Last October, shortly after our annual Masters of Design issue hit the streets, I got an email from Gadi Amit, president of the San Francisco strategic design firm, NewDealDesign LLC. NewDealDesign was one of the "design factories" ...READ»
Living and working for years in the Bay Area, I find it pathetic at times to see how many good people latch on to the notion of technology as the great savior to all problems, large or small. While I love technology and surround ...READ»
Managing design in a corporate environment can be a challenging and sometimes frustrating experience. But a few recent events in my professional life have caused me to look at the whole issue from a more philosophical angle.In ...READ»
A few days ago, between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., I spent a wonderful hour. I had my tooth #29 (second bicuspid) drilled, halved and capped, then got stuck in traffic for an hour listening to the radio.
It sounds utterly mundane, ...READ»
Three weeks ago I watched a movie, The International, with Clive Owen and Naomi Watts. It's a boys' flick about bankers, terrorists and ex-Stassi agents. Besides the glorious violence at the Guggenheim, what caught my eye was the ...READ»
One of the most important things to figure out at the start of a design project is what kind of client you're working with. It can also be one of the most difficult things to discern if you're working with a client for the first ...READ»
Sustainable design is a hot topic. While most people applaud the idea of designers using ecofriendly materials, others insist that that's missing the point--that by designing for mass consumption, designers are still part of the ...READ»
We were told it was passé. The stuff they used to do in Detroit in the 1970s was not fit for the new Millennium. They'd say: You will never be the next billionaire, and George Soros will not invest because it's absolutely… the ...READ»
It may not be a popular thing to say, but all the feel-good talk about carbon emission policies may be obscuring a bigger and more important problem: Our society's long-entrenched habit of rampant over- consumption. When we focus ...READ»
It's nice to know that Jeff Immelt, GE's CEO, and I think alike. Just as I was writing this piece, I happened to read his comments on the business culture in this country: "I believe that a popular, 30-year notion that ...READ»
The design world is no longer dominated by large design agencies of 100, 200, or even 500 employees. We are now witnessing studios with 10, 20, or 30 people consistently delivering top quality design and in a very different way. READ»
I just returned from the Israel Conference in L.A., a gathering of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and business people closely tied to the Israel-California innovation connection. The elegant event attracted over 500 ...READ»
In his recent post, "Design is Too Important to be Left to Thinkers," Robert Brunner made a good point about how every Tom, Dick, corporate strategist, and engineer is now calling himself a "design thinker." ...READ»
Ever wondered why the only colors many industries now offer you are black, white, silver, or gray? I love colors and it strikes me as odd how colors have been tuned out of so many products.
While some colors are seasonal and ...READ»
Promoted as the "in" word in design circles in recent years, 'innovation' has become a mantra devoid of meaning. Glorified by the likes of Bruce Nussbaum of BusinessWeek and David Kelly of IDEO, "innovation" ...READ»
