Topic: NewDealDesign LLC

Introducing Our Latest Design Blogger: Gadi Amit

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»

Five Truths About Design Awards

The industrial design awards season has ended. A look back on what exactly winning--or losing--means to designers.READ»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

Mo'Better Tech

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»

Are You Building a Consumer-Facing Company?

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»

Pimp My Molar! Print My Book! Two 20-Year Technology "Overnight Successes," Finally Available

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»

Design, Luxury, and Greed

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»

Know Thy Partner: Three Client Types and How to Work With Them

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»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

Want True Sustainability? Then Design to Seduce

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»

How Should We Define "Design"?

When everything from solutions for social problems to smart business plans are getting heralded as design solutions, where do we draw the line?READ»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

Carbon Credits Miss the Point

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»

Five Reasons to Make Hardware Instead of Software

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»

In Defense of Slapping a Robot

By inflicting pain on entities with artificial intelligence we enable them to become truly intelligent.READ»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

Craft, the Wisdom of the Hand

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»

Design Studios vs. Large Design Agencies: The Changing Landscape of the Design Industry

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»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

And the Award for the Most Ridiculously Unnecessary Packaging Goes To...

When Gadi Amit ordered a 124mm-long electronic pen online, he received a heck of a lot more than he bargained for.READ»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

Dear Gadget Reviewers: You Don't Understand Beauty

An entirely new industry of quasi-professional reviewers has grown out of the Internet. None of these reviewers understand design.READ»

• Gadi Amit's blog The New Deal

Why Designers and Venture Capitalists Should Start Working Together Now

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»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

Was Einstein a Designer? Relatively, No.

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»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

Where Have All the Colors Gone? Or, Why We're Now Living in a Spineless, Black and White World.

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»

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Body Computing Is a Glimmer of Hope in the Health-Care Chasm

A Los Angeles conference shows how advancing technology aided by designers can help both doctors and patients.READ»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

"Shop Class as Soulcraft": A Book That Revels in Alternative Thinking for Designers

A new book that talks about the intellectualism of craftsmanship offers some insight into how designers solve problems.READ»

• Gadi Amit's blog: The New Deal

Just Say No To 'Innovation'

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»

Looking at the Micro vs. the Macro in Design

For designers today, it's the little things that matter. The really, really little things.READ»

• Gadi Amit's blog The New Deal

How to Find a Design Consiglieri

The toll of the bad economy is far greater than its direct economic impact. It affects virtually all elements of management, including the psyche of the personalities involved. Design, the less familiar and less established of ...READ»

Performance Anxiety: Gadi Amit on the Last Manly Job on Earth

A few months ago my younger daughter turned six. Attempting to make myself useful before the birthday party, I was hanging a large piñata, when my better-half approached me and whispered provocatively: "Man, please follow me ...READ»

• Read more of Gadi Amit's The New Deal blog