Category: DMI

Thought You Should See This, July 13th, 2012

This week’s updates on the innovation/design-themed blog I write, Thought You Should See This:

Check out my colleague, Erik Kiaer, who presented at the Design Management Institute-organized conference “Balancing Extremes.” You can see video of Erik in action, or catch the presentation in slide format. Meanwhile, Brian Quinn was quoted in a Chicago Business article looking at design community business, Threadless, which caused me to wax nostalgic about my T-shirt days of yore.

Interesting look inside Fisher Price’s Apple store-like research and design lab in East Aurora, N.Y.

The Christian Science Monitor looks at how the ideals of the collaborative economy are being embraced by those in Spain looking to find a way away from their economic woes.

Uplifting life advice from USC professor, Elyn Saks, who suffers from schizophrenia and who wrote an incredibly moving book about her treatment and experiences.

“Civility isn’t fancy-talk for “being nice.” It’s the essential quality we require to live together in complex social structures built on our jumpy, irrational primate brains. Online, where we increasingly live, we need it more than ever.” Must-read piece about trolling and hatespeak by Erin Kissane.

A stark editorial from the New York Times on the impact of climate change. Now will we pay attention and read the writing on the wall? Please?

Great piece with some wonderful anecdotes about Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ approach to customer service.

Check out some video of me in conversation with award-winning reporter Liza Mundy, who’s most recently the author of the book, The Richer Sex: How the new majority of female breadwinners is transforming sex, love, and family.

And finally, a slightly tired rant sparked by this throwaway comment in a piece about bank scandals: “Company executives are paid to maximize profits, not to behave ethically.” But really, doesn’t that just about sum it all up?

Thought You Should See This, October 28th, 2011

Thought You Should See This update for my friends at Doblin:

This week, my time was mostly taken up with the “Design at Scale” conference, of which I was the co-chair. Some highlights:

Local Projects‘ Jake Barton spoke of the importance of prototyping as a collaborative, improvisational process.

Edible Geography blog writer and Foodprint Project co-founder, Nicola Twilley talked of “food as a design tool“, and showed some wonderful projects of people thinking about or using food in interesting or unexpected ways.

General Electric CMO (and event co-chair) Beth Comstock outlined the importance of design to business (and vice versa).

Pentagram partner Michael Bierut entertainingly detailed seven things he loves about design.

Todd Blumenthal and Beverly House, Aeropostale’s head of merchandising and head of design, gave an insight into their relationship–and how they manage a process that sees the production of 15,000 SKUs every year.

Brian Collins gave an informative behind-the-scenes look at his life as a designer behind advertising lines, concluding with a useful set of principles we would all do well to remember.

Also this week on Thought You Should See This:

Analysts are turning on Groupon, even as the coupon giant gears up for a November IPO.

Steve Wozniak wisdom: “Every problem has a better solution when you start thinking about it differently.”

And, Design With the Other 90%: Cities has opened at the United Nations. The New York Times’ new architecture critic, Michael Kimmelman, declared it a hit.

[Photograph of me looking very serious at Design at Scale c/o DMI.]

Design at Scale: The Trailer

I’m a writer, not a presenter, and I am quite resigned to the fact that I’m often better at writing words than speaking them. Nonetheless, I think Redglass Pictures did a knockout job putting together this trailer for the upcoming DMI conference, Design at Scale. In it, my co-chairs — Richard Whitehall of Smart Design, Beth Comstock of GE and Karen Reuther of the DMI — and I talk about the theme of the event, while Jake Barton of Local Projects makes a guest appearance too. Thanks to Smart for organizing a lovely evening… if that’s a signal of how the two day conference will be, we’re all in for a treat.

Via Thought You Should See This.