we live, learn, digest, and understand messages. It inspired me to create some trigger statements that we can use in the recruitment of volunteer firefighters, which is critical to the safety of our communities: "The next time you hear the wail of a fire engine's siren, make the call. Volunteer today." "The next time you see the flashing lights of an ambulance, make the call. Volunteer today."
And, for the record, I put this magazine by the front door to remember to bring it with me to the office today. It really works!
Tiger Schmittendorf
Evans, New York
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